Are the New York Giants due for a rebound season in 2024? That’s what people are asking after a playoff season in 2022, which resulted in Big Blue even winning a playoff game. The Giants had a down year in 2023, as a 6-11 finish resulted in the team missing the playoffs for the sixth time in the last eight seasons.
Now, this Giants team may be facing more hurdles in 2024. They said goodbye to arguably their two best players on both sides of the ball, with running back Saquon Barkley joining the Giants foes, the Philadelphia Eagles, and star safety Xavier McKinney heading to the Packers.
While Barkley and McKinney are hard to replace, all hope should not be lost for the New York Giants this season. New York added two stars to its roster by trading and signing star pass rusher Brian Burns from the Carolina Panthers and using its first-round pick to draft wideout Malik Nabers. While those were the most notable moves the Giants made this offseason, there have been some sneaky moves that have flown under the radar and should not go unnoticed.
New York Giants Signing Guard Jon Ruyan Jr.
The Giants’ offensive line has been a mess for years, which we feel we’ve been saying for a long time. New York led the NFL in sacks allowed this past season by a wide margin with 85. And their offensive line also had many lineup changes almost every week with injuries and pilling up. Joe Schoen did not want to make any more mistakes with this unit, so he signed guard Jon Runyan Jr. on a three-year contract that should not go unnoticed.
Runyan, who spent the last three seasons with the Packers, allowed just six sacks during that stretch. According to Pro Football Focus, his pass-blocking efficiency score in 2023 was 97.9, which was better than any Giants offensive lineman last season. Runyan may be the guy who can finally fix the Giants’ line, which has been a mess for too long.
New York Giants Signing DT Jordan Phillips
Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips may not be the same guy on defense as he was on the Buffalo Bills, but the Giants could still make a really good pickup with this. While Phillips has not had more than nine sacks in a season since 2019, he is still a nice fit for a Giants defensive pass rush. They already have the likes of the aforementioned Burns, third-year man Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Dexter Lawerence.
Even though Phillips had just 2.5 sacks this past season, he still played in 14 games, started in nine of them, and set a career-high with five passes defensed with 15 tackles. This Giants defense is already expected to be good, and adding Phillips to that defense could make it even better.
New York Giants Second-Year Running Back Eric Gray
We did not see a huge sample size out of running back Eric Gray in his rookie season last year when the Giants drafted him in the fifth round. But this season could be different. Even though the Giants added Barkley’s replacement by signing Devin Singletary to a three-year deal, we could see more of Gray. He’s expected to be the Giants second-string running back. While he only played 13 games in 2023 and had just 48 yards on 17 carries, don’t rule out him for having a huge sophomore season.
It was that long ago that in 2022 at Oklahoma, Gray rushed for over 1,366 yards and 11 touchdowns and had eight games of over 100 yards that season. Yes, we should expect the bulk of the reps at running back to go to Singletary.
But don’t be surprised if Daboll decides to see more of Gray. He has shown flashes of speed, especially when he was on special teams last season. Gray could be in for a much better year than expected for the New York Giants.
