New York Giants GM Schoen ‘stressed’ about team’s injury woes

The New York Giants made a plethora of fundamental changes to their organization this offseason, hoping those changes alter the team’s recent woes.

New York hired former Buffalo Bills assistant general manager Joe Schoen to be its new GM in the wake of Dave Gettleman’s retirement. It also hired former Philadelphia Eagles director of player personnel Brandon Brown to be its new assistant GM.

The Giants fired head coach Joe Judge after two seasons (10-23), hiring former Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll as their new head coach. Daboll’s coaching staff includes former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Don Martindale and former Kansas City Chiefs quarterback coach Mike Kafka as offensive coordinator.

However, it’s not meshing as a front office and coaching staff that is at the top of Schoen’s mind as the season approaches.

Instead, Schoen expressed concern about the Giants staying healthy throughout training camp to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post.

“As roster attrition sets in, that’s stressful because there’s 90 guys on 32 rosters, there’s only so many players out there at each position that can still function in a camp,” Schoen said. “It’s always very stressful for me.”

“You’re watching the football, but you also want to make sure you have enough bodies that you can practice, and you want enough competition where guys have to put their best foot forward. It’s a delicate balance between guys getting enough work in and being ready to play and contact and also keeping everybody healthy. We’ve got a really good sports science department, medical department; they’ve been working closely with Daboll on the practice schedules. I think we got a good plan in place.”

New York has indeed been ravaged by injuries in recent seasons. 

Running back Saquon Barkley has missed 21 games since his 2018 rookie season due to ankle and knee injuries. Quarterback Daniel Jones has missed 10 games since being named the team’s starting quarterback three weeks into his 2019 rookie season due to ankle, hamstring and neck injuries. Wide receivers Kenny Golladay, Sterling Shepard and Kadarius Toney missed a combined 20 games due to injury in 2021.

As a whole, the Giants led the NFL in games missed due to injury in 2021 (356). They ended the season with a league-high 24 players on injured reserve, and New York has led the NFL in games missed due to injury since 2009, with more than 3,000.

The Giants are also last in the NFC East in regular-season record since 2017. The Dallas Cowboys are 45-36 (+244 point differential), followed by Philadelphia at 44-36-1 (+187), the Washington Commanders at 31-50 (-386) and New York at 22-59 (-530). 

The Giants haven’t made the playoffs since 2016.

New York does, however, have reinforcements coming in. The team inked 32-year-old quarterback Tyrod Taylor, former Indianapolis Colts guard Mark Glowinski and former Bills interior lineman Jon Feliciano in free agency. The Giants also selected Oregon defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux fifth and Alabama offensive tackle Evan Neal seventh in this year’s draft. 

Neal never missed a game due to injury in college (he missed one due to COVID), and Thibodeaux played in 30 of 35 games in college.

In the end, Schoen hopes the Giants can make “progress” in Year 1 of the new regime.

“We’ve said since my opening press conference, and [co-owner] John Mara said the same thing: We want to see progress,” he said. “We want to see an upward trend that we’re getting better, that we’re improving from the bottom of the roster to the top of the roster.”