On Sundays, during football season, when you come into my Flip Flops Donut shop in Emerald Isle, you’ll see me wearing vintage NY Football Giants apparel. For the past 5 years, I was the subject of light-hearted abuse or sympathy from my customers. Not any more. As I speak these words, my GMen are tied for the most wins in the NFL, 6, with the Eagles. This is a turnaround that few, if any, saw coming. Certainly not yours truly. After all, this team is operating with much the same roster it had a year ago when the Giants ended the season with 4 wins. So what is behind Big Blue’s improbable success? A weak schedule? Lucky bounces? I don’t think so. After all, the GMen play in the NFL East, the best division in the NFL. And, if injuries won championships, the GMen would be a lock. No, for me, the Giants’ success boils down to their newfound ability to think different. What follows are some of the ways the Giants do think different and win games. And how they can sustain this success by continuing to think different.
For years, the NFL has been a passing league. The stats prove it. The money paid to quarterbacks and receivers, pass rushers and cornerbacks prove it. Alas, because of injuries, a perceived lack of talent and/or salary cap issues, the Giants, as constructed, simply can not participate in any meaningful way in this aerial evolution and the consensus was for the team to simply survive 2022 and wait for a franchise QB and an elite wide receiver to arrive next year in the draft or via free agency. Thankfully, the new head coach Brian Daboll and his offensive coordinator Mike Kafka think different. Through seven games, rather than throw deep downfield passes, Daboll and Kafka have the Giants using their feet to get their chunk yardage and move the ball. Why? Because the Giants can! They are tough upfront and a healthy Saquon Barkley has regained his standing as one of the NFL's most outstanding players with one of the best starts by a running back in Giants history. With rushing success established, the GMen can call plenty of play action passes which brings out the best in quarterback Daniel Jones. They're also running a lot more run-pass options to take advantage of Jone’s mobility. To my untrained eyes, it looks like a completely different offense and the Giants are actually exciting to watch every Sunday now. It is still early but I think the Giants are at the vanguard of an offensive revolution in the NFL.
Why? If a team is going to embrace analytics and the pass, it needs a franchise quarterback, a player capable of consistently winning games with his arm and raising the level of play of the offense. Despite today’s college quarterbacks coming out with a much better understanding of the passing game, identifying an NFL franchise quarterback remains an illusory task. 65 quarterbacks have been taken in the first round since 2000. Removing the yet-to-be-determined talent of players like Mac Jones, Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, Tua Tagovailoa and Jordan Love, maybe 10 can be considered consensus franchise starters. Not a very good success rate, to be sure. And, if a team somehow does win the lottery and selects a Patrick Mahommes, an Aaron Rodgers or a Josh Allen, the challenges are just beginning for the general manager.
Welcome to the NFL Salary Cap. The salary cap was designed by the owners to: limit expenses, guarantee a profit and most importantly, prevent one of these extremely affluent owners from buying an NFL championship. The way the salary cap works is for every team to have the same number of salary dollars. And it is the job of every NFL general manager to decide how to allocate the salary cap among 53 players. This is a difficult enough challenge in itself to keep GMs up at night but when a team has to compensate for an elite quarterback, that challenge officially becomes PROBLEM ONE. At the minute, 14 QB's have annual compensation packages that account for 15% or more of their teams’ salary cap. Devoting that much salary cap to one player makes it exceedingly difficult to pay the other 52. To be sure, general managers can and do make use of various accounting gimmicks to kick those big contracts into the future while they chase a Super Bowl today. But, eventually the bill comes due. Without cap space, a team might have to cut players with expensive contracts or might have to allow players to leave and sign bigger contracts elsewhere. As a last resort, a team might have to restructure onerous contracts and kick that bill another year or two down the road. None of these strategies are ideal and none do much for team morale or team performance.
So what is a general manager to do? For starters, coaching matters. Perhaps more than a franchise quarterback, teams should start with identifying a franchise head coach. Giants GM Joe Schoen hired head coach Brian Daboll not only for his football acumen but also his leadership skills. Schoen charged Daboll with changing the Giants culture, a culture under former head coach Joe Judge that was personified by two straight QB sneaks Judge dialed up from inside the Giants’ 10 yard line. Not a high bar, to be sure, but changing the culture is exactly what Daboll needed to do and has done. His fiery passion for winning has turned the Giants around for the better, lifting them to several come from behind wins including one over the Green Bay Packers in week five and another over the Baltimore Ravens in week six.
Second, draft running backs, but not in the first round. Running backs are plentiful. They are interchangeable. They are relatively inexpensive. They also keep the other team’s franchise QB off the field. Third, forget about drafting a franchise QB and settle for a QB with accuracy and leadership qualities. Here, I’m thinking of Tom Brady, a 6th round draft pick or Jimmy Garropolo or Bailey Zappe or Daniel Jones.) Fourth, it helps to have an aggressive defense like the one Wink Martindale installed for the 2022 Giants, a defense that dictates to the offense and not the other way around. This strategy works well on the field (see today’s NY Giants, NY Jets and Atlanta Falcons) but this strategy improves a team’s chances in the draft and in managing salary cap space.
After all, if a GM is not always chasing after the proverbial unicorn QB or wide receiver, he can now pursue linemen on both sides, select some tight ends and hybrid safeties who can blitz and cover. Best of all, none of these picks break the salary cap bank. Are the Giants onto something? Only time will tell but the Giants may have provided a blueprint for NFL teams to succeed consistently, year after year, even without a Patrick Mahomes or a Josh Allen. At the moment, the NFL is a passing league that analytics show somehow doesn’t pass enough. But, analytics don’t take into account salary cap limitations or prima donna personalities. The Giants 2022 blueprint does. A plan that can trace its origins back to former GM Dave Gettleman and his using his #1 draft pick to select Saquaon Barkley, Daniel Jones, Dexter Lawrence and Andrew Thomas in consecutive years. Thanks Getty. To learn more about my interests outside of donuts and real estate, please go to my website, www.EmeraldIsleHomesforSaleNC.com and sign up for my blog. Ready to buy or sell? Call me at 919-308-2292. Explore the video tab for my weekly uploads to my YouTube channel. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and receive free donuts at my Flip Flops Donut shop. Text your email address to 919-308-2292 and subscribe to my newsletter. My book, "Live Where You Vacation" is available on Amazon.com or at Kindle.
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