The New York Giants will begin their offseason program on Monday as scheduled. Sort of.
While the Quest Diagnostics Training Center and all other team facilities in East Rutherford remain closed in accordance with federal and state guidelines, the Giants will get back to business via virtual landscape.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still drastically altering the world as we know it, the Giants, like all 31 other teams, have been forced to adapt. And on Monday, they will begin meetings through Zoom and distribute their brand new playbook(s) electronically.
“When we do these Zoom live classes or installs I don’t know how it’s going to work, I have never used it,” quarterback Colt McCoy said last week. “I’m hoping that there is some interaction between players. You are listening to your coach but maybe we can have interaction with the players or you can hop on a call with some of other guys. So you can ask, hey, how did feel about that or do you like the depth of that route, is that how you were taught. So you can go through a lot of different things with them.
“All 31 other teams are facing this same challenge. I think some teams who are going to continue in the same system maybe have a little bit of an advantage. I think the teams like us who have a new coach and a new system have a little bit of a disadvantage. That can’t be a crutch or an excuse either. We just have to figure out ways to get creative.”
The Giants already faced a challenging uphill battle in 2020 by introducing an entirely new coaching staff, as well as new offensive and defensive schemes. And now Joe Judge, a first-time head coach, will have to adjust on the fly and make the best out of a bad situation.
Realistically, Judge may not actually meet his players face-to-face until sometime in July, and even that feels optimistic at this point. But that’s the hand he and the team have been dealt, so they’ll have to find ways around it.
This is the new normal — at least for now — and we’re all adjusting. How well the Giants adapt to these changes will go a long way in determining the outcome of their 2020 season. Assuming, of course, we see football at all this year.
