The Giants and some of their veterans are looking for a fresh slate with the new regime.
Joe Judge and Dave Gettleman are out the door, and Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen hope to give the Giants that "new car smell" feeling in 2022.
However, there are multiple holdovers from the previous regime including two crucial pieces to the Giants' success (when they’ve had it, which wasn’t often) over the years: linebacker Blake Martinez and wide receiver Sterling Shepard.
Last season, Martinez was declared out for the year in Week 3 after tearing his ACL. Martinez racked up 151 combined tackles in 2020, leading the Giants and fourth in the NFL.
An ACL injury is never something to mess around with. Recovery can be brutal and it’s always in question if the player can return to form.
“Yeah, for me right now, it’s just focusing day by day, trying to get each checkpoint, doing things the trainers have me doing for rehab and then all of the strength staff, what they have me doing in the weight room,” Martinez said. “All I can say is it’s going well and just excited to keep chopping wood and make that progress.”
With questions surrounding the 28-year old's recovery and overall health, the Giants and Martinez agreed to a pay cut of $8.4 million that will reduce his cap hit number to $14 million.
“I think their (the Giants) big motto is that obviously, they wanted me to stay here,” said Martinez. “Obviously, you’re coming back from a knee injury, coming out here and showing us that you could be the Blake that you were before is obviously what we’re looking for.”
Someone who finds themselves in a similar boat to Martinez is Shepard.
Shepard also suffered a major injury that ended his 2021 season. The 29-year-old tore his left Achilles tendon in Week 15 against the Dallas Cowboys.
With the same uncertainty coming off an injury that, at times, has ended players' careers, the Giants and Shepard also agreed to a pay cut. It has not been reported how much of Shepard's $12.5 million salary against the cap he agreed to.
“They wanted me here, and I wanted to be here,” said Shepard. “We were able to work something out that made sense for both sides, I’ve moved on from it. Just looking forward to getting to know these guys and getting to know this playbook and trying to do my part and win games.”
While both Martinez and Shepard played under the Judge/Gettleman regime, Shepard has been around for quite a few head coaching/playbook changes.
This is now the fourth head coach that Shepard will play under during his six-year career with Big Blue. He came into the NFL under Ben McAdoo who then got replaced by Pat Schurmer, then moved onto Judge, and alas, now playing under head coach Daboll’s offensive scheme.
Having played under so many different play callers, Shepard seems to be the right guy to ask how this new scheme under Daboll appears to be going thus far.
“Yeah, it's (the) first day so I just got my hands on the playbook,” Shepard said. “I’ve seen guys in this offense, you’ve got Cole Beasley, Stefon Diggs, and those guys I’ve seen those guys operate. It has a chance to be explosive. We just have to do our part and work hard.”
You can understand the cautious optimism from the Giants veteran receiver.
Just as there is a new sheriff in town on the offensive side of the ball, the Giants brought in former Ravens defensive coordinator Wink Martindale to fill in for the well-respected Patrick Graham.
Martindale’s Ravens defense finished in the top 5 from 2017-2019 in opponents points per game and led the NFL’s best statistical defense in 2020. The Giants are hoping Martindale brings that same formula over to Metlife Stadium.
“Oh yeah. Everyone loves to make sacks, and make big plays,” Martinez said. “Wink, it’s the first day with him today, just being able to see the culture and his mindset and just the way he kind of commands the room. I think it was just a great start to OTAs today and kind of, as I said before, just excited moving forward with him.”
Both veterans are hoping that a clean slate leads to a step in the right direction for their franchise. While nothing is guaranteed, there are positives to the Giants' situation.
You know the saying, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The Giants cleaned house, now it’s time to look for some different results.
