For the second week in a row, the New York Giants will square off against a team’s reserves.
In Week 1 of the preseason, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick kept his starters out of the game against the Giants. And on Sunday evening, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor intends to do the same.
Zac Taylor tells us he expects the same players to go Sunday as did week 1.
He doesn’t anticipate starters playing.
— Marisa Contipelli (@BengalsMarisa) August 15, 2022
The Giants will take a different approach. Head coach Brian Daboll intends to play his starters against the Bengals and this time, may even leave them on the field for a bit longer.
“I do,” Daboll said when asked if he intends to play the ones. “Now how much? We haven’t got to that yet. But, yeah.”
The purpose and focus will remain the same.
“Just keep grinding away. Keep improving our fundamentals,” he said. “It’s going to be a big thing. I thought we improved a little bit on that [Sunday] pass protection-wise with the backs, playing the deep ball with the defensive backfield. Again, you can’t tackle. I think we missed six tackles the first game. So improvements fundamentally is the most important.”
With his starters playing in back-to-back weeks, that sets the stage for them to potentially rest against the New York Jets in Week 3 following a series of joint practices. But Daboll isn’t quite willing to commit to that just yet.
“Not there yet. Not there yet relative to exactly how we’re going to do it. But we’ll have a plan,” he said.
More than 25 players missed practice due to injury or illness on Monday, so the team needs to tread carefully. The starters certainly need the work but the Giants also have consider the viability of their roster when looking ahead to Week 1 of the regular season and the Tennessee Titans.
