It’s been a whirlwind first offseason for New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen. He arrived in East Rutherford with a lengthy checklist and hasn’t yet put it down.
However, as the team heads into their summer break, Schoen will soon have a moment to catch his breath. Rookies will depart at the end of the week and that will be it until training camp in late July.
For the most part, Schoen has accomplished his offseason tasks. But as he looks ahead, there’s still one thing that’s bothering him — the team’s abundance of injured players.
“We’ve had quite a few injuries where a lot of those guys that are maybe slightly dinged up or we didn’t want to push them too hard because we don’t play until September — seeing them on the field,” Schoen told The Irish NFL Show. “Whether it’s Kenny Golladay or Kadarius Toney or Sterling Shepard and Blake Martinez… There’s some players that are good players in this league that I didn’t get to see a lot this spring.
“I am anxious to see. . . Hopefully — knock on wood — we can get 90 guys out there ready to go in late July when we first come back. There’s some players that I just haven’t been around and I haven’t really seen them do much this spring because they were injured.”
One plus, Schoen noted, is that none of the team’s rookies came in and fell flat.
“Sometimes after drafts you see a guy and you’re like, ‘Eh. That’s not really what I thought he was going to be.’ There were none of those moments this year which is nice,” Schoen said. “Everyone kind of looks as advertised.”
Still, Schoen laments the dings and dents.
Health has been a long-standing issue for the Giants. Since 2009, they are the most-injured team in the league and that spans multiple general managers, head coaches and medical staff changes.
Both Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll have vowed to dig into the team’s recent injury history and both find and eliminate the cause. But here in mid-June, they’ve yet to accomplish that task and anxiety is beginning to creep in.
“Seeing everybody out there healthy and playing together is what I am most looking forward to,” Schoen said.
Giants fans can relate.
