As was expected, the New York Giants were quite busy in making changes across the board within their roster and front office earlier this year.

The now-former Buffalo Bills tandem of Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen were brought in to fill the Giants' head coach and general manager vacancies, respectively. From there, Schoen aimed to rejuvenate a Giants squad that capped off the 2021 season in last place in the NFC East standings with a lowly 4-13 record.

Schoen did not go all out to retool the Giants' overall depth on both sides of the ball by signing highly coveted free agents or by trading for high-priced players. Instead, he made multiple low-risk, high-reward moves in an effort to accelerate the slow and steady rebuilding stage.

Schoen revamped one positional group, while Daboll brought in one assistant coach to join him with the Giants. Overall, these two moves should help the team move a step closer to emerging as a playoff contender in the NFC.

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Giants Best Offseason Moves

Schoen's call to revamp the offensive line

One of the more notable criticisms from Dave Gettleman’s tenure as Giants general manager centered on his inability to build a formidable offensive line for quarterback Daniel Jones. His failure to do so was on full display last season. Giants passers were sacked a combined 38 times and according to ESPN, the team’s offensive line unit ranked at 28th in pass block win rate with a 54 percent mark.

Multiple offensive linemen had seasons to forget with the Giants last year. Among them, Will Hernandez, who was the second draft selection of Gettleman’s run as Giants general manager, was the team's workhorse offensive lineman thanks to his team-leading 1,048 total snaps played. However, he had his fair share of sluggish outings in the campaign, as he was called for eight penalties and allowed seven sacks in 17 contests.

As mentioned, Schoen strived to bring in new faces to the Giants offensive line. He opted to not re-sign Hernandez, Matt Skura, and Billy Price during the free agency period. More so, he parted ways with Nate Solder.

In effect, Schoen relied upon both the 2022 NFL Draft and the free agency period to retool the group. Among the moves that he completed, he signed Mark Glowinski on a free agent deal to essentially replace Hernandez at the right guard position and selected former Alabama Crimson Tide standout Evan Neal with the No. 7 overall pick to have him slot into Solder’s now-former role as the team’s starting right tackle.

Much success for the Giants’ passing and rushing attack is slated to hinge on whether left tackle Andrew Thomas, who allowed 19 pressures in the 2021 season, can orchestrate a bounce-back campaign. But on the other side of the line, the Giants sure are banking on Neal to live up to the high expectations that have been placed on him to protect Jones’ right blindside.

For Daboll, he sees it will be a gradual process for Neal to do just that.

“He's a big man, so it's there's not going to be a ton of people that are bigger than him,” Daboll said during a press conference in May. “But the athleticism of the players that he's going to have to face, the movement up front that he's going to get to, the quickness that some of these guys have and ultimately the experience.

“Every rookie has to go through it. … There's a lot of things that he's going to have to learn and keep building on, but I think he's a mature young guy. He's played a lot of different spots and I think that will help him, too, in terms of how he sees it. When you are a rookie, you have a long way to go, really with everything.”

Daboll's decision to bring in Mike Kafka

One other move that the Giants made that could very well be a building block for seasons to come was the hiring of Mike Kafka to be their new offensive coordinator.

Kafka joined the Giants after a two-season run as the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, where he closely worked alongside Patrick Mahomes. Kafka and the rest of the Chiefs offensive coaching staff were creative and assertive in the game planning over the last two years, such as with their call to roll with 11 personnel on 924 total plays this past season, which was 286 more than the Giants.

In the big picture, Kafka aspires to open up the passing game for Jones this year.

“Big picture-wise, you always think about generating those explosive plays,” Kafka said in February. “The Kansas City offense, they’re going to throw it deep.

“We’re going to do those types of things downfield. I think that’s important to understand and that has to be an element of your offense. Now, we’ve got to take a step back and make sure it fits for our personnel, fits for the quarterback, fits for offensive line, but I think you want to be able to find ways to generate explosive plays, especially this day in age in the NFL.”

It will not be an overnight process for the Giants to once again become perennial playoff contenders, but with a rebuilt offensive line coupled with the call to hire Kafka to have him work under Daboll, they sure are taking keen steps forward.