The New York Giants just completed another miserable season, going 4-12 in 2019, but there is hope moving forward.
Daniel Jones looks like a potential stud, Saquon Barkley is already elite, the receiving corps has some talent and Evan Engram has the ability to be one of the best tight ends in football if he can just stay healthy.
Nevertheless, in spite of the future now looking brighter for the Giants, there are still a whole lot of holes that need patching.
Here are three major needs for Big Blue this offseason:
3. Secondary help
Notice that I didn't mention anything about the Giants' defense as far as reasons to be excited about this team moving forward.
That's because it stinks, and New York's secondary is arguably its most vulnerable area.
Yes, young safety Jabrill Peppers showed significant potential before getting injured, but outside of him, there weren't many bright spots. Rookie cornerbacks Deandre Baker and Corey Ballentine struggled, and veteran safety Antoine Bethea is clearly several years past his prime.
The Giants could replace Bethea with in-house safety Julian Love, who displayed promising flashes this year, but at cornerback, Baker was very disappointing, and Ballentine was very inconsistent.
To be fair, New York's corners are still young, but the Giants could really use a veteran to come in and stabilize things.
2. More pass rushers
The Giants totaled just 36 sacks this season, and 10 of those came from linebacker Markus Golden, who is set to become a free agent himself.
So, New York would have to re-sign Golden and add someone else to ensure that its pass rush improves, which is certainly a tall order given that Golden seems to be in line for a rather big payday.
Obviously, the Giants can always work through the draft, even if their Chase Young dreams appear dead.
No matter how Big Blue elects to do it, it needs to start bringing in guys who can put consistent pressure on the quarterback, which is something the Giants haven't really had since 2016.
And as dominant as rookie defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence was against the run this year (which is great), he isn't much of a pass rusher, so New York can't depend on him to fix the problem, either.
1. Offensive line help
The Giants' offensive line was better in 2019, but not by much.
The Nate Solder signing remains a mess, and the rest of the unit was not incredibly cohesive. Compounding the problem is that New York no longer has an ironman in Eli Manning under center, as Jones has already found out the hard way what a shoddy offensive line will do to most quarterbacks, as he missed a couple of games with a high-ankle sprain.
Plain and simple, the Giants need to protect Jones going forward. He is their future, and they should take heed from Andrew Luck about the dangers of not supplying your quarterback with adequate blocking right from the jump.
Fortunately, New York has quite a bit of cap room to play with this offseason, so it can invest in the offensive line. Let's just hope the Giants don't land another Solder.
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