Giants takeaways from GM Joe Schoen, including Saquon Barkley's future, Evan Neal's struggles, 2024 NFL Draft

After Joe Schoen addressed the biggest issue facing the Giants – the quarterback position moving forward and Daniel Jones’ role with the team as he recovers from ACL surgery – the general manager still had to answer many questions about the struggles during the season.

"We're 4-8, and we're having some adversity this year, but I've got a lot of confidence in the coaching staff, I think we have some young pieces on the roster to build around, and I think we’re the second-youngest team in the league, so some guys are getting some valuable playing time,” Schoen said. “It just takes time. It takes a couple offseasons, it takes a few drafts to build it the right way. 

“And trust me, it hurts when you lose and you’re 4-8. It’s not fun. But you don’t want to lose sight of the big picture and the proper way to build the roster. And that’s what we gotta stay focused on.”

Here are the big takeaways from the GM’s bye week news conference:

On Saquon Barkley’s future

Schoen said he wouldn’t speak about the running back’s contract status, his future with the team, or the status of the other Giants players who will be unrestricted free agents this offseason.

“We tried long and hard to get something done with him,” he said about the offseason contract negotiations, “and we’ll see what happens in the offseason.”

When asked about reports that Schoen still sees Barkley as part of the team’s future, the GM talked about his character and value to the franchise.

“Saquon’s a captain, he comes to work every day,” he said. “I know there were some questions a couple weeks ago about still coming to work and the longevity and tread on the tires and all that stuff. He comes to work every day, he does everything we ask, he’s a great teammate… as you’re going through adversity I think he’s a big part of keeping the locker room together.

“I respect Saquon a lot and the way he’s handled himself through this entire process, and I have a lot of respect for Saquon.”

Schoen said “it just didn’t make sense” to deal Barkley at the trade deadline and the organization “didn’t take any calls or receive any calls on him” from other teams.

On his strategy scouting ahead of the draft

When asked about how much work he has done on the top quarterbacks in the upcoming draft, the GM responded, “I’ve done a lot of work the entire draft.”

“I’m further ahead this year than last year,” Schoen continued. “Last year kinda being the first in-season as general manager, different schedule than I’ve had in the past as an assistant GM or director of player personnel. I tweaked my process a little bit this year so I can stay up on all positions.”

When asked later about drafting a quarterback, Schoen said that it is “not a position you can evaluate on film.”

“You’ve got to get with these kids, you’ve got to meet with them, you’ve got to get around them, you’ve got to put them on the board, can they learn, can they process information, you gotta talk to the people, especially in this market,” he continued. “Bringing a quarterback into this market, it’s not for everybody, not everybody can handle it.”

On the struggles of right tackle Evan Neal

“He got off to a really good camp, had a concussion, missed a couple weeks, came back and needs to play better,” Schoen said about the seventh overall pick from the 2022 NFL Draft. “Evan needs to play better and he knows that. Look forward to getting him back here when he’s healthy, but I think he’d admit there’s some things he could do better. And we look forward to him continuing to improve.”

He added they aren’t thinking about moving Neal from tackle to guard.

"I went back and watched the Alabama stuff. The kid can play. We just got to get him to be more consistent,” the GM said. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in Evan. He’s a hard worker, it’s killing him right now to [not] be out there, he’s missing some valuable reps in year two. But as soon as he’s healthy – he’s scratching and clawing to get back – we’re looking forward to get him back there.

“He knows there’s some things that he can do better. And that’s what e expect for him.”

Where it went wrong for the offensive line

“Andrew Thomas getting hurt the first series of the season, that doesn’t help when you lose an All-Pro left tackle,” he said before recounting the numerous offensive line combinations the team has had to play due to injury. “...We ran it back with the same guys, we thought John Michael [Schmitz] would be an upgrade in there, which he’s done a good job for us.”

He added: “As you’re building this [roster] you have to, was it more weapons for Daniel, was it outside backers, was it corner, we’re trying to build this thing. As much as we want instant gratification and instant results, there is an element of patience as you build it and you’re trying to build it the right way. You can’t address everything overnight and we’re gonna continue to work on it and I do believe in building it upfront and offensive line is important and probably didn’t play as well as we needed to early on.

“It’s not all on the offensive line… and the continuity amongst those five is very important whether you’re passing off stunts and games, the communication up there. And when it’s a revolving door it’s hard for the continuity and those guys to gel consistently. That’s a long-winded answer but there’s various reasons to some of the issues that we’ve seen upfront this year, but we’ll continue to address it.”

On the season overall

“Obviously not where we wanna be right now at 4-8,” Schoen said at the start of his news conference. “But I am proud of the guys the way they’ve continued to battle, continued to compete over the last few weeks…. We’ve seen some progress over the last couple of weeks and the results to show. We’ve got five games left against NFC teams, it’s four different teams so, we’re not out of it.”

When asked about the biggest factors that contributed to the down year, he said: “I would think that early on we had a difficult schedule. Right off the bat, three games in 11 days and two of those teams being top of the NFC right now, or near the top of the NFC. Again, we started off [with a] very good drive against Dallas to open the season, we get a false start, a bad snap, a blocked field goal for a touchdown and kinda snowballed from there. Don’t wanna make any excuses, we had some injuries, and, again, we just gotta continue to build the depth. And continue to build the team all around so when injuries do occur that we can overcome those. And still be competitive.

“It’s gonna happen every year, it happens, it’s football, it’s a contact sport. There’s gonna be injuries and we gotta be able to overcome any type of adversity that presents itself.”

Schoen said he had “no regrets” with the draft process and roster construction – that he likes a lot of the guys they brought in this past offseason – but that “it takes time to build” a roster the right way.

On Eric Gray’s struggles at punt returner

“That’s on me,” Schoen said. “To be honest, we tried to address the punt returner, we knew it was an issue. In the draft, some of the guys we liked went probably higher than where deemed you take a guy. Eric had did it at Tennessee and Oklahoma and we were comfortable, the coaches were comfortable, and we were comfortable going into the regular season based off what we were seeing.”

Jamison Crowder, whom the Giants moved on from in preseason, has had success in Washington returning punts, he added, but keeping the veteran would have created a crunch at wide receiver.

“Eric’s got a bright future and we probably put him in a spot that wasn’t most comfortable for him earlier either. He went out there and didn’t bat an eye and did what he could. But again, that’s on me, early on. We couldn’t do everything overnight and as much as we wanted to that was a position we continued to look for,” he said.

On the Leonard Williams trade

“The draft compensation. When Seattle called and offered a second-round pick for a 29-year-old player that was on an expiring contract, we had nine games left. It just made the most sense long-term in terms of the build.”