The Giants ran a country club practice style in 2023, and they were devastated by a slow start and injuries in a 6-11 season.
Then Brian Daboll turned up the practice intensity in 2024, only to see worse results: a 3-14 season kicked off by a Week 1 no show and more injuries to key players on both sides of the ball.
Now here in 2025, Joe Schoen and Daboll look like they’ve tweaked their plan again to find a middle ground between grueling and soft.
So far, that has meant competitive OTA practices for the players on the field combined with precautionary measures for their top players and those coming off injury.
“It’s important that they progress so we can get them ready for training camp here,” Daboll said in late May of the players sitting out. “And if they’re ready to go later on in this [OTA] process, then they’ll do what they can do.”
As for the players on the field, Daboll said: “We’ll do the best job we can within the rules to make it as competitive we can.”
It has indeed been competitive.
When the Giants brawled with each other last Thursday, some NFL sources marveled that the Giants were even practicing hard enough to prompt a fight during OTAs, which are voluntary spring practices used to acclimate teams for the summer grind of training camp.
The urgency displayed by some of those intense team practice periods, though, is countered by the absence of many of the Giants’ most important players.
Left tackle Andrew Thomas, who missed the final 11 games of last season with a Lisfranc injury to his left foot, said doctors had told him he would have “about a five-month recovery” from his October surgery. But eight months later, he hasn’t yet been seen on the field.
“Andrew, we’ll be smart with and keep rehabbing him,” Daboll said in late May.
Wide receiver Malik Nabers has not practiced yet as he recovers from a toe injury that Daboll said dates back to Nabers’ college days at LSU.
Dexter Lawrence, who sat out the season’s final five games with an elbow injury, is participating in individual drills but not in team drills.
Guard Jon Runyan Jr. hasn’t worked in team periods, either, due to an apparent offseason shoulder procedure.
Middle linebacker Bobby Okereke was not on the field at all Thursday. And several other starters or returning players have had their snaps reduced and monitored.
Not to mention the Giants already lost one free agent signing, edge Victor Dimukeje, to a torn pec during spring workouts. And rookie draft picks Darius Alexander (third round defensive tackle) and Cam Skattebo (fourth round running back) both did not practice last week.
Alexander, in fact, has not participated yet in an open OTA practice. Daboll would not answer a question about what Alexander is dealing with physically.
The context of all this caution is that last season, when Daboll turned the intensity up on the practice regimen, the head coach grew frustrated with the amount of injuries before the season even started.
“There was a long list of people that got injured or had some type of injury,” Daboll said after last year’s preseason loss to the Jets. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. That’s a lot of people.”
Thomas even said on breakup day, when reviewing the team’s season, that the Giants “dealt with a lot of adversity this year, a lot of injuries.”
It’s a familiar problem in East Rutherford, N.J.: The Giants struggle to keep their team healthy.
They were the NFL’s most injured team from 2009-22, with more than 3,250 games missed due to injury, per ManGamesLost.com.
That stretch included Schoen’s and Daboll’s first season in 2022. The Giants were the NFL’s sixth-most injured team that season, losing 261 games due to injury.
The Giants made the playoffs that season, however, and there was one clear asterisk to their injury problems: their four most important players Thomas, Lawrence, Saquon Barkley and Daniel Jones all played the full 16-game regular season schedule that year.
So maybe that’s why the Giants are balancing a hard OTA practice schedule with so much rest for their top guys. They know not every player loss is created equal.
Time will tell if those top end players are properly prepared for fall football, and if the team finds itself healthier for a grueling regular season schedule right out of the gate beginning with a prime time visit to Washington.
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