The reason head coach Brian Daboll hasn’t yet committed to being the Giants’ offensive play-caller may be because he wants to keep that job with Malik Neighbors.
Just kidding. Well just kidding.
Neighbors said a 60-yard pass between him and Daniel Jones during practice on Friday was the result of Daboll asking the rookie receiver how he wanted to play in that situation.
Daboll took over the play-calling duties from third-year offensive coordinator Mike Kafka in the spring and continued to offer input in Jones’ ear throughout training camp without publicly announcing a plan.
“I said, ‘Come on, let’s throw the go ball,'” Neighbors said. “And Daniel came up to me and said, ‘What do you want to do? Do you want to get out of the press? [coverage]?’ And I said, ‘No, just pitch.’ And he was like, ‘I got you.’ It just showed the chemistry.”
Confidence has grown as well for the Giants’ first-round pick, who was targeted seven times during practice.
“The fact that he’s giving me the ball in open space and letting me run any route I want shows how much he trusts me,” Neighbors said. “When you have a head coach that trusts you on the third day of training camp, they’re going to understand how good a player I am.”
The Giants are well aware of Neighbors’ talent.
Not only did Daboll praise Neighbors’ “buddy-buddy” mentality during the pre-draft process, but receivers coach Mike Groh snuck out of a joint XS&O meeting with Marvin Harrison Jr., Rome Odunze and Neighbors to tell Giants owner John Mara he wanted Neighbors, as seen on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”
Harrison was selected fourth overall by the Cardinals, Neighbors sixth and Odunze ninth by the Bears.
“Groh is my go-to guy,” Neighbors said. “He watched my film and he saw how athletic I was to catch the ball in open space and that I could be a great addition to this receiver room. So to have someone in the receivers coaching staff who believed in me before he even brought me here means the sky’s the limit for me.”
Daboll explained the odd decision to rotate cornerback Tre Hawkins to the first-team defense rather than No. 1 cornerback Deonte Banks rather than creating a position battle with Cordell Flott as “to see different matchups.”
TE Lawrence Cager impressed coach Daboll with his offseason performance from the end of last season through the end of spring training, and Cager picked up right where he left off in training camp.
“He’s playing faster,” Daboll said. “I think he’s absorbing the nuances of the game, the experience in the system, what it takes to understand all the play calls.” [tight ends coach] Tim Kelly did a great job.”
Former Giants safety Jabrill Peppers reportedly agreed to a three-year, $30 million contract extension with the Patriots on Friday.
The Giants had Peppers, Julian Love (Seahawks) and Xavier McKinney (Packers) as safeties on their rookie contracts in 2020-21.
All left the team as free agents and signed contracts worth a combined maximum of $133 million this offseason.
