With safeties getting injured at a fantastic rate, Jason Pierre-Paul away from the team while his fireworks injuries heal, left tackle Will Beatty out with a pectoral injury and Victor Cruz battling a calf injury, the Giants have had a fair amount of negative turns in 2015.
One member of the team’s defensive line thinks that kind of adversity could be setting the team up for another disappointing season. Defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins says he has seen the team “freeze up a little bit” in the face of tough situations over the last two years and that they need to develop a confidence that “won’t be denied” if they are going to do a better job this year.
“This is the NFL,” Jenkins said, via Newsday. “No one team is just going to go out there and not have its fair share of adversity. That comes along with the game. If you know that, you know it’s required that you have to be able to respond to it. That’s what we need to do a better job with. When we get hit in the mouth or go through adversity, we don’t respond as well as we should.”
Jenkins isn’t wrong about the need for NFL teams to shrug off adversity if they are going to succeed, but talent and scheme can’t be ignored as major factors in the team’s 13-19 record over the last two years.
The Giants have seen mediocre or worse performances from their running backs, offensive line and across the defense in those 32 games which has led to changes of coordinators on both sides of the ball. They’ve also seen the last four drafts produce few high-level contributors to a roster that hasn’t found quality replacements for many of the key players from their 2011 Super Bowl championship team. Add it all up and you get three seasons out of the playoffs and increased pressure to change their fortunes this year lest sweeping changes hit the team.