As the Giants shuffled their offensive coaching staff this offseason, one of the most significant departures was veteran tight ends coach Mike Pope.
And the nature of the position he coached for so long with the Giants seems to be changing too.
New offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo told reporters he had a special set of qualities he was looking for there, which might be hard to find.
“A tight end, that’s a difficult position, first of all, to evaluate,” McAdoo said, via Dave Hutchinson of the Newark Star Ledger. “They’re asked to do a lot of things in this league, whether it’s run blocking from the backfield, run blocking at the line, out in space, a lot of things in pass protection and then running routes, whether they’re an in-line guy or they’re in the slot or in the back. They have a lot on their plate.
“To me, it was always the best position to coach and in this offense it’s the best position to play because you have to learn how to do everything and you have to learn how to do it well at a high level. At the end of the day, you have to find players who you can plug in and figure out what they do best and make sure on the field that they’re doing what they do best.”
With Bear Pascoe an unrestricted free agent, the Giants are down to young players Larry Donnell and Adrien Robinson, so they obviously need some help there.
Two of McAdoo’s old Packers tight ends are available, Jermichael Finely and Andrew Quarless, and if Finley’s well, he has shown to be the kind of dynamic player there the Giants need.
Otherwise, there are the top guys expected to get tagged (Jimmy Graham and Dennis Pitta), along with a lot of other guys who do one of the things McAdoo wants but not all of them.