In normal years – this is not that – so many players who come to training camps look good, feel great and claim they have lowered their body fat, increased their strength and are in the best condition of their lives.
Sometimes that’s true.
The yo-yo effect is not what the team needs from their top players, a strong season followed by something lacking, the level of back and forth performance that makes the coaching staff and fans guess. Once a young player has been in the league for several years, a hope is formed. Sometimes, it is almost impossible to know what particular player, with the results going up one year high, down at the next sadness.
Not every season is created the same for all players. These are the three most proven Giants in 2020.
Lorenzo Carter
If what you see is what you get, the Giants haven’t seen enough and haven’t gotten enough from Carter. He is one of the players you will take every time you are asked to choose a team to get off the bus. He is tall (6-foot-5), long arms and built up to 250 pounds. He, as they say, looks like that. Production does not match the physical.
In 30 matches in two seasons, Carter has 8.5 sacks, 82 tackles in total, and one forced failure. He had 109 pass-rush hits in 2019 than his rookie year but managed to increase the total sack by only half a sack. Carter is far from a bad player and often he does something that makes you think more about the good things that will come. The Giants took him out of Georgia in the third round in 2018 and, after two years of development, it is time for Carter to develop, work in a new defense system and hopefully feel the urgency to impress a new group of coaches.
This inclusion might surprise those who believe they know what they have at Peppers, entering their fourth and second NFL season with the Giants after two years with the Browns. He was a former first round pick and arrived in the Odell Beckham Jr. trade, making him a marked person, insofar as he recorded his rise or fall. The Giants insisted he was included in the mega-deal with Cleveland and, a year after it all went down, there was no sure way to determine whether Peppers were part of a defense solution or just an adequate starter but not a difference maker. .
Peppers is rated higher with Brown in 2018 than he did with the Giants last season, according to Pro Football Focus, and missed the last five games with a broken backbone. He carries the passionate disposition needed for a fairly milquetoast defense and is a force against escape. The Giants took their fifth year option, but that did not guarantee a return in 2021. With the addition of Xavier McKinney in the draft, Peppers must be able to play a strong security role and be more in line with his expertise. .
Lorenzo Carter, Jabrill Peppers, Will HernandezGetty Images, N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg, AP
Will Hernandez
This big man hasn’t missed a snapshot on the left guard in two seasons and is considered a fixture on the offensive line. However, his second season did not include the anticipated step forward of the Giants. Its overall value from PFF dropped from 67.2 as a beginner to 58.4 last year. The most troubling, the effectiveness of run-blocking dropped dramatically. His admission, as far as reading the defense front and taking on his duties, did not improve enough and sometimes seemed to go backwards.
Maybe new offensive coach Marc Colombo will get more from Hernandez. This will help him if the situation at the center is stable. Hernandez has the right attitude and takes his work seriously as a midfielder’s protector. It is sad for him when things go wrong and he is always responsible for his efforts, good and bad. This is a very big year for him. He should be part of the offensive line of rebuilding. Is he a rising player?
