Joe Schoen was barely able to keep his head above water after being hired as New York Giants general manager.
Right out of the gate, Schoen was thrust into a head coaching search. Then came free agency, the 2022 NFL draft, rookie minicamp, organized team activities and mandatory minicamp.
It wasn’t until June when Schoen was finally able to kick back, relax a bit and take in all that had just occurred. But as of Tuesday morning, that break comes to an end.
Giants rookies officially report for training camp and for Schoen, that means it’s right back to business. And he doesn’t expect it to be easy or stress-free, either.
“Me going out there being a nervous wreck,” Schoen told the New York Post of how he expects to feel.
“As roster attrition sets in, that’s stressful, because there’s 90 guys on 32 rosters, there’s only so many players out there at each position that can still function in a camp. It’s always very stressful for me.”
Managing the roster is difficult enough but when you add in early summer injuries, it can become a bit overwhelming. And given the Giants’ injury issues of the past decade, there’s certainly a concern over having enough players on the field each day.
“You’re watching the football but you also want to make sure you have enough bodies that you can practice and you want enough competition where guys have to put their best foot forward. It’s a delicate balance between guys getting enough work in and being ready to play and contact and also keeping everybody healthy. We’ve got a really good sports science department, medical department, they’ve been working closely with [Brian] Daboll on the practice schedules. I think we got a good plan in place.”
Ultimately, Schoen says, he just wants to see daily, weekly and monthly improvement. That means from the top down, on the field, in the locker-room and at practice.
“We’ve said since my opening press conference and [co-owner] John Mara said the same thing, we want to see progress. We want to see an upward trend that we’re getting better, we’re improving from the bottom of the roster to the top of the roster,” Schoen said.
That all begins with setting the tone during what will be a very stressful first training camp for the new GM.
