The first play in the 11-on-11 team period of 2024 Giants training camp seemed simple enough: a short flip from Daniel Jones to Wan’Dale Robinson that picked up a few yards.
What it seemed to be and what the results turned out to be were not indicative of what it all entailed and what the Giants want to be about on offense this season.
“The first play [Wednesday], they had like a fly motion, back to an orbit and back out the back door, which is a lot in one play,’’ linebacker Micah McFadden told The Post after Thursday’s practice. “As a safety, you’re kind of looking at it like, ‘Where am I going here, and what’s the call I got to make?’ You kind of get caught in that gray area, which is difficult for a defense. As an offense, it’s gonna create problems for a defense.’’
McFadden is not a safety, but he relies on the players filling that position to give him the correct call.
“We all communicate it, but usually the safety is directing it,’’ McFadden said. “Whether you’re right or wrong, we all just got to be on the same page.’’
Creating uncertainty is what the objective is here, and thus far this summer, the Giants are showing considerably more pre-snap motion on offense.
This is the needed and natural evolution of the offense head coach Brian Daboll installed in 2022, an offense that last season was far too stagnant and ineffective — as the Giants finished 6-11 and 30th in the NFL in scoring at 15.6 points a game.
There has to be walking before there is running, and there has to be running before there is taking off and soaring.
Daboll is on his way to taking over the play-calling on offense — something coordinator Mike Kafka handled the past two seasons — and the goal is to put the Giants in motion far more often than the recent past.
In 2023, the Giants used pre-snap motion on 432 plays, a far cry from how the league-leading Dolphins (841 plays with pre-snap motion) operated.
The Rams (753 plays), 49ers (732), Chiefs (669) set the pace for pre-snap motion.
As far as putting a man in motion at the snap, the Giants were 13th in the league at 20.6 percent, according to ESPN Stats and Info.
This has to change. For the Giants to rise, they need to get moving.
“Well, I’d say yes, because it’s the third year, so you can do a little bit more each year,’’ Daboll said. “If it’s the first year, you’re not going to throw as much at them. Each year you can add a little bit more. Some days you might see a lot of that, some days you might not see a lot of that. Just depends on how we want to attack the day.’’
This movement will feature Robinson and also rookie Malik Nabers.
In the first two days of camp, both wide receivers have scurried hither and yon along the line of scrimmage — darting right to left, left to right, at times motioning one way then reversing the other.
Nabers and Robinson will be utilized on jet sweeps, shovel passes and routes to the boundary of the sideline.
The goal is to get the ball out of the hand of Daniel Jones far more quickly, putting it into the hands of the players deemed most dangerous once they have it.
“It’s definitely a whole lot,’’ Robinson said. “That’s what Dabes comes from, he likes to do a lot of misdirection and get guys moving in a lot of different places and get the matchups that he likes.
“It helps us figure out what the defense is in. Just helps us get open. At the end of the day, he’s creating a matchup for a reason. We just have to know when and why and how to get open.’’
Robinson has seen how the Giants’ defense scrambles to keep up, and the conversations with his teammates on the other side of the ball can be revealing.
“If the guys haven’t been here before, it’s definitely something new and something they probably have never been through,’’ Robinson said. “So I’m just kind of letting them know, ‘Yeah, you got to be ready for all these motions.’ ”
The chase is on.
“It’s good for us,’’ McFadden said. “They’re definitely moving around a lot, and it’s definitely going to help us. It gets us moving … it creates problems for the defense. Once you’re moving you got to think about not only, ‘Where’s my coverage?’ but also, ‘Where’s my alignment?’ and, ‘Where’s my gap in the run game?’’ So it just gets the guys thinking and on our feet. Without a doubt, they’re moving around, for sure.’’
