Giants still undecided on whether or not starters will suit up for Preseason Week 1

It’s game week for the New York Giants as they prepare to play their first preseason game against the Buffalo Bills on Saturday afternoon.

The exhibition match will give the Giants’ coaching staff an opportunity to scout its own players and evaluate their depth. However, the preseason can also be an important step in the process of preparing starters for the regular season.

Giants haven’t decided if they will play their starters in Week 1 of the preseason

Head coach Brian Daboll spoke with the media this week about their preseason plans and indicated that he and his staff have not yet made a decision on whether or not the starters will suit up this Saturday.

“That’s something in the next few days we’ll talk about as a coaching staff, and we’ll do whatever we think is best for the team,” Daboll said, per the team’s website. “But right now, these first few days are going to be about the Giants, we’ll have a plan here. I wouldn’t say necessarily tonight or tomorrow, we’ll let these guys go and we’ll do what we think is best for the team. Could they play? Yeah, they sure could play.”

Few starters played for the Giants last preseason

Last season, the Giants did not feature many of their starters in the first preseason game. Namely, starting quarterback Daniel Jones did not suit up, despite many of the rest of the league’s best signal-callers taking snaps in the first exhibition game (such as Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, C.J. Stroud, and others).

However, some of their unproven starters on the defensive side of the ball, such as CB Deonte Banks, did take snaps in the first preseason game.

The Giants have made several critical changes to their process this season, though. Their practice regimen has been altered and, considering how slow of a start they had last season, there is a chance Daboll will want to see his starters get their preparations under way in Week 1 of the preseason.