Every NFL team has set the Super Bowl as a goal for this season, The Post has learned.
The masses are assembling this week, with all football precincts reporting in, and the early returns indicate rampant optimism and winning vibes coursing through training camps in the North and South, East and West. Few players, if any, have reported their bodies are smaller and slower or that they are carrying higher body fat after an offseason spent lounging while refraining from posting “Watch me grind” workout videos on Instagram.
There is a bounce to everyone’s step, a surprising trend, considering scores of players who arrived with chips on their shoulders. Everyone is upbeat and hope springs eternal, or at least until the first preseason game reveals flaws no one saw coming.
“If all 32 teams are not out here fighting for a Super Bowl, or thinking that they can be the best offense, then they’re probably in the wrong business,” veteran running back Rashad Jennings said Thursday as the Giants reported for camp. “Just with us, I think we have a little bit more validity behind it this year.”
Ah yes, validity — an inconvenient truth for some, blissfully ignored by others.
Is it valid for the Giants to link themselves with a Super Bowl run? Not really, not after three consecutive losing seasons. It could happen, of course, even though the Giants have never won a Super Bowl coming off a losing season. Plenty will have to go very right for the Giants to vault to the top of the NFC.
Is it valid for the Giants to set lofty goals regarding their offense? Absolutely. They finished as the No. 8 offense in 2015 and will probably have nine of their 11 starters back in the same spot. Plus, they are anxious for Victor Cruz to take the field and to unleash rookie Sterling Shepard. If Cruz is close to what he was and Shepard is close to what he might become, the Giants, for the first time, will surround Odell Beckham Jr. with legitimate threats to offset all that blanket defensive attention.
The defense is coming off such a shamefully horrid season that assuming anything about the revamped unit is risky business. It will be better — it has to be — but to what degree must be viewed as a long-range forecast.
Not so with the guys who get paid to produce points. Three years into the Ben McAdoo system, the blinders are off and Eli Manning should be capable of a career season. History shows a marquee running back is not a prerequisite. Jennings and Shane Vereen are capable and should be much more confident running in Year 2 behind the same offensive line.
What’s that you say about the line? You don’t like it much? Well, you might be right, but might not be. Weston Richburg could be a Pro Bowler at center and Justin Pugh might not be far behind at left guard. The Giants hope continuity and chemistry trump raw talent here.
The goal for a high-caliber offense is to average 28 points a game — a mark Manning voiced as possible. The Giants in 2015 didn’t run with much authority until the final month of the season, never shook their struggles on third down and within the red zone and still averaged 26.2 points. It is hardly a leap of faith to project a few more points per game from this group.
Every team is led by one side of the ball and these Giants must be led by their offense. Manning gets the big bucks, Beckham is one of the league’s top-five talents and the front office invested two first-round picks (Pugh and Ereck Flowers) and one second-round pick (Richburg) on the offensive line. The long-awaited return of Cruz could put it all over the top.
“Speaking especially from the offense’s standpoint, going into Year 3, we’ve got high expectations,” Jennings said, “and it will be a disappointment if we don’t complete what we’re looking for.”
McAdoo, now in charge of the entire operation, pumped the brakes on the expectation the offense — once his offense — is ready to erupt.
“It’s a loser mentality to think you can pick up in this business where you left off,” he said. “You cannot pick up where you left off. You have to go out and you have to earn it. So right now we’re just like every other team out there on offense. We have to go out and earn our stripes this year.”
Fair enough. The first-year head coach is not branding the offense as a powerhouse. Even though that is what it could be and needs to be for the Giants to shed their losing ways.