With a new head coach and several new assistants, of course there will be changes to how things are done when New York Giants players return to work next month for the offseason conditioning program?
What will some of those changes be? We got our first real glimpse of that Tuesday when new coach Ben McAdoo answered some questions from Michael Eisen of Giants.com. The most revealing might have come when, as part of a question Eisen asked McAdoo "whether the players will experience culture shock when they see the team’s new-look weight room."
Before we even consider McAdoo's answer, the question tells us that there is a new-look weight room. After three straight years of leading the league in Adjusted Games Lost to injury, and several years before that of being among the league's most injury-prone teams, the Giants replaced long-time strength and conditioning coach Jerry Palmieri with Aaron Wellman. This is our first nugget of information that tells us things will change in how the Giants train.
"There’ll be some changes," McAdoo said. "We’re going to have some things, whether it’s from the coaching perspective, whether it’s from the weight room perspective, nutritionally - we’re going to look at a lot of different things and change a lot of different things, tweak them. Again, it’s evolution not revolution, that’s what we’re sticking by. A lot of things we’ve changed here recently, but we’re just going to build on that a little bit, and I think the players will appreciate it."
Fans tired of watching the Giants suffer a ridiculous number of injuries year after year will also undoubtedly appreciate it. Whatever the cause of the ongoing injury issue, the change from Palmieri to Wellman and the indication that how the Giants go about preparing players will be different is likely to be greeted as a welcome bit of news.
Players report to the Quest Diagnostics Training Center for the beginning of the offseason conditioning program on April 11.
"The players haven’t arrived yet, but we have to set the table for them," McAdoo said. "It is exciting, we do have a lot going on. We’re transforming in a lot of areas, but we do look forward to getting the players back here and getting started.
"You get nine weeks with them in the offseason, and boy, you’d like to have at least 18, you’d like to have at least double that. That’s why you get into this profession, to be around the players, not be behind the desk. We certainly can use the time as a staff to get ready in our first year together, but definitely, getting the players back here, that’s going to be exciting."