Stock up, stock down for Giants after spring practices

In the NFL, players can’t necessarily win or lose jobs during spring practices in shorts and t-shirts. They can, however, either get a foot in the door or make ultimately earning a job more difficult based on their performance.

“You hold the final analysis really on all football players until you’re playing true football,” New York Giants coach Pat Shurmur said during OTAs. “I think that’s where the competitive situations in pads can give us the last piece of the puzzle.”

Which Giants either improved or hurt their chances during the spring? Patricia Traina and I discussed that during Friday’s episode of Locked on Giants. Give that a listen below.

Here are five players whose stock rose or fell this spring.

Stock up

Davis Webb — After an excellent spring, you can see his confidence is soaring.

B.J. Hill — Maybe Dave Gettleman and James Bettcher knew, but no one else had him pegged as a starting defensive end.

Curtis Riley — Could he be the Giants’ starting free safety?

Eli Apple — A night and day difference in his attitude from last season.

Jon Halapio — Legitimately in contention to be the starting center.

Stock down

Roger Lewis Jr. — Cody Latimer, Hunter Sharp and perhaps even Amba Etta-Tawo seem to have passed him by on the depth chart.

Brett Jones — He’s going to have to fight for the starting center job.

Avery Moss and R.J. McIntosh — Because neither was able to get on the field this spring due to injuries, perhaps lessening their chances of making or contributing to the team in 2018.

Darian Thompson — He was basically handed the starting free safety job no questions asked a year ago. Not so this time around. Riley, Andrew Adams, Michael Thomas and perhaps a couple of other players are involved in a competition with Thompson.

Josh Mauro — A league-imposed four-game suspension will do that. So, too, will impressive play from Hill and Kerry Wynn.