Giants reveal unofficial depth chart for Sunday’s regular-season opener

09/07/2021

There aren’t many surprises to the Giants’ unofficial Week 1 depth chart. However, there might be one on the offensive line.

The Giants revealed their unofficial depth chart for their Week 1 matchup with the Broncos (Sunday, Sept. 12) via the team’s official website Tuesday.

OFFENSE

Position	Player	Player	Player
WR	Kenny Golladay	Darius Slayton	C.J. Board
TE	Evan Engram	Kaden Smith
RT	Nate Solder	Matt Peart
RG	Will Hernandez	Ben Bredeson
C	Nick Gates	Billy Price
LG	Shane Lemieux	Ben Bredeson
LT	Andrew Thomas	Matt Peart
RB	Saquon Barkley	Devontae Booker	Gary Brightwell*
FB	Eli Penny	Cullen Gillaspia
WR	Sterling Shepard	Kadarius Toney*	Collin Johnson
TE	Kyle Rudolph	Kaden Smith
QB	Daniel Jones	Mike Glennon

DEFENSE


Position	Player	Player	Player	Player
SLB	Lorenzo Carter	Quincy Roche*	Cam Brown
DE	Dexter Lawrence II
MLB	Blake Martinez	Reggie Ragland	Justin Hilliard*
NT	Austin Johnson	Danny Shelton
WIL	Tae Crowder	Carter Coughlin
DT	Leonard Williams	Raymond Johnson III*
OLB	Oshane Ximines	Azeez Ojulari*
LCB	James Bradberry	Rodarius Williams*	Josh Jackson	Sam Beal
SS	Jabrill Peppers	Julian Love
FS	Logan Ryan	Xavier McKinney
RCB	Adoree’ Jackson	Darnay Holmes	Keion Crossen

SPECIAL TEAMS


Position	Player	Player	Player
LS	Casey Kreiter
H	Riley Dixon
P	Riley Dixon
PR	Jabrill Peppers	Adoree’ Jackson	Kadarius Toney*
KOR	C.J. Board	Jabrill Peppers	Kadarius Toney*
K	Graham Gano

* Designates player is a rookie

Of course, you have Daniel Jones starting. Of course, you have guys like Kenny Golladay, Blake Martinez, Logan Ryan, and Jabrill Peppers in their expected roles.

But there could be one surprise (at least to some people), albeit be unofficial at this point — Nate Solder is the starting right tackle.

If this remains the case for Sunday, that would mean second-year tackle Matthew Peart would be riding the bench at least to commence the game. There’s still the chance you see a tackle rotation that includes Peart, Solder, and second-year left tackle Andrew Thomas, which the Giants implemented at times last year (although Cam Fleming was around instead of Solder).

The Giants also list Saquon Barkley as their top running back as he makes progress towards a return to the game field. Barkley is coming off an ACL tear that caused him to miss 14 games last year.

Other notable standouts of the unofficial depth chart include Tae Crowder residing in the inside linebacker role alongside Blake Martinez and Oshane Ximines starting at one of the two outside linebacker spots instead of rookie Azeez Ojulari.

The Giants will surely look to ease Ojulari into the system given his inexperience.

Also, expect Carter Coughlin to find notable reps at inside linebacker despite serving as a reserve on this unofficial depth chart.