Scouting the Browns’ Preseason opponent: New York Giants - Our Q&A with Big Blue View

On Thursday, the Cleveland Browns begin their preseason on the road against the New York Giants. To help preview a few topics from the Giants’ perspective, I reached out to Ed Valentine from Big Blue View and exchanged three questions with him. Enjoy!

Chris: “Tell us a little about the biggest position battle the Giants have going on right now.”

Ed: “The biggest position battle is probably at free safety next to Landon Collins. Darian Thompson, Curtis Riley, Andrew Adams and Michael Thomas have all gotten first-team reps. Veteran CB William Gay has also gotten a look there.”

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Chris: “Pat Shurmur was named the Giants new head coach this offseason. How have fans and players taken to him in his first training camp?”

Ed: “Players love Shurmur. I don’t know why it didn’t work out for him in Cleveland. He won 9 games there in 2 years, and after the last 2 seasons he looks like a miracle worker. He’s honest, he’s genuine, he treats people with respect. All of those are upgrades over the last head coach.”

Chris: “Tell us about one player on offense and one player on defense who Browns fans may not have heard of, but are players to watch on Thursday.”

Ed: “This time of year is always about the young guys. On offense, you probably know about Davis Webb but he is the guy Giants fans will be watching closely. Is he the heir apparent to Eli Manning? On defense, third-round pick B.J. Hill has been a real surprise. He figured to be a backup nose tackle, instead he is a starting 5-tech DE in the 3-4.”

This preseason Q&As are always fun for me to do because while I am much more concerned with how the Browns’ players will perform, I like having at least a baseline knowledge of the other teams’ primary competition and a few under-the-radar players.

Their free safety position battle seems wide open, which might benefit WR Antonio Callaway if he were to play (stretching the field). At this point, who knows what the deal is with him.

Ah, the good old days of Pat Shurmur. I’m sure he has actually learned a ton of valuable lessons from his time with the Browns. At this point, the “why was this coach bad?” starts to fade from memory a bit because we’ve had so many of them — all of the awfulness just blends together now.

Thanks again to Ed for taking the time to answer our questions.