New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll held a press conference late Wednesday afternoon to discuss the finalization of the team’s 53-man roster.

Overall, the Giants have managed to bring many of the players they released on Tuesday back to the practice squad. Schoen sees those players as the team’s true depth — an extension of the roster — and hopes to get a chance to develop some of the young players.

“I’m glad we were able to get the guys back on the practice squad. Sometimes you worry about losing some guys,” Schoen told reporters. “You put in the time and effort, our coaching staff does a good job of developing these young men. When you get the opportunity to continue to work with them, you’re happy about it. Plus, the practice squad is an extension of the roster.”

“You try to choose between developmental players and guys who can play on Sunday if you need them, if something happens on Friday or something like that, who have played in Sunday games, who know the offense, who you can trust to do their job. We’re happy with the group we have right now.”

Schoen said the Giants only submitted one waiver request – for Green Bay defensive back Anthony Johnson, Jr. – and got him. It was no secret that they needed more depth and talent in the secondary and Johnson was the player they had their sights set on.

Schoen suggested that the decision about players on the waiver list is not always as important as people might think.

“Sometimes it’s fantasy football, people don’t cut good football players and you’re not going to make 15 claims across the league that are going to change your roster,” he said.

With only additional players added to the depth, the cornerback position remains thin on the Giants, but Schoen is not worried.

“I’m comfortable with that,” he said. “You have a certain number of options and certain players are available. It’s a position we’ll continue to look at, like all the other positions. If there’s an opportunity there to improve, we’ll take it.”

“If you called every team, 32 out of 32 would probably say they’re looking for cornerback reinforcements. That position is hard to find. We’re always going to try to improve the entire roster. But that position in particular is only one or two injuries away. There aren’t many teams that have three good cornerbacks on their roster when you look at the whole thing.”

Daboll expressed confidence that the Giants’ second cornerback job, which had been a competition between Cor’Dale Flott and Nick McCloud, would resolve itself.

“I have a good feeling about it. I won’t tell you now. I have a good idea of ​​the direction it’s going,” he said.

The question of whether Evan Neal could switch from tackle to guard was again silenced by Daboll.

“We have enough guards,” he said. “He needs to continue to work on his position as right tackle.”

Schoen, meanwhile, talked about the Giants starting with three quarterbacks, citing the team’s past injury problems at the position as one of the reasons they opted to start with three quarterbacks this summer.

In fact, the rule change for the third quarterback and the prospect of losing Tommy DeVito due to the waiver rule were just as justified.

“Quarterbacks have always had injuries. I think that’s what happened last year,” Schoen said. “We’re happy with Tommy. Drew (Lock) unfortunately got injured. We’re going to continue to work with him. Daniel, we just think it’s probably the best thing we can do for ourselves right now.”

Schoen then gave an honest assessment of starting quarterback Daniel Jones, who is returning from an offseason in which he spent, among other things, rehabbing his torn ACL and dealing with the team’s search for his successor in the draft.

“From what you saw, Daniel was a little rusty at the beginning. I thought he really pulled himself together and had a good training camp,” he said. “I understand that there might be a shot he would have liked to have had again in the Houston game. When you step back and look at the game from that perspective, I think he had a good training camp overall. Even in the Houston game, in that preseason game that he played in, I thought he played well with the exception of one shot.”

As usual, the roster remains “flexible” and Giants fans can expect Schoen to continue tweaking the roster if and when he has the chance to improve it.

“The goal is always to win games,” he said.

The Giants won six games in 2023 after winning nine games in 2022. They hope to at least make the playoffs again in 2024.