New York Giants: Eli Apple a project worth trying to save

The New York Giants need to try to salvage Eli Apple’s career before making any significant decisions about his long-term future.

One can’t blame New York Giants fans for being less than pleased with cornerback Eli Apple. For starters, Apple is one of several players who hasn’t lived up to expectations during this disaster of a season in which New York has lost 12 of 14 games. He has reportedly been disciplined by coaches on multiple occasions. There are reasonable questions about his toughness and dedication to the cause, particularly after he retweeted an account celebrating a former Ohio State teammate scoring a touchdown against his current employer.

Apple silenced some doubters and critics with his performance during Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. He tallied a team-high seven solo tackles. He played for the majority of the action, a step in the right direction considering how his season has gone leading up to the middle of December. Sure, there was a mixup with teammate Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie that resulted in a Philadelphia touchdown, but every team deals with such miscues.

Those of us who aren’t in the locker room don’t know what went down between Apple and safety Landon Collins. Collins suggested to reporters last week that he had a sitdown with Apple, while Apple essentially stated such a discussion never occurred. Whatever happened is between those two young men. Collins is 23 years old, and Apple turned 22 in August. They have plenty of time to figure things out before hitting their physical primes.

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All must remember Apple is a former first-round pick going through only his second season, and he’s a member of a team that is an abject failure. This roster was supposed to contend for a division title and maybe even for a championship. Nobody, not even the most pessimistic individual examining the squad this past August, believed the Giants would lose ten of 12 games, and no observers and analysts thought head coach Ben McAdoo would be fired before Christmas. Just about everything that could’ve gone wrong did. Even Eli Manning, a two-time Super Bowl MVP who has been in the NFL since 2004, has never dealt with these football hardships.

Patience will be key as it relates to Apple. His mother underwent brain surgery in the middle of November, and any health matters she is dealing with could understandably affect him and take his mind off football matters, even for short periods. Outside influences, no matter how personal and serious, don’t excuse his disappearing act, both mentally and physically depending on the stories you read and hear, but anybody with a sense of humanity can give him a pass heading into the winter.

The Giants are about to have a new front office and, by all accounts, a new coaching staff, neither of which scouted or drafted Apple. They owe him nothing, and they have nothing tied in his future. Those individuals currently unknown to us do have to deal with Apple’s contract that ties him to the club up through 2019 regardless of how well or how poorly he plays, and that, more than anything else, is why they need to get the most out of Apple on the field beginning next September.

It’s easy to focus on the negatives when a team is destined to finish in the bottom two of the overall standings. The possibility exists that current players will tell a new coaching staff that Apple is more a negative than a positive, and that the Giants should get something for him while he still has value. Outside of such conversations occurring, Big Blue needs Apple to be who the club hoped he’d be in the spring of 2016.

Just as one good season doesn’t cement any player’s status, one poor season doesn’t sink his trajectory. As was pointed out in an NJ.com piece last January, Apple produced multiple memorable highlights during his debut season. Yes, he looked like a rookie at times in 2016, but nobody gets it all right directly out of the gates. Truth be told, he was one of the best defensive first-year pros in the league a year ago.

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As the saying goes, the Giants can’t throw the figurative baby out with the bathwater. There are tendencies and traits that must be worked out of Apple if he is going to survive, let alone thrive, in an NFL locker room, but it would be a massive overreaction to believe he’s a lost cause before the end of his second campaign. Be mad. Demand better. But don’t give up on Apple just yet.

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