The New York Giants will once again debut a 53-man roster that looks almost nothing like the one that preceded it in the season before. The Giants have flipped their roster construction to focus on building from the inside-out on the offensive side of the ball and the outside-in on the defensive side of the ball. As the Giants get ready to kick off training camp in less than two weeks, there are still 10 burning questions they must answer before the 2019 regular season opener in September.

1. Will Eli Manning improve on his 2018 season?

From a statistical standpoint, 2018 was the most efficient season for Manning since 2011. Manning finished with a career-high 66.0 completion rate, a career-low in interceptions with 11, his best quarterback rating (92.4) since 2015, and he still managed his best yards per attempt average (7.5) since the 2011 season.

This is where stats can be deceiving. Although Manning was efficient in these metrics, he was the opposite in the area that matters the most -- scoring points. Manning threw for just 21 touchdown passes in 2018 and he has thrown for just 40 total in his past two seasons. Making matters worse, those who lean on Manning’s total stats have been fairly criticized for not taking into account what percentage of the veteran quarterback’s numbers came when the Giants trailed by an insurmountable score.

No matter how you slice it, a team whose quarterback throws for just 40 touchdowns over a two-season span has next to no chance of making the postseason in the modern NFL.

Manning will have to improve in 2019 if the Giants are to find consistent success and if he wants to keep his starting job.

Working against Manning is his age and the alarming increase in sacks he has taken over the last 16 games vs. early seasons in his career with similarly weak offensive lines overall. Manning will also be without one of the NFL’s elite wide receivers (Odell Beckham Jr.) for the first time since the 2013 season when he was just 32 years old.

Working for Manning is the fact that he is entering year two in the same offensive scheme with Pat Shurmur. Manning should also benefit from the upgrades on the offensive line -- Kevin Zeitler, Mike Remmers, and Jon Halapio. The Giants also added one of the NFL’s most underrated veteran wide receivers -- the leader since 2012 in forced missed tackles -- Golden Tate. They hope the light will turn on for 2016 first-round pick Corey Coleman.

Will this be enough for Manning to turn things around? This is the question that will ultimately decided the Giants’ 2019 regular season.

2. Will the Giants’ plan of attack on offense sustain success with Manning?

The plan of attack on offense for the Giants became somewhat clear over the final four games of the 2018 regular season during Beckham’s injury absence. The Giants want to evolve into a ball-control offense that operates through running back Saquon Barkley. Over the final four games in Beckham’s absence, the Giants’ passing game consistent almost exclusively of a heavy dosage of targets for Barkley, Evan Engram, and Sterling Shepard. These targets were distributed nearly evenly.

The Giants want their passing game to serve as an extension of the run game. The optimal goal for Pat Shurmur in his offensive scheme is for the wide receivers, running backs, and tight ends to carry the offense via their ability to force missed tackles and create yardage after the catch.

One key component in any successful offense like the one the Giants are proposing is a quarterback who can stretch the field vertically to keep the defense honest. If the defense doesn't respect the deep pass, it becomes a lot harder for an offense to operate in the way the Giants plan.

Manning did not do a strong job of stretching the field vertically on a consistent basis in 2018.

3. Have the Giants done enough to improve the offensive line?

The Giants’ offensive line graded out as one of the NFL’s worst through the first 13 weeks of the 2018 regular season, but heading into 2019, Pro Football Focus believes they are about average as a whole. We are more bullish on the offensive line’s improvement than PFF, and we can see a path for the Giants to finish inside the top-15 as a unit when the 2019 regular season concludes. However, the Giants still need to prove that the improvements they made on paper will translate to the field.

The Giants will add three new starters to the 2019 offensive line in right guard Kevin Zeitler, center Jon Halapio (who only played one full game in 2018), and right tackle Mike Remmers. They will also likely benefit from the progression of second-year left guard Will Hernandez. For a complete analysis on why we believe the Giants’ offensive line will outperform their current PFF ranking, you’ll find it here.

Earlier this offseason, we broke down why the Giants’ interior offensive line has a chance to be special on the Big Blue Banter podcast:

4. Will the Giants find a consistent blocker to play inline tight end?

The Giants may want to mimic the Cowboys on offense, but they don’t quite have the same talent or depth on the offensive line. One way to make up for that is by finding a consistent blocker to line up on the end of the line of scrimmage as an inline tight end. The Giants didn’t get that kind of production from tight ends Evan Engram, Rhett Ellison, or Scott Simonson in 2018.

Ellison’s first season with the Giants in 2017 resulted in a strong blocking grade, but he didn’t follow it up. Simonson was average and committed too many penalties. Engram held his own, for his size, but he is not best utilized as an inline tight end.

For an offense that wants to run the ball and use the play-action passing game as much as the Giants, an inline tight end who is a consistent blocker is a necessity.

Keep an eye on undrafted rookie free agent C.J. Conrad who potentially fits this profile and had a very strong offseason from the Giants throughout OTAs. By the end of OTAs, Conrad even stole a few reps with the first-team offense.

5. Do the Giants have enough talent at the skill positions?

The biggest question mark in the minds of some Giants fans is how to replace Odell Beckham with another wide receiver. We’re not sure we agree this is the best way to improve the Giants roster. Taking the outside-in approach to roster construction by prioritizing the wide receiver position is technically insane -- trying the same thing and expecting different results. The Giants tried this roster approach for a decade under ex-general manager Jerry Reese and it failed them.

Regardless, a strong case can be made the Giants already have enough talent at the skill positions without adding another wide receiver. For starters, the talent the Giants do have are all near-perfect fits for Shurmur’s scheme because they excel after the catch in short spaces. The Giants’ offense revolved around Barkley, Engram, and Shepard over the final four games of the 2018 regular season without Beckham. The Giants averaged 26 points per game over that span and it included a monsoon-drenched home game vs. the Titans where they were shutout. In 2019, the Giants will add Golden Tate to the mix. They also hope to improve by introducing Corey Coleman to the No. 3 wide receiver role he is now ready for.

It all looks good on paper, but the Giants need to prove it on the practice field in training camp first.

6. Will the Giants’ plan of attack on defense sustain success without an elite EDGE?

The Giants are moving into uncharted territory on the defensive side of the ball, but they are also moving in the direction of the analytics. A recent study by Pro Football Focus suggests pass coverage is more important than pass rush when it comes to the productivity of a pass defense overall. Prioritizing pass coverage over the EDGE rushers is exactly what the Giants have done since the arrival of Dave Gettleman and James Bettcher. If the Giants’ defense improves in 2019, it will be on the back of this roster construction and strategy.

During the last two offseasons, the Giants have acquired five defensive backs who entered the NFL from 2017-2019. This group includes two first-round draft picks (Jabrill Peppers, Deandre Baker), an early third-rounder (Sam Beal, Supplemental Draft, 2018), an early fourth-rounder (Julian Love), and an early sixth-rounder (Corey Ballentine). The Giants also held on to veteran cornerback Janoris Jenkins -- the only defensive player from the 2016 free agent spending spree who wasn't traded at or prior to the 2018 trade deadline.

In the simplest of terms, the objective of the Giants’ defensive shift is to create pressure by numbers. The Giants hope to confuse opposing offenses by staying in subpackage defensive personnel groupings with just two down defensive linemen, two boundary cornerbacks, and seven defenders who could have different responsibilities (rushing the passer or dropping in coverage) on any given snap.

7. Will the Giants find consistency at the inside linebacker position?

The Giants have almost completely revamped their roster during the first two offseason of the Gettleman-Shurmur era, but two offseasons is not enough time to replenish every position group to fit the scheme on both sides of the ball. The Giants haven’t use many resources to retool their inside linebacker group and it remains a major question mark heading into the 2019 season in a defensive scheme that relies on this unit.

The Giants traded for Alec Ogletree who has his warts in one-on-one pass coverage and when taking on blockers head on, but his value as the clean-up man from sideline to sideline and the quarterback of the defense are invaluable. He will continue to play nearly every snap and the Giants know what they are getting.

After Ogletree, the Giants are relying on a former Jerry Reese draft pick in B.J. Goodson, a 2018 UDFA in Tae Davis, and rookie 2019 fifth-round draft pick Ryan Connelly to play a key role on the defense.

Our money is on Connelly to break through during training camp and earn the most snaps alongside Ogletree. For more on why we are very excited about Connelly’s fit in the Giants scheme, you’ll find it here.

8. Will the young cornerbacks make an immediate impact?

The Giants are relying on a slew of young cornerbacks to play a lot of defensive snaps in 2019. While it's true that every NFL team spent the majority of their defensive snaps with at least five defensive backs, the Giants were in their "nickel" subpackage on 64 percent of their defensive snaps and they used a subpackage other than their 3-4 base defense on 84 percent of their defensive snaps.

The Giants' personnel restricted them from finding sustainable success within this scheme in 2018, but they have moved further in that direction during the 2019 offseason via their additions in the secondary. However, it will certainly require second-year cornerback Sam Beal (who is essentially a rookie), second-year nickel back Grant Haley, and 2019 rookies Deandre Baker, Julian Love, and Corey Ballentine to hit the ground running. The Giants need two or three of these defensive backs to produce immediately alongside veteran Janoris Jenkins.

9. Will Jabrill Peppers take a leap forward with James Bettcher?

The centerpiece of the Giants’ haul in return for trading Beckham was Jabrill Peppers, at least according to Gettleman. The Giants were not going to accept any trade offer that didn’t include Peppers. The 2017 first-round draft pick struggled in his rookie NFL season, but he took a massive leap in 2018 as a sophomore when he finished as PFF’s No. 18 safety overall.

The Giants are expecting an even bigger leap forward in his third season for a multitude of reasons. For starters, Peppers is a near-perfect fit for Bettcher’s defensive scheme as a two-way safety who is capable of playing at a high level at various depths of the field. In addition to this, the Giants believe Peppers is just scratching the surface as an NFL safety after playing a hybrid role at the collegiate level where he played a lot of snaps at linebacker.

Of course, for now, it’s all a projection. At worst, the Giants hope to get a top-20 safety (like he was in 2018) who will play 100 percent of the defensive snaps -- health permitting -- after only playing on two-thirds of the snaps with the Browns last season.

10. Will the Giants hold up against the run?

The Giants’ decision to move in this direction on defense, from a schematic standpoint, puts them in an interesting position from a run defense standpoint. As we mentioned above, the Giants will spend the vast majority of their defensive snaps in a subpackage personnel grouping that only has two of their three “starting” defensive linemen (B.J. Hill, Dexter Lawrence, Dalvin Tomlinson) on the field at one time. This can make things more difficult for the Giants when it comes to stopping the run against stronger run-blocking offensive lines.

The Giants’ decision to trade Damon Harrison was based on his salary cap hit in addition to his poor fit for the scheme. We won’t argue that Harrison fit the direction of the defense, but he was undoubtedly their best run stopper. In Detroit, Harrison proved that he was also still the NFL’s premier run stopper. The Giants’ run defense took a noticeable step back in his absence.

In 2019, the Giants are hoping that moving both Hill and Tomlinson into their natural positions on a full-time basis plus the addition of Lawrence will prove enough to field a consistent run defense. The jury is still out.