Giants assistant GM Brandon Brown stands by Daniel Jones and current QBs as Jets await for joint practice

The New York Giants cleared some salary cap space Monday by restructuring left tackle Andrew Thomas’ contract.

They were coming off a preseason dud in Houston where Daniel Jones’ play opened fresh wounds and worries about the Giants’ offense.

And Drew Lock (oblique, hip) only resumed practicing on Tuesday, 24 hours before a looming joint practice with the New York Jets in Florham Park, N.J.

But assistant GM Brandon Brown said the Giants are not in the quarterback market, where a veteran free agent like Ryan Tannehill or a depth trade target might be in the cards if the Giants had felt any panic about their current state.

“When you look at that, I would say no,” Brown said Tuesday. “Why would we be in the quarterback market right now? With D.J. [nine] months off his ACL injury and having his feet wet for the first time against Houston, it’s all a part of the progression process. And it’s him getting used to his weapons and us being able to protect him.

“I think what the O-line has shown in the preseason right now, there’s continued continuity,” Brown added. “We all think that there’s going to be an evolution process here where we can continue to build continuity and D.J. gets comfortable as we get more reps.”

So Brown is comfortable with Jones and Lock being his quarterback depth for Week 1?

“And Tommy,” Brown said, possibly tipping the Giants’ hand on keeping three QBs on their final 53-man roster. “I think right now where we’re at, the [coaches] have a plan, and we haven’t gotten to game plan-specific stuff yet. As you get into week one against Minnesota, we’ll start getting into more of those game plan-specific things and scheming guys in a way that we can attack a defense.”

Slayton standing out as Hyatt learns

When the Giants’ offense was down-and-out Saturday in Houston, Malik Nabers wasn’t the wide receiver to bail them out. It was Darius Slayton to the rescue, hauling in a 44-yard reception from Jones down the left sideline to set up a Devin Singletary 1-yard TD run.

Slayton hadn’t played a snap during the Giants’ first two futile offensive series. Jalin Hyatt got those reps. But when Slayton entered the game, he invigorated the offense and demonstrated their potential by emphasizing and connecting on downfield shots.

“That’s huge,” Slayton said. “We showed flashes. I made that one down the field. Malik came back and floated for one over there on the sideline [laughs]. You got a lot of guys that can go get the football, and it’s gonna be important for us to make those types of plays to win games this year.”

Slayton’s big play ability and reliability seem to have been rewarded Tuesday. Hyatt, who has worked all camp with the starters — or ones — got snaps with the second- and third-string offenses and also joined the ones for a walkthrough install. But No. 86 Slayton worked almost exclusively in a top three of Nabers, Wan’Dale Robinson and Slayton in support of Jones.

Hyatt told the Daily News last week that there is one primary quality he needs to show the Giants’ coaches so they can’t take him off the field.

“It’s simple: being consistent,” Hyatt said. “If you’re consistent, you stay on the field. Getting open, catching the ball when it comes to you. When it’s not coming to you, are you still winning on your routes? Are you blocking downfield? There’s a lot of things the coaches wanna see. They want to see guys who want it, who have that dog in them, and that’s what I’m trying to show them.”

There can only be 11 guys on the field at once, though. And Slayton, who stayed away from the building this spring because he felt underappreciated and underutilized, is making it more difficult to take him off the field instead.

Sauce-Nabers, Rodgers on deck

Everyone has their popcorn ready for Nabers’ upcoming showdown with Jets corner Sauce Gardner on Wednesday at 1 Jets Drive.

Even Aaron Rodgers is excited to see the Giants’ first-round pick in action.

“I’m excited to see Malik, you know, see what he’s all about,” Rodgers said Tuesday. “It will be a pretty good opportunity for him going up against our premier corners. Anytime you get teams together, it’s always interesting.”

Daboll said for his rookie, “when you’re playing against a guy of that caliber, Sauce’s caliber, it’ll be good competition.”

Tempers tend to run high, as the Giants and Lions demonstrated in their joint practices a couple weeks ago, and as the Jets and Panthers showed last week. The Giants and Lions each were fined $200,000 for their antics. So Daboll said he will reinforce that won’t be tolerated.

“[We will] talk about it again,” he said. “We don’t want to fight.”

Giants undrafted rookie defensive tackle Elijah Chatman, meanwhile, said he is looking forward to meeting Rodgers, not just playing against him.

“I’m just excited for the opportunity,” Chatman said. “I get the opportunity to meet Aaron Rodgers, one of the greatest quarterbacks to play in the game of football. And I get a chance to play against some different opponents.”

McFadden 'week-to-week'

Giants inside linebacker Micah McFadden (groin) is week-to-week, per Daboll, which puts his Week 1 game status up in the air at a position where the team has been devastated by injuries. Rookie sixth-round pick Darius Muasau was the next man up next to Bobby Okereke on Wednesday, which presumably means he’ll line up there against the Jets. So inside linebacker is one of several positions to watch for an acquisition, either via trade or when the Giants raid the waiver wire after next Tuesday’s league-wide cuts. The Thomas restructure, which created $3.34 million in cap space, created some room for the Giants’ moves in a week and also to operate throughout the regular season.

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