The Giants’ offense was a little curious in Week 1, in that the receiver usage saw Kadarius Toney get just two rushing touches on seven snaps and Kenny Golladay all but shut out on 43 snaps, recording just two targets and catching both for 22 yards.
Head coach Brian Daboll’s answer about all that was pinned on personnel packages, which was plausible but curious given that Richie James played 42 snaps and David Sills 27, but Toney had just the seven and Wan’Dale Robinson had nine before his injury.
Well, it’s time to get curious again, because in Week 2, Toney was much more involved with 28 snaps but again saw only three targets, making two catches for no yards – and Golladay saw all of two snaps, both as a decoy, while Richie James again led all receivers in catches and yards, and David Sills’ 67 offensive snaps were the most of any skill player not named Daniel Jones.
“It's a continual competition at receiver. I'm not being a jerk. I've said it since the middle of camp, right? It hasn't changed. It's going to be a continual competition,” Daboll said of the situation. “Kadarius had opportunities today, and we'll see what it is next week; maybe it's (Darius) Slayton, maybe it's more KG. We'll see where we go with that. But I think that position, we're just going to keep on rolling guys and play the guys that week that we think would give us the best chance. And the other guys got to be ready as backups.”
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Golladay has been much-maligned for his first season in New York, and also his unimpressive summer that Brandon Tierney called “uninspired” at best. And, the world found out well after the fact that Golladay had a “minor surgical procedure” in the offseason.
But still, in the second year of a four-year, $72 million deal signed under the previous regime, how does a player like Golladay see the field for all of a minute tops – and how does he handle it?
“Like a pro. I told him during the week that we were going to go with Sills and he acted like a pro, and I just said, 'Be ready to go,'” Daboll said. “I think it takes a lot of mental toughness, too. That's not an easy thing to hear, and I appreciate them being pros.”
Seems like certain situations are fluid, which Daboll also doubled down on.
“Does that mean it's going to be that next week? No, because you see what we did from one week to the next. We're just evaluating all those guys on a game-by-game basis,” he said. “We'll go out there and practice this week. It's not going to be a play-by-play every day of how they do every practice. Those guys will compete and we'll try to figure out the best way to utilize them for the next game.”
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It seems like Daniel Jones has built a nice rapport with James and Sills – especially the former, who leads the team in catches and yards through two games and is second to Saquon Barkley in targets – and the pass game has targeted three unheralded tight ends as many times as Golladay and Toney combined: five.
When it comes to Golladay, though, even Jones continues to praise the receiver.
“I've got great relationships with all the guys, certainly Kenny. I've got a lot of trust and faith in him,” Jones said. “He's a hard-working guy, he's a pro, he knows what to do so he'll be back at it and he'll be big time for us going forward.”
That said, it is noticeable that on a third-and-nine at the Giants’ 26 early in the third, the intended target was Saquon Barkley, but it was James who got the catch and a 15-yard gain – and later on, during the Giants’ first field goal drive in the fourth, it was Sills who got the ball in another big spot, third-and-10 on the Giants’ 35.
Curious, indeed.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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