The cellist in a heavy metal rock band might be the only professional who can relate to the lack of action right now for a wide receiver in the Giants’ offense.
As the focus of a lost season shifts away from the final scores and toward individual evaluations, there is no more difficult position to assess than the receivers in the NFL’s least-productive passing attack (145.6 yards per game).
With consistent offensive line breakdowns torpedoing pass plays early in the season and the limitations on rookie third-string quarterback Tommy DeVito as of late, none of the Giants’ six primary wideouts have reached either 30 catches or 340 yards through 10 games.
Frustrations over under-utilization appeared to boil over last week when Darius Slayton and receivers coach Mike Groh argued on the sideline. So, what lies ahead beginning Sunday against the Commanders for Slayton, Wan’Dale Robinson, Parris Campbell, Sterling Shepard, Jalin Hyatt and Isaiah Hodgins?
“Whatever we are asked to do, that’s what we’ll do,” said Robinson, who leads the way with 29 catches. “Part of playing receiver in this league is [you might not get the ball] so you have to control what you can control and be ready when opportunities do come. Each week there are ways to find to get better.”
As quickly as the Giants have gone from playoff contender to No. 1 draft pick contender, the receiving corps has gone from overachieving last season — when Slayton resurrected a fledgling career, Hodgins was a transformative in-season addition and journeymen cycled through to patch holes — to filled with questions for the future.
Especially given that the group has stayed healthy — only Robinson (two) has missed games — relative to other positions, why are they not getting more looks?
“Oh, I want to throw it to them, too,” DeVito said, “but, hey, we’ve just got to do our job, right? Everybody is competitors, everybody wants the ball. I’m kind of a little biased with that because I touch it every play, but I understand it 100 percent.”
The group, which combines for just five drops, has not elevated quarterbacks Tyrod Taylor nor DeVito in Daniel Jones’ injury absence, adding the league’s second-fewest yards after catch to the offensive totals.
Head coach Brian Daboll has other ways to judge the receivers — a cast that was assembled to support Jones with the best weapons of his career after making a $160 million commitment — besides statistics.
“If they are doing their job,” Daboll said. “Their alignment, their assignment, if they’re where they’re supposed to be, if they are playing with good effort, good intensity.”
Shepard, 30, and Campbell, 26, have been phased out except for increased snaps in recent blowouts. Both are unrestricted free agents after the season.
Hodgins (12 catches for 120 yards and a touchdown) no longer can be seen as the surefire building block that he was at the start of the season as he heads toward cost-controlled exclusive-rights free agency. Slayton (26-337-0) is unlikely to approach his consistent annual marks of 45-50 catches and 725-750 yards in the first year of a two-year, $12 million contract.
Daboll’s early-season decision to feed more snaps to the youthful legs of draft picks Robinson (29-204-1) and Hyatt (11-214-0) has generated a slight uptick in big plays over last season’s league-worst total but neither is yet showing signs of becoming a No. 1 receiver.
It’s a familiar plight for the Giants, who have the second-fewest passing yards in the league (Bears) since trading their last 1,000-yard receiver (Odell Beckham Jr.) in 2019. The difference from past missteps is the Giants don’t have to clear out a failed major investment like Golden Tate, Kenny Golladay or Kadarius Toney to remake the receiver corps again.
The next search for help could lead the Giants to Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. — if they have a top-three pick in the draft and don’t select a quarterback — or to free agency. The option will exist to pull from the older win-now variety (Mike Evans, Calvin Ridley and Tyler Boyd) or make a big investment in a target who escaped the franchise tag and could be a long-term solution (Tee Higgins, Gabe Davis and Michael Pittman Jr.).
In the short term, however, the receivers will cling to hope that a bigger opportunity is around the corner.
“If we make it up in our mind that we can make something happen, that’s what we’ll do,” Shepard said. “If we have one or two guys doubting, you can’t have just a couple guys doing one thing in football.”
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