Although the Giants’ setup was not exactly conducive to impressive receiving statistics last season, Kenny Golladay has not rebounded from his disappointing 2021 slate. The Giants have reduced the high-priced veteran’s playing time significantly.
The former two-time 1,000-yard receiver played just two snaps in the Giants’ Week 2 win over the Panthers, seeing his usage plummet drastically from a 46-snap opener in Tennessee. With the Giants’ new regime not being the staff that authorized Golladay’s four-year, $72MM contract, the ex-Lions standout faces an uncertain Big Apple future.
Golladay, 28, joins Darius Slayton in failing to impress Brian Daboll‘s coaching staff. Long a trade candidate, Slayton has played four offensive snaps this season. The Giants’ 2019 and 2020 receiving leader took a pay cut, one that essentially negated his proven performance escalator contract-year bump, to stay on the team. But a Giants team seemingly flush with receiving talent has not seen too much from that contingent, beyond Sterling Shepard bouncing back early from his 2021 Achilles tear.
The team appears interested in shaking up the situation. Daboll has FaceTimed with free agent wideouts, according to ProFootballNetwork.com’s Aaron Wilson. Help is limited at this point on the NFL calendar, and the Giants do have a highly touted player acquired by their current regime — second-round pick Wan’Dale Robinson — preparing to make his debut. Robinson has missed the team’s first two games due to injury. Daboll passed on a Cole Beasley reunion; the ex-Bills slot joined the Buccaneers on Tuesday. Will Fuller and Odell Beckham Jr., an unrealistic Big Apple return candidate, headline the available receivers. As it stands, Big Blue’s wideout situation has produced some interesting on-field configurations early in Daboll’s run.
Daboll informed Golladay last week the team was effectively benching him for David Sills, a 2019 Bills UDFA who landed with the Giants later that year. Despite Daboll’s former team not having room for the Delaware product three years ago, this reunion has led to the most work of the young player’s career. Sills played 67 offensive snaps against the Panthers, catching three passes for 37 yards. Sills primarily worked alongside Shepard and Richie James, who led the Giants in receiving with five catches for 51 yards last week.
“I told him during the week that we were going to go with Sills,” Daboll said of Golladay’s demotion. “He acted like a pro. I said, ‘Be ready to go.’ Does that mean it’s going to be next week? No. It takes a lot of mental toughness, too. That’s not an easy thing to hear. I appreciate them being professional.”
A 2019 Pro Bowler, Golladay is known more for his contested-catch abilities than separation skills. The 6-foot-4 target drew interest from the Bears, Ravens, Dolphins and Bengals during the 2021 free agency period — one overshadowed by the COVID-19-induced salary cap drop — and signed with the Giants on a deal that included $28MM fully guaranteed and doubled as the top contract given to a UFA wideout last year. In an offense that saw both an OC change (from Jason Garrett to Freddie Kitchens) and Daniel Jones‘ injury give way to overmatched backups Mike Glennon and Jake Fromm, Golladay caught 37 passes for 521 yards and no touchdowns.
He did not put together a good offseason this year — one that featured an unspecified surgery — and is an obvious 2023 release candidate. For now, Golladay’s contract makes such a move prohibitive. The Giants can get out of the deal with a $7.9MM 2023 dead-money hit, should they designate Golladay as a post-June 1 cut. Golladay’s $21.2MM cap hit is not only tops among Giants; it ranks as the league’s eighth-highest 2022 cap number.
Golladay’s swift decline comes as the Giants are barely using 2021 first-rounder Kadarius Toney. The oft-injured wideout played seven snaps in the team’s opener and caught two passes for zero yards in Week 2. The Giants hoped to involve Toney more in Week 2, per Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, but a hamstring tweak changed those plans. Toney still played more against the Panthers (28 snaps), however. Trade rumors encircled Toney this spring, and though those quieted quickly, the Dave Gettleman-era draftee’s status rounds out one of the league’s more interesting position groups through two weeks.
Giants seem to be tanking but somehow winning. I realize that makes no sense but somehow it does.
I think it would make sense to Giants fans that even a tanking team couldn’t lose to Ben McAdoo.
It makes sense. They have Golladay, Shepard, Toney, Robinson, and Slayton yet are refusing to give playing time or targets to any of them. They’re using Sills and Richie James as their primary targets. As a fan, it is maddening to watch. I don’t care how ‘unimpressed’ this regime is with them, they should be playing.
The offense is atrocious and they have a stable of starting-caliber receivers but are looking elsewhere for WR help. It smacks of ‘smartest guys in the room’ vibes. The two wins are nice, but come on.
And in the case of Toney, even if you dislike the guy, it’s like they’re going out of their way to devalue a guy before trading him.
Exactly. Plus, they’re supposedly evaluating Daniel Jones to see if he is the QB of the future but they’re purposely limiting his weapons so he’ll continue to fail. Then they can move on and draft a QB next year.
Shepard is the only of their good WRs getting targets. Richie James, a 2018 7th rounder who didn’t play a snap last season, has 12 targets this season, which is twice as many as Toney (3), Golladay (2), Robinson (1), and Slayton (0) combined. They’re either tanking Jones and the season or they think they’re smarter than they are.
Perhaps Toney, thanks to his brittleness, poor attention to the playbook and perhaps his off field attitude, has soured Daboll and Kafka.
There is a reason why Kadarius is riding the pine.
Any one of the receivers the giants aren’t playing would instantly be the bears second best receiver by a lot, if you guys could send them to us for free that would be cool, Matt Nagy once thought he was the smartest guy in the room…..good luck giants fans, I’ve hurt a similar hurt
I’d rather send Daboll to the Bears.
Well, if you believe anything that Dabol has said in the press, you have to earn your way to start with performance…..do you think Slaton who consistently drops balls has?….how about Golladay…..impressed by anything he did last year and is showing so far this year?…..Toney….maddening talent and a $.10 cent head who seemingly gets hurt coming out of the shower…..how has the Giants offense suffered with the wideouts that have played through the first 2 games……this regime didn’t draft them, and is trying to put the best team on the field they can….they’re not trying to drive up their “value” for future trades that probably won’t happen anyway….that “stable of starting calibre players” you think they have probably aren’t drawing too much interest around the league so exactly what is their overall value…..
Didn’t your last HC play these guys and lost? Now Daboll isn’t playing them and you’re 2-0?
How long would a Giants win streak have to be to get the attention of Yankee and Met fans?
This year? Both the Mets and Yankees are playoff-bound so I don’t think anyone will pay the Giants any attention even if they win all of their games.
As soon as their seasons end, though, Giants and Jets will get all of the (negative) attention.
Reading one tabloid too many? Listening to talk radio one minute too often?
Dumb jocks believe one sport equals another. Ordinary people don’t.
I imagine most psychologists would agree with the dumb jocks. A sports fanatic is basically the same animal regardless of what flavor they prefer to digest.
And the “dumb jock” mentality breeds that type of person known as the Ugly American.
The irony of course is that foreigners that use that term never seem to find American dollars ugly.
” Wan’Dale Robinson — preparing to make his debut. Robinson has missed the team’s first two games due to injury.”
Do some research…He played, and was injured in the first game.
Didn’t you get the memo? There is two things all trade rumor writers share in common. 1. NEVER do research, why when you can already just write the story 2. This one is huge. NEVER EVVVVER proofread before posting. They learned this from the great Zach Links. In fact if you proofread I heard you get fired
I’ve complained about this many times across all of their sites. It is true Tim Dierkes does not care that his “writers” don’t bother to proof read before they post. He stated so after I mentioned it to him when they started trying to get people to pay $. I don’t pay anything here(I also don’t see one single ad), it would be different if they had actual writers or journalists. I pay for The Athletic where they do have real journalists.
Post game reaction to week 2 will be going up tonight and a special guest will be with us later this week to talk about the upcoming game against the cowboy
link to 2giantgoofballs.buzzsprout.com
Antonio Brown on line one.
Crazier things have happened but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Antonio Brown has played his last game in the NFL
Obj ?
Then you might as well bring Victor Cruz out of retirement. The Giants will then be able to reunite everyone from the Boat Trip.
To be fair obj got a ring last season. Hes better than what they have.
Beckham tore his ACL in the Super Bowl, which is why he doesn’t have a contract at this moment. NFL clubs can’t afford to carry damaged goods on the 53-man roster.
I knew as soon as Golladay got paid he’d quit working and become an awful Wideout! I was praying to God that Detroit not resign him. He puts in so little effort and refuses to block downfield for anyone. If he isn’t getting balls thrown in his direction, he becomes so disinterested in the game!
Front Office changes personnel but is still a joke. Would these WRs be problems on a team like NE? Nope
Golladay to Pats or Bucs? They seem to be the home for wayward players.
Antonio Brown and Mike Evans say hi.
They could, I don’t know, play Darius Slayton.