From the moment he crumpled to the MetLife Stadium turf in Week 4 with a season-ending torn ACL, it was obvious the New York Giants were going to miss star wide receiver Malik Nabers. But, this much?
With the exception of Wan’Dale Robinson, who did what he could with the dinks and dunks the Giants sent his way, Giants wide receivers were a horror show on Sunday in a stunningly inept loss to the New Orleans Saints.
Darius Slayton, a veteran wide receiver who has long been a good but not great player, had a miserable day.
- Slayton had a crucial fumble late in the first half that negated a Giants’ scoring opportunity and led to three Saints points.
- Slayton failed to come up with a deep pass from Jaxson Dart that would have put the Giants in the red zone. They punted and Spencer Rattler hit Rashid Shaheed for an 87-yard New Orleans touchdown. The Slayton play in question wasn’t an easy catch, but an NFL wide receiver with two hands on the ball and no contact from a defender should catch the football.
- Slayton couldn’t fight his way back to catch a 50-50 ball on a flea flicker from Dart. Yes, the ball was late. Yes, the ball was underthrown. There was still a chance for Slayton to make a play the Giants needed. He did not.
- To add injury to insult, Slayton left the game with a hamstring injury.
Jalin Hyatt played 34 snaps. He did not catch a pass. The Giants ignored him on offense until desperation time in the fourth quarter when he was targeted three times, resulting in an interception and two long, futile deep throws he could not make plays on. Hyatt averaged a miniscule 0.9 yards of separation, per NextGen Stats.
Beaux Collins played 28 snaps. He caught one pass in three targets for 7 yards. He had two hands on a third-and-3 pass that fell incomplete. He also caused an interception by stopping on a route while Dart threw the ball where he expected Collins to get to. Similar miscommunications involving Collins led to a pair of interceptions in the preseason. The rookie undrafted free agent isn’t a reliable option at this point. He also had a holding penalty.
It is clear they don’t trust Hyatt, and can’t trust Collins.
Below, look at all the negative Expected Points Added (EPA) numbers from NextGen Stats for the wide receivers on Sunday:
What do the Giants do now?
Truthfully, they don’t have a lot of good options.
They can start by doing something they should have done prior to Sunday’s game against the Saints — signing Lil’Jordan Humphrey to the active roster off their practice squad.
It was surprising that with two open spots on their 53-man roster after putting Nabers on IR and waiving edge defender Tomon Fox, that the Giants did not add Humphrey to the roster prior to Sunday.
Humphrey is not a game-changer. He is, though, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound player with 62 career catches — 31 of those last season for the Denver Broncos. He is a big body who can help in the red zone and contested catch situations, and has enough experience that Dart should be able to trust him to be where he is expected to be.
The only real reason for not adding Humphrey to the roster is the reality that the Giants had just a league-worst $1.6 million in cap space entering the game, and felt the need to save money was more important that helping the roster. That is an indictment of the team’s cap management under GM Joe Schoen.
What else can the Giants do?
Again, probably not a lot. They worked out four wide receivers on Friday. One of them, Samori Toure, signed on Monday with the Denver Broncos.
Isaiah Hodgins, who caught 33 passes for the Giants in eight games in 2022 before getting buried on the depth chart below even Hyatt the past two seasons, is on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ practice squad. Hodgins knows the offense, and can at least properly run routes and catch the ball when it is thrown to him. Honestly, it remains difficult to understand why he so quickly fell out of favor while with the Giants, anyway.
Gabe Davis, who had success with the Buffalo Bills while Brian Daboll was the team’s offensive coordinator, is currently on the Bills’ practice squad. Davis, a 6-2, 225-pound 26-year-old, has 183 career catches for an average of 16.2 yards per reception.
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