The mail’s here!
Spencer Gross asks: Whatever happened to Bellinger? Is he no longer a piece for the future?
Ed says: Spencer, I waited until after Thursday’s game to answer this. We saw more of the same, with rookie tight end Theo Johnson getting the majority of the playing time.
Here is what I think is happening. The Giants see what Daniel Bellinger is, and they see that he is a perfectly adequate player. When they look at Johnson they see a bigger, faster, more athletic player with upside to become far more what Bellinger is. Problem is, to get there he has to play. So, he plays a lot of Bellinger’s snaps. On top of which, they see veteran Chris Manhertz as a better pure blocker than Bellinger. So, Manhertz gets a lot of those snaps. So, Bellinger’s playing time is taking hits from two directions.
Brian asks: With the depth of the WR room, Slayton seems like the most likely candidate to be testing the trade waters with. It’s hard not to look at a team like San Fran and think they must be looking for receiver help.
Ed says: Brian, I talked about this in a recent story. Darius Slayton is a good player — right now a better player than Jalin Hyatt. That’s why Slayton is playing a lot more snaps than Hyatt. Thing is, Slayton is also the Giants’ most valuable potential trade chip. He is also a free agent at the end of the season.
There is a good argument to be made that the Giants should go ahead and trade Slayton at the deadline to both build draft capital and clear snaps for Hyatt. If we reach the NFL trade deadline and the Giants don’t think they are legitimate playoff contenders, trading Slayton would make sense.
James Adams asks: I feel like the Giants are missing an opportunity with Hyatt. From everything Daboll has said it’s clear they want Hyatt to be a complete receiver and refine his route tree. But they don’t seem to utilize one skill that he is elite at which is taking the top off the defense. Why aren’t the Giants utilizing his speed while he works on his route running?
Ed says: James, we have talked about this several times. If Hyatt plays, somebody else isn’t play. Who is that going to be?
As I said above, the reality is Darius Slayton is a better player right now than Hyatt. He is also a guy Daniel Jones trusts. The Giants have a star No. 1 wide receiver in Malik Nabers. He is playing every snap, as he should. Wan’Dale Robinson is a really good slot receiver. That means that whenever the Giants use three wide receivers, they have to choose between Slayton and Hyatt.
The other reality is that the Giants have frequently used heavy personnel with two tight ends. That’s how you run an under-the-center, play-action heavy offense — and it is what the Giants have leaned into so far.
The Giants have played 268 offensive snaps thus far. Their three tight ends — Theo Johnson, Chris Manhertz, Daniel Bellinger — have been on the field for 373 combined snaps. Fullback Jakob Johnson has played 12 snaps. That makes 385 combined snaps for extra blockers, meaning either two tight ends or a tight end and a fullback have been on the field 117 of 268 snaps (43.6%).
That means there aren’t a lot of snaps for the fourth wide receiver on the depth chart. It’s just how it is. And, as I keep saying, one of the reasons why Slayton might be on the trade block in a few weeks.
Doug Mollin asks: What do you think of Deonte Banks’ play so far after three weeks?
2023 was a mixed bag learning curve like almost every rookie CB as his 51.5 PFF grade would attest.
This year he’s in a new defensive system that maybe doesn’t play to his strengths as much as Wink’s system did? His grade is not much different so far (49.0). He’s had to face some impressive WR1s so far, but that is what CB1’s have to do.
Are you confident he can grow into a legit CB1 by season end? Or might that be on the shopping list next season?
Ed says: Doug, like with the Bellinger question I waited until after the Week 4 to answer this. I think Banks is a good young player who just isn’t ready for the role of No. 1 cornerback the Giants have to ask him to play. He may never be really ready for that — at least not in terms of becoming a shut down guy against the best receiver from opposing teams.
If Banks was playing opposite Trevon Diggs, Denzel Ward, Sauce Gardner, Patrick Surtain or any of the players considered to be true No. 1 cornerbacks, I think you would love what he can do. In my view, he is just over his skis traveling with the best wide receivers in the league. The Giants, though, don’t have a choice. They don’t have a better option.
Andre Banks asks: A sixth-round pick for Bryce Young. Possibility? Any upside there?
Ed says: Andre, we wrote about this a week or so ago. I suppose it is a possibility. I am not in favor of it. Neither are the vast majority of those who voted in our poll. With the right coach, in the right scheme, with the right personnel around him there might be upside. He’s small and a limited athlete. I don’t see it.
We have arrived at the Daniel Jones deep ball section.
Steve Alessandrini asks: Tough loss. Jones was accurate on short and intermediate throws and played a smart game. Something that’s really troubling though is his inability to get the deep ball out ahead of the receivers. I counted at least 3 instances (maybe 4) where Slayton or Nabers got behind the secondary and he just flat out under threw it. Is he late on the throws or does he just not possess the arm strength to hit the deep ball.
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Jeff Jacobs asks: My question is about Daniel Jones. Now that he has a representative line in front of him, and a legit receiver corps around him not to digress but why is Jalin Hyatt been rendered invisible and inconsequential?) , Jones’ biggest flaw is coming into focus – his accuracy, or lack thereof. How many times do we see balls behind the receiver, or (like Nabers’ big catch last night) receivers waiting for the ball? He never seems to throw the receiver open, his them in stride or put the ball in front of his receivers. Do you have any statistical data to confirm what I’m seeing? How does Jones compare to the rest of the league in this area? Assuming Jones stays healthy for the rest of the season, I think this factor may be a major reason the Giants move on from him.
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Jim Pauloski asks: In watching Daniel Jones this season, it seems like he’s consistently underthrowing the long passes. It’s like he’s waiting too long to throw. Am I wrong?
Ed says: I think we have written a number of times that Jones is struggling with the deep ball. He has missed some long. Thursday night, he missed some short. Here is what I wrote Friday:
Jones is just 3 of 15 (20%) on passes 20 or more yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Among quarterbacks with at least nine attempts of 20 or more yards, only Chicago Bears rookie Caleb Williams (3 of 19, 15.8%) has been worse. Per Pro Football Focus, Jones has only two ‘big-time throws’ in four games.
The first couple of weeks, Jones overthrew some deep targets. Thursday, his deep targets — even one completed to Nabers for 39 yards — were underthrown.
“I just thought he under threw a couple (Thursday night),” Daboll said. “He didn’t put enough into it. We’ll just keep working on it.”
There can be a variety of reasons for a missed throw — there is no one size fits all answer. Eli Manning used to say every interception has a story. I think the same holds true with these misses by Jones.
They are a problem. Right now, they are holding Jones back from being something more than an adequate, middle-tier quarterback. And, they are holding back the Giants’ offense.
John Brenner asks: Admittedly, I did not watch the whole game, but I did see enough to notice WanDale Robinson seemed underwhelming. Is that a fair assessment?
I saw two drops, and I saw the big third down play where he had a chance to get into the end zone and was tackled by a hustling Dallas player at the 3-yard line. Both Malik Nabers and Daniel Jones seemed surprised that he did not score. So am I being too hard on the guy? Is there a case here to start seeing more of Jalin Hyatt and less of Robinson?
Ed says: Yes, John, I think you are being too hard on the guy. Robinson is a good player. He had one bad drop, and one 50-50 catch he had knocked away. He doesn’t average a lot per catch, but he does a good job making defenders miss and getting the most out of the short balls the Giants generally throw him.
Robinson is the Giants’ second-best receiver after Nabers. As for Hyatt, he is an outside receiver and Robinson is a slot. They are vastly different players who don’t play the same position.
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