New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning will have a number of new options to work with in 2017. General manager Jerry Reese discussed them.
The New York Giants have made a number of significant changes to what ranked amongst the worst offenses in the NFL in 2016. After ranking No. 25 in total yardage and No. 26 in points per game, the Giants were in desperate need of help.
General manager Jerry Reese made a concerted effort to improve the offense, but some fans are still confused by the moves he made.
New York added All-Pro wide receiver Brandon Marshall and tight end Rhett Ellison in free agency, and later drafted tight end Evan Engram. All three moves offer reason for intrigue, but all were received with some measure of skepticism.
According to Jordan Raanan of ESPN’s NFL Nation, Reese recently appeared on The Michael Kay Show on 98.7 ESPN New York and discussed the Giants’ new weapons.
"“Brandon gave us a big guy that Eli likes. That big red-zone guy. He’s been around. The guy has made six Pro Bowls, I believe. He knows all the tricks of the trade and he’s a big man…So we have a big receiver, we have a slot receiver in [Sterling] Shepard, we have speed on the outside and a dynamic outside receiver in Odell [Beckham Jr.], we have a blocking tight that in Rhett Ellison that we got in free agency and we have a super-fast tight end who can get down the field in Engram.”"
When Reese contextualizes his moves, it becomes significantly easier to both justify and understand the direction of the offense.
By adding Marshall to a receiving corps that already includes Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard, the Giants now have size at wide receiver. Beckham is more than capable of going up and winning a jump ball, but he’s still a 5’11” wideout.
Marshall, meanwhile, is a 6’4″ and 230-pound force of nature who can physically overwhelm defensive backs, a la Plaxico Burress.
The move that was heavily criticized, however, was the Giants’ decision to sign tight end Rhett Ellison.
Ellison is a quality blocker, but he’s a relative non-factor in the passing attack. The selection of Evan Engram helps better explain the decision to sign Ellison, as it creates an ideal balance at a previous position of weakness.
The question is: will Jerry Reese’s plan work out for Eli Manning and company during the 2017 NFL regular season?
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The New York Giants can’t be much worse on offense than they were in 2016, but progress will be nothing short of vital to the Super Bowl aspirations.