Daniel Jones and the NY Giants offense have been a disappointment through the first half of the season
The NY Giants’ offense has been one of the biggest disappointments, and storylines of the NFL season’s first seven games.
Entering next Monday’s game against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Daniel Jones and the NY Giants’ offense has been among the most inept in the league.
The Giants’ offense ranks 31st in total offense, averaging just 282.4 yards per game, 28th in passing offense, averaging 184.3 yards per game, and 31st in scoring, averaging only 17.4 points per game.
In an era of pinball offenses led by elite duel-threat quarterbacks, the Giants’ offense has struggled to find any sort of identity, either as a big-play aerial attack or a ground and pound yard churning machine.
What has gone wrong? Who has stepped up? Scroll through for a look at who the Giants’ five best offensive players have been through the first seven games, using Pro Football Focus rankings and our analysis:
1) QB Daniel Jones
77.7 Pro Football Focus overall grade
Jones currently pacing the Giants’ offense as its highest-graded player is kind of emblematic of how much this group has struggled through the first seven weeks.
Despite currently ranking 24th in the league with 1,410 passing yards, tossing just five touchdowns, which is the 3rd fewest in the NFL, seven interceptions, and having the 22nd ranked quarterback rating at 60.6, somehow Jones is the Giants’ most dominant offensive player.
Turnovers continue to dog the second-year quarterback, who now has more turnovers (23) than games started (20). It’s nearly impossible to be competitive in the NFL with a quarterback with such a propensity for tuning the ball over.
PFF lists Jones as the No. 17th ranked quarterback in the league.
In fairness to Jones, the Giants’ offensive line has fallen dramatically short of expectations, despite drafting Andrew Thomas No. 4 overall and acquiring Kevin Zeitler via a trade with the Browns last spring, and losing Saquon Barkley for the season with a torn ACL back in Week 2 certainly has had a negative impact on Jones’ development.
However, at 1-6, and given the only things consistent about Jones at the moment are his ability to break off a big run (he leads the Giants with 296 rushing yards) and giving the ball away at inopportune times, this season feels far more like an audition than an affirmation that Jones can develop into an elite franchise quarterback.
2) WR Darius Slayton
75.1 Pro Football Focus overall grade
Jones’ favorite target in the passing game since they both arrived as rookies last spring, Slayton hasn’t just emerged as the Giants’ leading receiver, but also the offense’s only consistent game-altering weapon.
Slayton has caught 27 passes in 45 targets for 429 yards and three touchdowns. He’s currently on pace to catch 61 passes for 980 yards and six touchdowns , which would be a significant step forward in each statistical category other than touchdowns from his output as a fifth-round rookie in 2019.
With apologies to Dexter Lawrence, consistently among the Giants’ most dominant and disruptive defenders, Slayton might be the best overall selection made during Dave Gettleman’s tenure as general manager.
At issue for the Giants is that Slayton can’t be the only reliable weapon in Jones’ arsenal for this offense to be effective. It is fair to wonder even how much more productive Slayton would have the potential to be, if the Giants had another deep threat lined up opposite him, possibly acquired ahead of next week’s trade deadline.
3) WR Sterling Shepard
74.8 Pro Football Focus overall grade
Despite only being healthy for two-plus games, Shepard has more than proved his value to Jones and the Giants’ offense when he has been on the field.
Shepard has caught 14 of his 18 targets, proving his reliability, for 135 yards and one touchdown.
PFF points out that Jones has a nearly perfect 116.4 passer rating when targeting Shepard, who is averaging 9.6 yards per catch, and 3.1 yards after the catch per reception.
After putting his battle with turf toe behind him, if Shepard can manage to stay healthy the rest of the season, it could be a significant boost both for the offense overall and Jones’ development over the final nine games.
4) TE Kaden Smith
69.4 Pro Football Focus overall grade
Despite being paid significantly less than Evan Engram and being on the field for fewer snaps, Smith has done a significantly better job as a blocker and far more consistent in the passing game, catching 10 of his 12 targets for 61 yards.
Whether the Giants wind up trading Engram, who is off to the more disappointing start to a season in his career, but still could fetch a day-three pick in the NFL Draft, a current GM tells GMenHQ, or Engram remains on the roster, Smith deserves more playing time over the past nine weeks.
The front office had high expectations for Smith entering this season, and he’s delivered.
5) WR C.J. Board
63.3 Pro Football Focus overall grade
It sort of speaks to the general ineptitude of the Giants’ offense that Board, a bottom of the depth chart receiver, is among the team’s highest-graded offensive players.
Board has been active for six games, and caught seven of his 11 targets for 66 yards.
As the Giants have struggled with injuries and ineptitude at receiver, Board has carved out a bit of a niche, but with Shepard back in the fold it wouldn’t be surprising of Board’s role is reduced to special teams the rest of the season.
Honorable mention: OT Matt Peart
Peart, the Giants’ third-round pick in April’s NFL Draft, hasn’t played enough snaps to qualify as one of the highest-graded players at his position, but he has actually been the Giants’ highest graded player so far.
Appearing in 49 offensive snaps, Peart has a team-best 80.4 offensive overall grade from Pro Football Focus.
Peart has been downright dominant as a run-blocker, garnering a 90 run-blocking grade, which is nearly 26 points higher than Andrew Thomas, the next-highest graded Giants’ lineman in run-blocking. While he has gone through some growing pains in pass protection, allowing two pressures, Peart has outperformed Thomas, who has given up an astonishingly high and team-worst 36.
If Thomas continues to struggle, or if the Giants reach a point where they are truly out of contention, it would be prudent to get Peart more meaningful snaps at right tackle replacing Cam Fleming or even over Thomas.
Matt Lombardo is the site expert for GMenHQ, and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday for FanSided. Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL.