NY Giants roster: Depth options at wide receiver in 2021
The NY Giants’ top four receivers will likely see most of the action on offense, provided they stay healthy, but that’s not to say other receivers can’t be integral to the success of the team as well.
Special teams has long been a way for players who may be lower on the depth chart to make a name for themselves. Additionally, one would have to assume head coach Joe Judge sees the importance of special teams at a heightened level, considering he is a former special teams coach.
Options for the Giants to round out the receiver position include Dante Pettis, John Ross, C.J. Board, Austin Mack, Alex Bachman, David Sills V, Derrick Dillion and Kelvin Benjamin.
Of the above, Mack logged the most offensive snaps for New York in 2020 with 192, followed by Board with 169 and Pettis with 49. Bachman also received one offensive snap for the Giants.
Sills was placed on injured reserve last year after fracturing his foot, and Dillion spent most of his rookie year on the practice squad. Additionally, Board received 81 special teams snaps, the most of the aforementioned bunch.
As for Ross and Benjamin, they are in a bit of a different situation than the rest of the group. Both players are former first-round draft picks who have found moderate success with the teams that drafted them, but have since moved on.
Ross put himself on the map by breaking the record for the fastest 40-yard dash ever recorded at the NFL Combine in 2017 with a 4.22 sprint. He was later drafted ninth overall by the Cincinnati Bengals that same year and went on to play four seasons with them. His best season, statistically, was in 2019 where he collected 28 receptions for 506 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns over eight games.
For Benjamin, he is attempting to make an NFL comeback after not playing in the league for the past two years. The 6-foot-5 receiver was drafted 28th overall in 2014 by current Giants general manager Dave Gettleman when he was with the Carolina Panthers, and Benjamin his career off with a 1,000-yard season his rookie year.
In his career thus far, Benjamin has tallied 3,021 receiving yards and 20 receiving touchdowns in 52 games. Judge has been quoted before by Vinny Somma that Benjamin could see time as a “flex tight end,” in addition to his role as a receiver, and explained how he didn’t want to “pin him down to any one position.”
Clearly, the Giants have options to choose from, and it likely won’t be an easy decision to make.