Given his experience with Matt Nagy, veteran receiver Darnell Mooney always felt like a perfect signing for the New York Giants.
Mooney played for Nagy in Chicago, and the Giants needed to add a veteran starting-caliber receiver this past spring. After a relatively quiet performance during offseason workouts, Mooney has emerged as a reliable target for Jaxson Dart throughout training camp.
And while teammates are still learning Nagy’s playbook, Mooney has the obvious leg up thanks to their previous two seasons together.
“He’s got some new plays, but everything’s kind of picking up speed from familiarity,” Mooney said this week.
How confident should the New York Giants feel about Darnell Mooney?
There are plenty of reasons for cynicism about Mooney, who battled collarbone and hamstring injuries last season. He’s surpassed 500 yards just once since the start of 2022, and his 2.1 receptions per game tied for the worst of his six-year career.
Mooney also has age slightly working against him, as he turns 29 in October. Then again, he’s still younger than Odell Beckham Jr. and Braxton Berrios, both of whom are competing for a roster spot. JuJu Smith-Schuster will celebrate his 30th birthday in November, though he’s widely considered a bubble player.
Barring injury, Mooney should crack the Week 1 roster. The Giants already guaranteed him $3 million, so cutting him is pointless. Even if he’s a rotational receiver at best, he’s a veteran with over 300 catches and 4,000 yards to his name. Malik Nabers and Darius Slayton’s respective injury histories ideally mean that a team like the Giants wants multiple experienced backups at their disposal.
That said, it’s hard to get overly excited about Mooney right now. Even with all that is working in his favor, there’s a foreboding feeling that he won’t be a significant difference-maker. The expectation is that tight ends Isaiah Likely and Theo Johnson will heavily factor into the passing game, and Nabers is trending toward playing in Week 1.
Mooney profiles as the No. 3 option who could surpass Slayton if the latter continues to struggle with drops. DeAndre Hopkins had 22 catches for 330 yards and two touchdowns as a secondary option for John Harbaugh and the Ravens last year. Granted, Hopkins has a few years on Mooney, but a similar statistical output from the latter shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Giants fans will get their first semi-meaningful look at Mooney against the Vikings in Saturday’s preseason opener. It is unclear how much he’ll play, though he’s expected to at least share the field with Dart.
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