The New York Giants underwent significant changes this offseason in the hopes of getting back to winning football. It’s been a minute since this team was watchable, let alone good, but after major additions via free agency and the draft, this roster is in a much better place than it was a year ago—and that’s a great place to start.
No position group saw more change than the quarterback room, with Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston, and rookie Jaxson Dart now occupying the top three spots on the depth chart. Just about everyone can agree the offense should be better. Scoring more than 16 points per game shouldn’t be too much to ask. But while the QB situation looks totally different, the rest of the offensive core remains largely untouched.
The G-Men will be led by the same top three receivers, the same tight end, and the same lead back they had last year—and that’s where the shine of the offseason starts to fade. ESPN’s Bill Barnwell is firmly in the camp that this group of skill players just doesn’t move the needle, slotting the Giants 26th in his rankings of every team’s non-quarterback offensive playmakers.
Malik Nabers can only do so much to shoulder the Giants' offense
Barnwell's analysis starts and ends with one player: Malik Nabers. And it should. He's the focal point of the offense and the de facto performance leader of the playmakers. He had high praise for the soon-to-be 22-year-old, calling him "the most dynamic receiver the organization has put on the field since the early days of Odell Beckham Jr."
However, it's the further look under the hood where Big Blue loses Barnwell:
"Beyond Nabers, there's not a ton. Darius Slayton's ability to win deep has been marginalized in an offense that didn't often throw deep with Daniel Jones, and the veteran averaged just 1.2 yards per route run last season. Wan'Dale Robinson has almost exclusively been limited to a gadget role, averaging a league-low 5.0 yards per target in 2024. Rookie tight end Theo Johnson came in at 1.0 yards per route run and seemed to struggle trying to catch passes in the flat, although he did have a couple of big gains up the seam in the midseason on throws that might be featured more often with the Giants' new quarterbacks," Barnwell wrote.
"Running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. was thrust into an impossible position as Saquon Barkley's replacement and had a quietly solid season with one significant problem: five fumbles, which likely gave the Giants pause as they decided whether to hand the job over to him on a full-time basis this offseason."
So basically, it's Nabers... and pretty much nothing else. That's not all that shocking, to be honest. Slayton still doesn't have an 800-yard receiving season through six years. Robinson can catch all the balls he wants, but if he’s only going three yards downfield, it won't move the needle. Johnson showed some late signs of potential production at tight end, while Tracy Jr. did an admirable—yet impossible—job of filling in for Saquon Barkley.
The only real addition to the playmakers group is rookie Cam Skattebo, who might just have enough juice to push the offense out of its funk.
Either way, this offense has to improve if this team’s going to make any noise—and if head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen want to keep their jobs. It'll be impossible not to improve over whatever last year was, but the G-Men are going to need some of these guys to step up to get some belief and good energy going their way.