Why Giants and Kenny Golladay need to try to make it work

It was among the most obvious observable observations from the first half of the Giants season. This team wasn’t without its flaws — despite how good that 6-2 record looked — and among the more pressing needs seemed to be out wide.

The NFL trade deadline presented an opportunity for first-year general manager Joe Schoen to add a receiver in theory, but because of the team’s current cap restraint, there was nothing he could do. So, as the Giants return from the bye and are ready for this Sunday’s game against the Texans, the only reinforcement coming is off the injury report — Kenny Golladay.

That’s good news if Golladay can be even half the player he was with the Lions.

It’s a moot point if the one who rejoins the Giants is no different than the guy who left them four weeks ago.

You can criticize ex-GM Dave Gettleman for many — many — things during his torturous four-year tenure in New York. The decision to sign Golladay is a bit of revisionist history, though. The Giants desperately needed a No. 1 receiver for quarterback Daniel Jones. Golladay fit the bill and was seemingly the best option available. It’s easy to forget this, but Golladay caught 135 passes for 2,253 yards and 16 touchdowns from 2018 through 2019. He still managed 20 catches for 338 yards and two touchdowns in an injury-shortened (five games) 2020.

He seemed worthy of that four-year, $72-million deal at the time.

The problem is that the Giants haven’t gotten what they’ve paid for.

There’s a belief that Golladay’s struggles in New York to this point (39 catches for 543 yards and zero touchdowns in 16 games) are effort based. Watch him blocking and you can tell that couldn’t be further from the truth. Golladay doesn’t take plays off or take the field with a cavalier attitude. Physically it just doesn’t seem to be there anymore.

Golladay was never among the more elusive or speedy receivers in the league. He was always a player who out-physicaled cornerbacks. The Giants saw him as their 2021 version of Plaxico Burress. The difference between Burress when he signed with the Giants, and Golladay now, is that Burress still had enough speed to separate. Golladay — who had a subpar 4.50-second, 40-yard dash at the 2017 NFL Combine — has clearly lost more than a few steps. At no point has he resembled the player he was before suffering the hip injury that sidelined him for the majority of the 2020 season.

During Golladay’s three seasons in Detroit, his total EPA (per NFL’s NextGen stats), sat at a 54.8 (2018), 43.5 (2019) and 21.1 (2020). His marks in New York have been dismal — negative-4.4 (2021) and negative-3.3 (2022). He’s also experienced career lows in target separation.

You don’t need analytics to hammer that point home, though. The eyeball test told the story just as well. It wasn’t that Golladay was failing to get open because he was lollygagging through his routes. He couldn’t get open because he … physically couldn’t seem to get open.

That’s among the reasons the Giants began to move on from Golladay well before he suffered his knee injury. He caught just two passes for 22 yards the first four games of this season — none since the opener against the Titans. Part of that had to do with Golladay playing just two offensive snaps Week 2 against the Panthers, but he was on the field plenty against the Cowboys (24) and Bears (27). Jones threw his way four times. He completed none.

Unlike Gettleman and Joe Judge, this regime has no ties to Golladay. They don’t feel inclined to force it to work when they don’t feel it will. That’s part of the reason the team began to turn to players like David Sills even when Golladay was healthy. Jason Garrett, the Giants’ last offensive coordinator, wanted physical guys outside. Brian Daboll wants pristine route runners who are elusive and quick.

But with the Giants needing weapons now, they have no choice but to try to make it work once Golladay is healthy. It looks as if that time is now.

Golladay said earlier this week he began to feel himself again just before and during the Giants bye. He practiced in a limited capacity on Tuesday and Wednesday, then Daboll said on Friday that he was optimistic Golladay would play against the Texans. The expectation, both Golladay and Daboll have said, is for him to return.

It’s never a bad thing to have another body at a position decimated by injuries.

But the Giants need Golladay to turn back the clock to his time in Detroit if they actually want him to make a difference.