The Giants took a long look at themselves this offseason, as they fell to 3-14 and haven’t had almost anything to be optimistic about since 2022. They let **Daniel Jones** walk — mostly because they didn’t want to pay him in the event that he got hurt — before the 2024 season ended.
And, well, that was about it. There were no bold moves. There were sensible, best-player available strategies in the draft. There were reasonable second-contract signings in free agency. But the gist of this is that the Giants are entering the fourth year of the **Brian Daboll**/**Joe Schoen** era and didn’t make a major course change. Everything looks and feels bad, and also **Jaxson Dart** could perform well enough towards the end of the season to maybe convince ownership that everything is actually alright. But if he doesn’t, there’s not a lot going on here to generate optimism.
Kinda makes you think maybe they should have pulled the plug on the coach and general manager. Oh well!
**New York Giants 2024 Stats (RANK)**
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**Points per game:** 16.1 (31st)
**Total yards per game:** 294.8 (30th)
**Plays per game:** 62.5 (14th)
**Dropbacks per game:** 42.8 (7th)
**Dropback EPA per play:** -0.07 (31st)
**Rush attempts per game:** 24.9 (25th)
**Rush EPA per play:** -0.12 (21st)
**Passing yards per game:** 189.9 (28th)
**Rush yards per game:** 104.9 (23rd)
**Turnovers per Game:** 1.4 (22nd)
**EPA per play:** -0.09 (28th)
The punishing, punishing volume
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**Malik Nabers**, it goes without saying, was a major fantasy threat immediately. From Week 2 to Week 4, he generated 30 catches, 320 yards, and three touchdowns. Had he been healthy for the entirety of the season, Nabers likely would have finished with nearly 200 targets.
But he wasn’t healthy. Nabers is dealing with a nagging, long-term toe injury in the lead up to training camp. (Daboll has said he’s unconcerned about the toe.) Nabers took a major concussion against the Cowboys in Week 4, dealt with a groin injury in October and November, a hip flexor injury in December, and was listed with the earlier-referenced toe on the injury report in January. This didn’t quite reach **Terron Armstead** levels of comical where the offensive tackle would sometimes be listed on the report with three or four different injuries at once, but it was inauspicious.
One of the major issues that both NFL teams and fantasy managers deal with is figuring out how many NFL hits one player can take. In fantasy circles that has tended to generally be the label “injury-prone,” and in NFL circles that has tended to be more centered on what a player’s body looks like and how much punishment it can absorb. I’ve tended to think both sides of that approach are a little reductionist. **Julio Jones** and **Nico Collins** are good examples of incredible NFL bodies who missed plenty of games in their career while **Steve Smith** was durable at 5-foot-9. In fantasy, if you picked **Christian McCaffrey** in the right year, you didn’t actually care about his injury history.
I lead with this in the discussion to say: I can truly see a wide array of outcomes for Nabers, but I think he has to be in the first tier of wideouts this year based on his rookie year production. Perhaps you look at the quarterback situation and are scared by that — did you realize that Nabers was terrific with last year’s terrible Giants quarterbacks? I would be lying if I told you that this toe injury didn’t put a little fear into me as I stroll to the board to put Nabers up on it — but he did play through it in the end of the season. The only thing that actually worries me is the fear that Nabers has so little competition for targets that he’s simply going to be punished by defenses as he was last year. The wideout depth chart is essentially unchanged from last year, the coaching is unchanged outside of the possibility that **Mike Kafka** takes over play calling. If you think Daboll isn’t going to feed one of the best ways he has to let John Mara understand he knows what he’s doing, well ... I have a late first-round quarterback to sell you.
I just find Nabers’ talent and target share inescapable in drafts despite the injuries. We’re very focused on how good **Brian Thomas** can be this year for the Jaguars, but Nabers was better and somehow seems to be undersold in comparison in 2025. With less target competition!
Passing game
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**QB:** Russell Wilson, Jaxson Dart, Jameis Winston
**WR:** Malik Nabers, Zach Pascal
**WR:** Darius Slayton, Jalin Hyatt
**WR:** Wan’Dale Robinson, Ihmir Smith-Marsette
**TE:** Theo Johnson, Chris Manhertz
Here’s a quarterback competition that exists. I tend to think the Giants would have a better and more explosive passing game if they started **Jameis Winston** rather than **Russell Wilson**. Nobody asked me. All three quarterbacks have a chance to play this year, but Wilson is going to be the main character at the start of the season. Wilson was ... fine(?) for the Steelers last year. He’s not a real threat to emerge as a QB1 in fantasy football, but the Giants should have him throwing more than the Steelers did. Middle-pack QB2 shouldn’t be completely dismissed from Wilson’s range of outcomes, but the problem he has that keeps him well outside of the top 20 is the looming threat to his job.
At some point this year, Dart will get a chance. It is an inescapable fact. The Giants braintrust needs him to look good or — failing that — at least show some scraps of promise. Whether that happens in Week 6 or Week 10 or Week 14 is anybody’s guess at this point. But Dart will get a chance. I think he’s got more promise than the draft slot would lead you to believe, but there will probably be learning games interspersed with low-end QB1 results if he gets an extended run. Dart wasn’t a complete non-factor as a runner in college, though he probably won’t go as hard as **Drake Maye** did.
**Darius Slayton** was finally given a chance to flee the Giants this offseason and somehow didn’t. Yes, after years of trade rumors. Yes, after he was continually held back from the starting lineup. The Giants ponied up enough to keep him. There’s a non-zero chance Slayton will connect better with Wilson’s moonball rather than Jones’ stare-into-the-void sacks on called deep passes. We probably don’t need to approach Slayton as a WR3 or even a WR4 at this point, but he’s worth keeping on the monitor list in redraft leagues.
Let’s talk about **Wan’Dale Robinson**. Here’s a list of receivers listed by least fantasy points gained with more than 130 targets:
Is this a good list to appear on? No. Is it funny that Robinson is petitioning for more work downfield? Yes. Is he the world’s reigning best PPR scam? Eat it **Peter Warrick**. We don’t think Robinson has real fantasy upside this year, but he’s the closest thing to a “reliable second target” we can come up with for this offense. Can he hold off **Travis Kelce** for the PPR scam crown? That’s what you’re hoping for when you’re forced to plug him into your lineup in Week 6.
**Jalin Hyatt** has shown little in his first two NFL seasons. Perhaps it will be different with Wilson instead of Jones, ala earlier analysis about Slayton, but Hyatt was described as “mentally checked out” by SNY’s Connor Hughes in a report about what held Hyatt back last season. We’d be a little surprised if he emerged as a real force even with playing time.
At tight end, **Theo Johnson** managed 23 targets in his final four games before he was placed on season-ending IR. That doesn’t mean he’s got TE1 upside or anything, but he is a reasonable fill-in for a bye week or injury so long as he’s healthy.
NFL QBs who are on the hot seat entering 2025
From Justin Fields and Tua Tagovailoa to Russell Wilson, Mike Florio spells out which QBs have to step up or step out next season.
Running Game
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**RB**: Tyrone Tracy Jr., Cam Skattebo, Devin Singletary
**OL (L-R)**: Andrew Thomas, Jon Runyan, John Michael Schmitz, Greg Van Roten, Jermaine Eluemunor
The buzz from the early offseason saw **Cam Skattebo** as a potential third-round back for the Giants. If that comes to pass, it’s a move that could quash the value of **Tyrone Tracy Jr**. — Tracy had blocking issues last year. It is at the very least worth mentioning that Tracy’s snap share faltered down the stretch. From Weeks 5-14, Tracy carried 69.7 percent of the snaps and had individual game shares over 80 percent three times. Over the final month of the season — a time when many rebuilding teams are trying to figure out their young players — Tracy’s snap share fell to 64.4 percent and he managed just 175 scoreless rushing yards on 51 carries.
Daboll did show a predilection towards using **Saquon Barkley** as the main back in huge doses before Barkley became an Eagles hero, but Barkley was also an obvious franchise back by any subjective impression. Tracy is a second-year fifth-round pick. We don’t think he ran poorly last year, but the Giants gave a lot of signs towards the end of last season and via the selection of Skattebo that they believe his ceiling is “head of a committee” and we should probably draft him with that in mind.
**Devin Singletary** was the main hedge last year, but it’s possible that he loses most of his role to Skattebo. Skattebo’s potential control of the third-down role for a team that projects to lose many games is intriguing. While it would be hard to imagine him seizing the role in a Barkley-esque way, there are upside cases where Skattebo delivers an RB2 season even with a slow start. He’s definitely the better pick of the two in dynasty formats.
The Giants offensive line is not terrible — it would help if **Andrew Thomas** could make it a full season without getting hurt — but it also isn’t roundly good. JMS taking a step forward in his second year would be roundly helpful, as the rest of the unit is veteran stopgaps and the final year of Evan Neal’s soon-to-be-discarded contract. **James Hudson** is the veteran swing tackle the Giants brought in to help cover for Thomas if he misses games for a third consecutive season.
New York Giants 2025 win total
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One of the lowest lines on the board at 5.5, you do get a little juice with plus-115 odds to go over that total. The problem for the Giants is ... I don’t see who in their division they should project to be beating yet. They can’t really run on the Cowboys, and they certainly aren’t equipped to handle last year’s NFC Championship finalists. The defense has improved, but it hasn’t improved _that_ much. It still has a weak secondary and a coordinator without much history of success in Shane Bowen.
The rebuild could look a lot better in a few years, but for now, this appears to be an outfit that I’d gladly take the under on.