Joe Judge has said that a big part of the Giants’ bye week will be spent doing a “self scout”, or an evaluation of things that worked and things that didn’t in the first half of the season. An argument could be made that more didn’t work than did — that’s how you get to a 3-6 record at the season’s halfway point.
“It’s a volume of things,” Judge said. “There are a lot of things we’ve done well and things we’ve got to correct.”
The Giants play the Buccaneers in Tampa coming out of the bye, in a Monday night matchup on Nov. 22. Between now and then, the Giants will get plenty of time to rest up, heal up and self-evaluate the first half of the season.
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We went through every notable Giants player on the roster and evaluated how they played in the first nine games:
QUARTERBACK
Daniel Jones: Going purely off numbers, it’d be hard to argue that Jones has been much better than he was in 2020. He only has eight passing touchdowns in nine games, putting him on pace for 15 in 17 games. He’s only thrown three red zone touchdowns, and already has 11 turnovers — putting him on track to surpass the 16 turnovers he had in 14 games last year. His 228.8 passing yards per game ranks 24th. All of that is obviously not good enough. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.
He’s been limited by his offensive line (what else is new?) and the health of his weapons (again, what else is new?) and yet outside of a couple of clunkers (Rams, Chiefs losses) Jones has usually been OK, sometimes good-to-great. That’s despite his receivers having the second-most drops (18) in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus.
That isn’t exactly a rave, but it’s progress. Remove that Week 6 game against the Rams, and PFF has him ranked the 12th-best QB in the league. If Jason Garrett can get back to letting Jones throw deep more often the rest of the way, he’ll be better for it. He’s also been impressive (258 rushing yards, two touchdowns) as a runner again. These last eight games will help determine if he should be the long-term QB.
Mike Glennon: Luckily, he hasn’t had to play much other than when Jones suffered a concussion against the Cowboys. He was serviceable enough, but the Giants are obviously better off if they never have to play him.
RUNNING BACK/FULLBACK
Saquon Barkley: It’d be hard to call it anything other than a disappointment for Barkley so far. The fact is, they needed him to be looking like his old self by now. Instead, he’s still sidelined with an ankle injury that’s cost him the last four games, and most of the Cowboys game. He only just started to get some of his burst back (coming off a knee injury) against the Saints in Week 4, and then he had the ankle setback. So far, he hasn’t shown enough for the Giants to invest a significant contract in him this offseason — though they might do it anyway.
Devontae Booker: He didn’t show much the first six weeks of the season and was even a healthy scratch in Week 3. The last three weeks — especially the Week 9 win over the Raiders — he’s stepped up: 210 rushing yards, 103 receiving yards, one touchdown and 4.2 yards per carry. Even when Barkley comes back, he’s earned a role in the rushing attack — especially since he’s more reliable in protection than Barkley.
Eli Penny: The Giants fullback has seen his role increase to a point where he’s a legitimate part of the offense. In 2020, he only had eight touches and played 14% of the offensive snaps. This year, he already has 26 touches (nine off his career-high) and he scored a touchdown against the Rams. Against the Raiders, Penny helped chew clock when Booker (hip) left the game, and he gained 35 yards overall on five carries. He’s also played an important role as an extra blocker on occasion.
Gary Brightwell: The rookie has barely played on offense (two touches) but is a starter on special teams. Ideally, the Giants will be able to find out at some point if Brightwell is capable of helping at all as an offensive player. Otherwise, it was a wasted sixth-round pick.
Cullen Gillaspia: He’s a Joe Judge favorite and had been a special teams-exclusive player until Week 9, when he played two offensive snaps. Don’t expect much more than that going forward unless Penny gets injured.
WIDE RECEIVER
Kenny Golladay: The Giants handed him $72 million this offseason to become the No. 1 wide receiver, and so far they haven’t gotten enough of a return on that investment. He missed three games with a knee injury, and has battled other ailments — hamstring, quad, hip — since training camp. Even when he’s played (six games) he hasn’t been targeted like a No. 1 wide receiver. He only has more than four catches in one game. His lone standout performance: Week 4, when he caught six passes for 116 yards, including a crucial one in overtime. He’s even already yelled at Jason Garrett this season. The Giants need more from him.
Sterling Shepard: He was off to a stellar start before injuries derailed him. Again. Twice. It’s an unfortunate turn of events for a team leader that is clearly talented (32 catches, 324 yards, one touchdown in five games) but he just can’t stay healthy. Now he’s dealing with a quad injury and his status for Week 11 is in question. The Giants restructured his contract before the season, making it more difficult to release him this offseason.
Kadarius Toney: It has been a strange rookie year for the rookie, to say the least. He was barely targeted for the first three weeks of the season. In Week 2, he was already complaining about his role and called media “clowns”. Against the Saints, he had six catches for 78 yards. Against the Cowboys, he broke out with 10 catches for 189 yards — and would’ve had more had he not thrown a punch and gotten ejected. He got hurt against the Rams in Week 6, missed Week 7, was barely involved offensively in Week 8-9, and recently caused a firestorm with an ill-advised tweet.
The talent is obvious. The Giants need to get him more involved on offense, and hope some of the noise he brings off the field calms down at some point.
Darius Slayton: He’s had chances to step up as other Giants receivers have been injured and just hasn’t done it. He has four drops and only 12 catches. The last two weeks, he’s played 83 offensive snaps but has zero catches on three targets. Perhaps the Giants should’ve traded him.
John Ross: He’s been banged up most of the season, which has been the story his whole career. He was impressive against the Saints (77 yards, one touchdown) and had a 50-yard catch against the Chiefs. If he can pop off every now and then for a big play, the $1 million guaranteed contract they gave him would be worth it.
Collin Johnson: He’s played a lot lately for a player that is rarely targeted: 131 snaps since Week 5, but only 12 targets. He’s primarily used as a blocker on running plays.
TIGHT END
Evan Engram: It’s been a disappointing season for Engram, who won’t be getting any surprising Pro Bowl bids this year. It got bad enough that at one point this season, Giants fans cheered when he subbed out of a game. He’s been solid the last two weeks and made a stellar catch on a 30-yard touchdown against the Raiders, but 224 yards and two touchdowns in seven games isn’t good enough.
Kyle Rudolph: That two-year, $12 million contract might not hold up to scrutiny — but Rudolph has been helpful as an extra blocker to help out the declining Nate Solder at right tackle. Rudolph just caught his first touchdown last week and isn’t much of an offensive threat anymore.
Kaden Smith: He’s almost exclusively been a blocker this season, but he does that pretty well.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Andrew Thomas: He was off to an impressive start before he suffered separate ankle and foot injuries, the latter knocking him out for the last three weeks. The difference in performance for the offensive line when he plays versus when he doesn’t is eye-opening. Before he went down, Thomas had only allowed seven pressures in 201 pass-blocking snaps — and zero sacks.
Nate Solder: The Giants likely didn’t come into this season with the intent of starting Solder at all — and he’s been a starter for all nine games. It’s been mostly bad. He’s allowed 27 pressures, the seventh-most among all tackles. The right tackle position will be a serious need heading into next year.
Matt Peart: As is the case with many on this list, it’s been an up and down campaign for Peart, who seems better suited as a right tackle than at left. He had a tough time against Yannick Ngakoue in Week 9 and allowed two sacks against the Rams, but in between had a few solid performances.
Will Hernandez: It’s been up-and-down with Hernandez to say the least. He’s looked more like the inconsistent player of the last two years than the one that showed promise as a rookie in 2018. PFF has him dinged for three sacks, though there were a few games — Raiders, Rams, Cowboys, Saints — where he allowed one or zero pressures, per PFF. He was solid as a run blocker against the Raiders too.
Matt Skura: He started the year on the practice squad and is now fully entrenched as the starting left guard, which he’d never played before. Relative to expectations, he’s been fine. But Skura shouldn’t be the long-term starter — and it’s not a great sign that Ben Bredeson isn’t starting over him at this point.
Billy Price: He was supposed to be a backup, but Nick Gates’ brutal season-ending Week 2 injury pushed Price into permanent starter status. It’s not difficult to see why he was benched by the Bengals and became a backup. It’s been up and down, to say the least.
Ben Bredeson: He started at left guard in Week 3 before injuring his hand, and he hasn’t reclaimed the job since. The Giants traded a fourth-round pick for Bredeson before the season (and also got a fifth along with him) and that hasn’t really worked out so far.
Wes Martin: He was signed off Washington’s practice squad a few weeks and played 65 snaps combined in Week 5-6, but didn’t show enough to keep playing at all since.
Korey Cunningham: He received a surprising amount of usage as an additional blocker against the Raiders (13 snaps) and the alignment was fairly productive. He’s the de facto swing tackle with Thomas out and Peart starting.
Nick Gates: He was off to an impressive start before breaking his leg against Washington. It was a gruesome injury that could require a long recovery process.
Shane Lemieux: The rookie left guard only played one game before getting knocked out for the year with a knee injury he had suffered in training camp but was trying to play through. It’s unclear if he’s a starting caliber player.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Leonard Williams: The ‘Big Cat’ was getting a little too much criticism early in the season for not finishing and getting sacks, but he was never really the problem even when the defense was at its worst. And like last year, Williams quickly picked up the pace on sacks too. He has 5.5 sacks and is fourth among defensive linemen in pressures with 32. PFF has him graded as the 10th-best defensive lineman overall and sixth at run-stopping. He’s playing at a Pro Bowl level again.
Dexter Lawrence: He hasn’t quite taken the leap to Pro Bowl-caliber player that the Giants likely were hoping for, but he’s still been OK as a run stopper and, especially the last few weeks, eating up blockers to clear up space for Giants pass rushers to do their work. He has a career-best PFF pass-rushing grade (74.8) and has 24 pressures, six off his career-high. He gets a ding for the offsides penalty against Washington that cost them that game.
Austin Johnson: He’s not quite Dalvin Tomlinson, but Johnson has been surprisingly effective as a pass rusher (three sacks, six tackles for loss, five QB hits). PFF also has him with 20 “stops”, which is a tackle that constitutes a failure for the defense. Only six defensive linemen (including Williams) have more than that.
Danny Shelton: The veteran has been … not great. He’s struggled to get off blocks and has mostly been a liability when he’s on the field.
Raymond Johnson II: The undrafted rookie has been solid when given the opportunity and should play a bigger role as time goes on.
OUTSIDE LINEBACKER
Azeez Ojulari: The rookie started off fast (three sacks in three games), trailed off for a few weeks, and then dominated (2.5 sacks, 4 QB hits, 3 TFL) the Panthers. He’s become the pass rusher the Giants were hoping Lorenzo Carter would be. He looks impressive and is currently on pace for 10 sacks. A steal in the second round.
Lorenzo Carter: This season has looked like all of his other ones: Unproductive, inconsistent and interrupted by injuries. He has zero sacks in 146 pass rushing snaps and has missed the last two games.
Oshane Ximines: He was a healthy scratch in Week 9. Another NFL Draft miss by Dave Gettleman.
Quincy Roche: The Giants stole Roche off the waiver wire from the Steelers after training camp, and that decision looks like a masterstroke. He had the game-winning strip sack against the Raiders and has accumulated three QB hits and two tackles for loss over the last three games as his role keeps growing. He should start over Carter, whenever he returns.
Trent Harris: A preseason standout, Harris is on the verge of getting signed to the active roster. He’s jumped ahead of Ximines on the depth chart and was the Giants’ special teams player of the week in Week 9.
Elerson Smith: The rookie just made his NFL debut against the Raiders and played two special teams snaps. It will be a slow burn for a player that hadn’t played a football game since 2019 before Sunday.
INSIDE LINEBACKER
Blake Martinez: The Giants certainly miss one of their most valuable players, who tore his ACL in Week 3. He should be fully recovered by the start of next season.
Tae Crowder: The second-year linebacker (and former Mr. Irrelevant) has been thrown into a tough spot, replacing Martinez as the Giants’ signal caller on defense. It’s a big ask for a young player. He’s gone through some bumps, especially in coverage. Crowder ranks 84th (of 86) in coverage among linebackers to play at least 150 snaps. He also has five missed tackles.
Reggie Ragland: He’s been a serviceable enough veteran linebacker that has probably been thrown into a bigger role than originally planned. It doesn’t speak great of him that the Giants signed Benardrick McKinney off the street and he’s already stealing his snaps.
Cam Brown: The second-year is exclusively a special teams players. He’s made some mistakes as a gunner, but the Giants are high on his talent.
Carter Coughlin: He stood out in the preseason but didn’t play much of a role on defense before getting hurt in practice recently. He could be out awhile.
Benardrick McKinney: The veteran is expected to be signed off the practice squad soon. He signed to the practice squad a few days before Week 7 and already is working his way into a significant role, though he hasn’t necessarily stood out yet.
CORNERBACK
James Bradberry: It was a rough start to the season for Bradberry, who permitted 23 catches on 31 targets for 301 yards, four touchdowns and a 117.1 passer rating. He only allowed three touchdowns (and 454 yards) all of last season. He’s played better the last few weeks and even shut down a few star tight ends (Travis Kelce, Darren Waller) in key moments. Still, relative to expectations, it’s been a disappointing start.
Adoree’ Jackson: He’s flown under the radar, mostly because he doesn’t force turnovers but also hasn’t allowed many big plays. No news with a cornerback is often good news. Jackson has been a significant upgrade over the rotation of mediocrity the Giants had at the No. 2 cornerback spot last year. PFF has Jackson with the eighth-best coverage grade in the NFL among cornerbacks.
Darnay Holmes: He opened as the primary nickel corner, lost the job and barely played for a few weeks, but has re-emerged in the lineup the last couple weeks. Against the Chiefs, he had a crucial interception called back by Oshane Ximines jumping offsides. The Giants want Aaron Robinson to beat him out, but that hasn’t happened yet
Aaron Robinson: The rookie missed all of training camp and the first seven weeks of the season with a core muscle injury. Now he’s finally playing, but he has looked a bit lost in limited defensive snaps. Eventually, the Giants want him to be their nickel.
Keion Crossen: He was acquired for his skills as a special teams player but made a few impressive plays against the Chiefs in Week 8, even sacking Patrick Mahomes on a blitz at one point. It wouldn’t be surprising if he starts getting more snaps on defense.
Rodarius Williams: The rookie was starting to see an increased role before he tore his ACL a few weeks ago.
SAFETY
Logan Ryan: The veteran has had some issues both in coverage (24 of 29 receptions, two touchdowns, 126.7 passer rating allowed) and in tackling (nine missed tackles) but still has a propensity for making timely plays and is an important leader on defense.
Xavier McKinney: He had a bumpy start to the year, but has picked up his play recently and flashed his potential in a major way against the Raiders, getting two interceptions, including a pick six. They don’t win that game without his performance. He already has five interceptions through 15 career games and is on an upward trajectory.
Jabrill Peppers: He was off to a bad start before suffering a brutal ruptured ACL and high ankle sprain, ending his season and even putting into question when he’ll be ready in 2022. That’s especially unfortunate as he’s set to hit free agency.
Julian Love: He’s a jack of all trades and has played a few roles — nickel, outside corner, safety — already this season, though he hasn’t necessarily stood out at any of them.
Nate Ebner: A special teams exclusive player that has battled injuries all year.
J.R. Reed: Signed off the Rams practice squad recently but hasn’t played a defensive snap yet.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Graham Gano: His consecutive made field goals streak ended in Week 4, but otherwise he’s been stellar. He’s 19 of 21 overall this season and 5 of 6 from 50-plus.
Riley Dixon: He’s performed better than last year, but there’s still been some rough moments. He’s a potential cut candidate this offseason.
Casey Kreiter: You haven’t heard his name at all. That’s a good thing.
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Zack Rosenblatt may be reached at zrosenblatt@njadvancemedia.com.
