Big Blue unit must prove worth
IT’S LIKE Giants fans haven’t learned. Last season’s catastrophe on offense, despite teaming a healthy Victor Cruz with Odell Beckham Jr. and rookie Sterling Shepard, somehow hasn’t stopped the bluest bleeders from hyping up the 2017 receiving corps as a record-breaking group before a down is played.
The Giants’ 2016 receiving corps was supposed to be unstoppable. It was not.
The incredibly talented Beckham saved games more than once, and Shepard had a respectable rookie season. But Cruz and Shepard both struggled to get open and gain separation, Eli Manning had his fair share of poor performances, and defenses frequently stopped the Giants’ passing attack playing a base Cover-2.
And yet again, approaching 2017 with new tools added to the receiving corps, history repeats itself.
The signing of veteran receiver Brandon Marshall (6-foot-4) and the drafting of rookie first-round pick tight end Evan Engram (6-3) has everyone frothing at the mouth. Some already have called the Giants’ receiving corps as perhaps the best in the NFL.
This talk is premature, though, and frankly, it arrogantly ignores the quality of other teams’ receivers that are equally as potent, if not more so, with a more encouraging track record in the recent past.
Reigning NFC champ Atlanta boasts Julio Jones, Mohamed Sanu and Taylor Gabriel, not to mention their quarterback is reigning MVP Matt Ryan. The Green Bay Packers, as the Giants well remember, field Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and Davante Adams.
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Antonio Brown arguably is the best in the game, and they’ll get back Martavis Bryant off suspension to go with Eli Rogers in a deep group. The Oakland Raiders’ one-two punch of Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree combined for 172 catches, 2,156 yards and 13 TDs in 2016, besting the Beckham/Shepard duo (166 catches, 2050 yards, 18 TDs) in two of three major categories.
The Super Bowl champion Patriots have added Saints former standout Brandin Cooks to Tom Brady’s receiving corps, led by Julian Edelman. If the Houston Texans ever get a quarterback, DeAndre Hopkins, Will Fuller and Co. would challenge. And other top targets such as the Buccaneers’ Mike Evans are plenty formidable GETTY no matter who is working behind them.
There is nothing wrong with optimism, and Marshall’s presence specifically is plenty reason to think Ben McAdoo’s playbook will open and defenses will find it more difficult to match with Big Blue’s receivers.
Marshall also has been saying all the right things this offseason, admitting he has work to do to acclimate to a new offense and quarterback, and deflecting talk of his mentoring Beckham in favor of the sentiment that he is here to do one thing first and foremost: produce and, as a result, win. eckham’s talent always puts the Giants in the conversation of receiving corps with most potential on a given week, no question. But there are no guarantees, it takes more than one world-class player, or two or three, to make an offense hum. And the Giants are not in the business of guaranteeing success on offense. In 2017, they aren’t destined to dominate. They are rather in a position in which they must prove they can.
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