The New York Giants have only played one game against an elite team this season, and that was a resounding loss, so we shouldn’t conclude too much at this early stage. With all due respect to Bill Parcells, you may not always be what your record says you are. Still, you have to take care of business against opponents as they come up on the schedule, and with one exception, the Giants have done that well and find themselves sitting in first place in the NFC East. Will they continue to grow, as their
predecessors in the 1984 and 2005 seasons did on their way to eventual Super Bowls several years later? We don’t know, but looking at the performances of individual players is one way to see whether hope for the future is justified. Let’s look at Pro Football Focus grades and other advanced stats to learn about who played well and who didn’t. Elite players are beginning to emerge on both sides of the ball for this team.
PFF grades: Offense
We finally saw something like the 2024 version of Malik Nabers on Sunday. Nabers was targeted seven times and caught six for 112 yards and his first touchdown of the year. That’s 18.7 yards per reception. Three of his catches were explosive plays, just what the Giants offense has been needing this season:
That performance earned him an overall outstanding 89.2 grade.
The other Giants receivers all made contributions as well, with Theo Johnson making only his second catch of the season a beauty on a thread-the-needle throw from Winston, Isaiah Likely bringing down another 7 (22 on the season), and rookie Malachi Fields catching his weekly two balls (he’s had two every week so far), one of them for his first NFL touchdown.
The running backs had a workmanlike rather than impressive performance, although 43 of Cam Skattebo’s 58 yards were after contact, which seems to be the norm for him. The one blemish was Najee Harris’ fumble.
The offensive line was a mixed bag. We are seeing the cumulative effect of Andrew Thomas’ groin, knee, and ankle injuries. He’s playing through it all, but so far he’s not the player we’ve become used to. Thomas hasn’t given up a sack yet (though he had some responsibility for Jaxson Dart’s knee injury in the Rams game), but he’s allowed eight pressures already, three against Arizona. On the right side, however, Jermaine Eluemunor is off to a great start, with only one hurry yesterday (in addition to a penalty) and only three pressures (one sack) total for the season. Jon Runyan Jr. gave up a sack an two hurries yesterday, but overall his pass blocking has been solid and his run blocking his improved since the first two games. Sisi Mauigoa, on the other hand, is having some “welcome to the NFL” moments. Sunday he surrendered five pressures including one sack, his worst game to date. The big news, though, was Bryan Hudson’s clean stat line and very good PFF grade at center. John Michael Schmitz’s absence for his child’s birth opened the door for Hudson to show what he can do, and that will bear watching going forward. A Wally Pipp moment?
PFF grades: Defense
Arvell Reese was nothing short of spectacular on Sunday, grading an amazing 90.5 overall and either very good or elite in all four individual categories (run defense, tackling, pass rush, and pass coverage). This follows on his excellent scores from last week. It’s tempting to say that it’s only taken him a month to adjust to NFL play, but the level of competition has been lower the past two weeks than in the first two weeks. Still, if you want to say that the Giants got the best player in the draft, you probably won’t get many arguments right now. Continuing with the hyperbole, I told Ed that his all-around dominance on Sunday reminded me of the Lawrence Taylor Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit in 1982. Tremaine Edmunds at the other linebacker spot has been less visible, but he did have a sack and eight tackles, despite one missed tackle.
Deonte Banks’ 88.3 yesterday was only the second time PFF has ever graded him above 80. The attention he is getting is for the final two plays of the game, but overall he allowed only three completions in nine targets for 19 yards despite having a ticky-tacky DPI called on him against Marvin Harrison Jr. He did surrender two TDs, but he had the game-saving interception and two other pass breakups (one the play just before the INT). Elsewhere in the secondary, Dru Phillips (76.9), much-maligned as a cover corner, had a crucial breakup of a pass to Michael Wilson in the end zone just before Banks’ two clutch plays to seal the win. Tyler Nubin, Jevon Holland, and Greg Newsome all played adequately.
The defensive line as a unit probably had its best game of the season. D.J. Reader (85.8) made it two games in a row with elite play inside, with a QB hit and a hurry, a tackle and an assist, and no missed tackles. Shelby Harris (70.3) had his best game as a Giant, with three tackles and an assist and a batted pass that led to Reese’s interception. C.J. Okoye (61.6) registered his first NFL sack.
On the edge, Kayvon Thibodeaux’s 59.5 grade reflected his not making the stat sheet except for one assist on a tackle. That was more than made up for by Abdul Carter’s (77.6 overall, 90.1 pass rush) spectacular game rushing the QB, which included three hits and three hurries. That 90.1 led the NFL.
Advanced stats
We saw both sides of the Jameis Winston Experience on Sunday, with three TDs and two INTs (and in PFF’s eyes, four big-time throws and two turnover-worthy throws). That’s what you get with Jameis – no risk it, no biscuit. It’s in his DNA, but it wasn’t all his fault. The Giants’ offensive line did not have a great game yesterday, with 19 pressures (yes, 19), including four sacks and three QB hits. Walter Nolen, Dante Stills, and Josh Sweat were having their way with the Giants IOL yesterday. If you think QB pressure doesn’t matter, here’s the counter-argument:
There’s a lot of scatter, i.e., some QBs still throw well even when pressured (upper right quadrant) and some throw poorly despite not a lot of pressure (lower left). Overall, though, the distribution trends from upper left to lower right, i.e., less/more pressure, fewer/more off-target throws. Jameis had some good company (Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts) in that lower right quadrant.
Considering how much he was pressured, Winston didn’t play that poorly by objective measures such as ESPN’s QBR, which is related to the expected points added concept but with adjustments for the quality of defense faced, and inside or outside garbage time:
Jameis’ aDOT of 11.21 yards was up there with some of the big boys, and his success rate (how much he advanced the offense toward a first down given down and distance to go) was also above average.
The Giants’ running game didn’t give them all that much, however, compared to what we saw at the start of the season (click on the figure to see the bottom rows):
Cam Skattebo was dead last among 28 qualifying running backs. His rush EPA was a poor -3.4 and his success rate an almost as bad 27.8%. John Harbaugh may have envisioned a Giants offense that was going to run the ball down opponents’ throats, but it wasn’t that way against Arizona. There may be several reasons for that: (1) The Giants’ run blocking is below average (7th worst in PFF run block grade) – Andrew Thomas is a very good run blocker but is playing injured; the Giants’ IOLs are as a group below average in run blocking, including rookie Sisi Mauigoa so far; and teams are anticipating the Giants’ run-heavy attack (how could they not after that Dallas opening game) and showing them stacked boxes a lot (33.3% of the time according to the chart in Week 4, 7th highest in the NFL).
The Giants’ receivers were more successful than their running backs yesterday. Here’s a chart of receiving EPA leaders in Week 4:
It’s nice to see Nabers back up there with the league leaders at 10.9 EPA and an even better 1.56 EPA/target (second-best). Say this about Jameis Winston – if he sees you open, he’ll try to hit you. As described by Nick Falato’s podcast partner Dan Schneier:
I mention that because former BBV writer Invictus XI reported this from MetLife yesterday:
Overon the defensive side, it is nice to see Giants’ defenders actually contesting catches for a change. This stat from Sumer Sports:
Notice the fine print – that’s the 13th-highest rate of 5,261 team-games since 2016. And now back to Arvell Reese for a second:
Reese is leading the *NFL* (not rookies, the entire NFL) in solo tackles (again, click to see the full chart):
