The New York Giants are likely to be without wide receiver Darius Slayton when they take on the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday Night Football.
That report, courtesy Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, confirms what we suspected when Slayton was effectively knocked out of last Sunday’s game against the Saints with a hamstring injury. As Giants’ fans well know, hamstring injuries are notoriously tricky, and a three-day turnaround is just too short of a timeline for Slayton to realistically be ready.
The Giants were
already short-handed at receiver after Malik Nabers’ torn ACL, and losing Slayton leaves Wan’Dale Robinson as the Giants’ only truly reliable option at receiver. It also makes it incredibly likely that the team will elevate veteran Lil’Jordan Humphrey from their practice squad. Humphrey and Jaxson Dart did seem to have something of a connection in the preseason, and Humphrey’s size (6-foot-4, 225 pounds) is something the Giants don’t have elsewhere in their receiving corps.
New York’s options beyond Humphrey are limited, to say the least. They’re right up against the salary cap, and there’s effectively no time to sign or claim receiver and get him up to speed before tomorrow night.
Their other option? It could be to get weird with it.
The Giants did a good job of involving Daniel Bellinger and Theo Johnson in the passing game against the Saints to help mitigate the impact of losing Malik Nabers. They could, perhaps should, continue to do so and play out of a 2-tight end personnel grouping as their base offense. Both Johnson and Bellinger are elite athletes at the position, with exceptional speed and movement skills for players their size.
In a bit of good news, Giants head coach Brian Daboll is “optimistic” that running back Tyrone Tracy will return Thursday night. If so, they could even use a “22” package with two running backs and two tight ends, leveraging the fact that Tracy is a former receiver, as well as Robinson’s background as a running back, to create unconventional looks and match-ups.
The Giants will likely try to lean on their running game with such a depleted receiving corps, but they’ll need to find some avenue for production through the air to avoid being one-dimensional against the Eagles.
