2014 Team/Player Spotlight -- New York Giants (1 Viewer)

[Jason Wood]

2014 Team & Player Spotlight Series

One of Footballguys best assets is our message board community. The Shark Pool is, in our view, the best place on the internet to discuss, debate and analyze all things fantasy football. In what's become an annual tradition, the Player Spotlight series is a key part of the preseason efforts. We are trying something different this year. We will still publish more than 100 PLAYER SPOTLIGHT articles on the main site. But we are going to solicit discussion on them in these TEAM threads.

Why the change?

NFL success is contingent on the sum of a team's parts. To think that a wide receiver succeeds simply because of himself would be foolhardy. What if a team has three excellent fantasy WR options (e.g., Denver with Demaryius Thomas, Wes Welker and Emmanuel Sanders)? Is a person's enthusiasm for a given player being properly offset against lesser expectations for one of their teammates?

Frankly, there was a lot of redundancy in former Spotlight threads. Asking you all to discuss the Giants new OC Ben McAdoo in threads for Eli Manning, Victor Cruz, Odell Beckham and Rashad Jennings seems inefficient. Now, in this new format, you can factor McAdoo (or any other team change) and it's impact on ALL the relevant skill players.

Thread Topic: New York Giants

The NEW Rules

In order for this thread to provide maximum value, we ask that you follow a few simple guidelines:

• Focus commentary on the fantasy relevant players in question, and your expectations for said players
• Back up your expectations in whatever manner you deem appropriate; avoid posts that simply say "I hate him" or "He's the best"
• Avoid redundancies or things like "good posting" ... this should be about incremental analysis or debate

While not a requirement, we strongly encourage you to provide your own projections for the relevant players on each team. We would note that it's important that your statistics makes sense. For example, projecting two running backs on the same team with 2,000 yards is an obvious gaffe. You might have three WR/TEs projected for 1,000+ yards, but that would be aggressive and a historical rarity. Back it up.

Projections should include:

• For QBs: Attempts, Completions, Passing Yards, Passing TDs, Ints, Rush Attempts, Rush Yards, Rush TDs
• For RBs: Rushes, Rushing Yards, Rush TDs, Receptions, Receiving Yards, Receiving TDs
• For WRs & TEs: Receptions, Receiving Yards, Receiving TDs

Recommended Players to Discuss (Player Page links provided):

QB Eli Manning

RB Rashad Jennings

RB David Wilson

RB Andre Williams

RB Peyton Hillis

WR Victor Cruz

WR Rueben Randle

WR Odell Beckham Jr.

Each PLAYER SPOTLIGHT article will include:

• Detailed viewpoint from a Footballguys staff member
• Links to thoughtful viewpoints from around the Web, including intriguing pull quotes from this thread
• FBG Projections

 

[higgins]

I'm surprised that one of the players that should be listed... is not. Adrien Robinson is likely to be the team's starting TE, was called the JPP of tight ends by the GM, is the team's tallest red zone target, and has a new OC that came from GB (a team that has historically used TE's well).

 

[Khy]

Disclaimer: Giants Homer. These are honest educate thoughts though, not just me going 'YAY GIANTS GO BIG BLUE!' I seriously thing this offense had a down year for the ages last season and will rebound a lot this year. So please, I don't really care to hear about the homer bias type posts. Okay with that out of the way lets get to the real post.

We'll start with the non-skill player things:

Offensive Line: Should be much better than it was last season. Pugh was the #2 ranked rookie tackle last year on PFF and graded in favorably in the top half of starters. Geoff Schwarz was in the Top 10 on PFF albeit in minimal snaps at guard. And many felt Weston Richburg was the top center in the draft. Last year, Eli saw the most sacks of his career which led to a career high 27 INTs. It's highly unlikely he sees those numbers again with the upgraded line in front of him. Also, while not an offensive lineman Jennings is pretty solid in pass protection. Much better than the backs last season.

Coaching: McAdoo should really feed new life into this offense as his style of offense, at least in my opinion fits the skillsets of the players significantly better than Gilbride's old system. This will be covered more in depth below.

Eli Manning: I think he is a serious candidate for Comeback POY this season. For years I've felt that Gilbride's option based system that relied on forcing down field passing whether it was available or not harmed Eli as a player. Both from a real world NFL and fantasy viewpoint. Anyone who has watched Eli play has seen that he really seems to shine in the no huddle, quick defined route tree type of situations. Situations that only arose under Gilbride during a 2 minute offense. This is now going to be his every down offensive scheme and I think he'll really excel at it. I think he'll put up the best statistical season of his career to date:

352/550 4400 yards 34 TDs 15 INTs - It's Eli so really no rushing to account for.

RBs: This one is tough, if Wilson is deemed healthy I see this as an interesting spilt where Wilson is the early down back early on with Jennings still being the 'starter'. And Wilson getting a 'prove it' or 'lose it' type of signal from the coaches. Wilson could EASILY be the main RB and guy to own in this offense by Week 3-4 the talent is there for sure. That said, right now he still isn't cleared for contact so I'm projecting as if he won't play. If Wilson does play Jennings projections can be thrown straight out a window into traffic. I think Williams projections for carries and yardage dips down by about 50-75 carries but his TD production probably stays similar to where I have him at now.

Rashad Jennings: Bellcow if Wilson can't play, he'll be on the field in all passing downs. Over the past 4 seasons the Giants have averaged 420 attempts per season across their stable of backs and by the same token the Packers shockingly have averaged 427att/season over the same period. I figure Jennings (again barring Wilson's health) gets about 260 carries, 1100 yards, 5 TDs and catches 45/315/1 TD. I'm lowering Jennings TDs cause I just feel like Williams SCREAMS short yardage/goal line back.

Andre Williams: I like him, but the kid can't catch to save his whole family. I can see him having one of those Mike Tolbert 2010 type of years. Where he'll put up say 150 carries/650 yards and 9 TDs. Which still makes him extremely valuable in a late round redraft flier.

Victor Cruz: Cruz is going to do what Cruz does, catch a lot of passes and make some people miss. He's going to be playing the Randle Cobb style role here. I'll say 85 receptions, 1190 yards, 7 TDs

Odell Beckham Jr: My gut tells me he'll be the technical 'starter' over Randle either at the start of the season or early on in the year. I think he'll probably have one of the best rookie WR seasons this year. The kid can really do just about everything, the biggest issue will be if they put him on punt returns or not. I think Beckham plays the main deep threat on the team. And posts somewhere around 60 receptions, 950 yards & 7 TDs

Rueben Randle: He'll be the #3 on this team but I think he ends up being the main red zone guy. He'll also be running the most simplistic routes of all of them after last years fiasco. Projection: 65/975/12 TDs

Adrien Robinson: I doubt he has a monster breakout season or anything but someone is going to produce as a TE on this team and he's the only option right now. Think he goes somewhere in between Ballard and Bennett's productions. So say 45 receptions, 585 yards, 6 TDs

This leaves a remainder of 53/385/1 left over from my projection on Eli to be made up elsewhere in the passing game. Between a lot of the guys I didn't cover here like Peyton Hillis, Larry Donnell, John Conner, Jerrel Jernigan types that will see the field from time to time but rarely produce well at all.

 

[Skeletore Eh]

Victor Cruz - WR - Giants
Victor Cruz said the new Giants offense is "definitely a little bit more pass happy than the offense we've had in the past."
Packers product Ben McAdoo has installed an up-tempo, spread, quick-hitting West Coast scheme that Cruz fits like a glove. "It enhances my skills," he said. "Anytime a receiver can get the ball in his hands quicker, it's beneficial." Cruz will be playing the Randall Cobb slot role and has set 100 catches as a goal. Cobb had 80 receptions while playing 15 games as a 22-year-old NFL sophomore in 2012.


Source: New York Daily News
Jul 23 - 10:17 AM