New York Giants Week 3 Stock Report

So close, yet so far away.

That has been the story of the New York Giants thus far in the early stages of the 2015 season.

The good news is that head coach Tom Coughlin’s crew has been competitive—they lost their first two games by a combined five points, which means they’ve been in each game played.

The bad news is that the losses have come in the fourth quarter when the team is supposed to be getting stronger, not weaker.

That point in particular, the failure to finish, is right there atop of Coughlin’s list of things that must be fixed before the Giants take the field for a do-or-die game against Washington on Thursday night.

“I really do think we should be better than 0-2, and I told them that right away on Monday afternoon,” Coughlin told reporters on Tuesday morning. “I told them I wasn’t very pleased with the play as such, but I thought we could certainly be, even under these circumstances, be 2-0.”

Woulda, coulda, shoulda—you know how the saying goes.

So with that said, let’s check in on the weekly stock report to see who’s on the rise and who needs to be on the rise in a hurry if this team is to have any chance of avoiding an 0-3 start.

Stock Up: TE Daniel Fells

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Tight end Daniel Fells was inactive Week 2 due to a foot injury, and boy, was his absent felt, especially in the running game.

New York ran the ball 23 times for 97 yards, 35 of which came on a  single run by Andre Williams. Take that one big run away, and the Giants averaged a paltry 2.8 yards per carry last week.

Want more evidence of just how back the run blocking was missing Fells? Of the Giants’ 23 rushes, seven went for zero or negative yards with five of those runs losing the Giants yardage. That’s a whopping 30.4 percent of the Giants' rushing attempts that yielded no fruit last weekend.

The good news is that Fells should be back this weekend. However, it remains to be seen if he has any lingering effects from the foot injury that kept him out last week.

Stock Down: TE Larry Donnell

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Now former Giants receiver Preston Parker drew quite a bit of ire from Giants fans, and rightfully so. But lost in that ire is the fact that Larry Donnell, the team’s starting tight end, didn’t have a strong showing last week either.

Donnell not only had a dropped ball over the middle late in the game—a pass that he should have caught—his run blocking was virtually nonexistent.

The Giants need more from their starting tight end than Donnell, who also had a touchdown reception, gave them last week. Whether he is able to give it to them is another story.

Stock Up: WR Odell Beckham Jr.

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It turns out that receiver Odell Beckham Jr.’s "off night" against Dallas in Week 1—he posted a pedestrian five receptions for 44 yards—was just a minor  blip on his continued road to greatness.

In fact, Superman was back in full force last week against the Falcons, posting an eye-popping seven receptions for 146 yards and one touchdown, a 67-yarder no less.

If the Giants truly want to get the passing game going, offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo is going to have to move Beckham around a lot this week against Washington.

During training camp, they ran some rather creative-looking formations that took advantage of Beckham’s many talents, so it would not be surprising if moving forward, some of that creativity dusted off and put to good use if the situation presents itself.

Stock Down: QB Eli Manning

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According to Steve Serby of the New York Post, Giants quarterback Eli Manning worked with a baseball pitching coach in the offseason to learn how to throw with a little more “pop” and to pick up new techniques to better care for his arm.

Unfortunately for Manning and the Giants, it looks like the 12-year veteran is in a baseball-like slump to start the season.

While it’s not necessarily all Manning’s fault—he really didn’t have his full complement of receivers available on a consistent basis in the summer, and he has been victimized by 11 dropped passes, per Pro Football Focus—Manning has yet to take this team on his shoulders and get it to the finish line.

Instead, he has had back-to-back games in which he has been in the middle of a game-changing mistakes that have left his head coach frustrated.

 “I mean there are times when it’s tremendous, and then other times when it’s not. I’m frustrated like you are.” Tom Coughlin told the media after Sunday’s loss to Atlanta.   

Mistakes aside, the bigger concern with Manning, as Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News pointed out, is how he faded against the Falcons on Sunday.

Vacchiano noted that Manning went 22-of-29 for 262 yards and two touchdowns in the first three quarters and then finished the game 5-of-11 for 30 yards in the fourth quarter. 

That’s simply not good enough for a guy who signed a four-year, $84 million contract extension to lead this offense back to glory.

Stock Up: DE Robert Ayers Jr.

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Don’t look now, but defensive end Robert Ayers Jr. has quietly emerged as the team’s best defensive end in this early part of the season.

Statistically speaking, Ayers has been credited with six tackles (five solo), including two tackles for a loss. He has two quarterback hits and one of the team’s two sacks recorded this season. He has broken up two passes and has forced a fumble.  

According to Pro Football Focus, Ayers’ pass-rush productivity score of 9.6 is second-best among 4-3 defensive ends who have taken at least 60 percent of their team’s snaps on defense.

In addition, Ayers ranks fourth among 4-3 defensive ends who have taken at least 25 percent of their team’s snaps, having made stops against he run on 11.1 percent of his run-game snaps and having yet to miss a run-game tackle.

That’s some solid production right there from Ayers, who this week will try to work through a hamstring injury that limited him in Tuesday’s practice.

Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.

Follow me on Twitter, @Patricia_Traina