New York Giants Week 15 Stock Report

With three games to go, the New York Giants will face their biggest test to date on Sunday when they host the undefeated Carolina Panthers.

The Giants—who are fighting not just to remain relevant, but to also secure a place in the postseason—can use Sunday’s matchup as a litmus test to see if what they started in Monday night’s 31-24 win over the Miami Dolphins was simply a result of playing a lesser opponent, or if it is a legitimate foundation on which to build.

The Panthers have been blowing out their opponents of late, their last victory decided by one score or less coming two weeks ago in a 41-28 win over New Orleans. Otherwise, the Panthers, whose average margin of victory this season has been 12.9 points, have blown out six opponents this year by at least two scores.

Historically under head coach Tom Coughlin, the Giants hold their own against undefeated teams. They nearly pulled out a win against the Patriots in Week 8, losing that game by one point. And, of course, they topped the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, spoiling their bid for a 19-0 season.

While history says this game should be a close one, each week is a brand new one. If the Giants are serious about the playoffs, the Panthers are a great test of the type of competition they’ll face, so it will be interesting to see how they fare.

With all that said, let’s take a look at this week’s stock report in which general manager Jerry Reese makes a special guest appearance.

Stock Up: WR Odell Beckham Jr.

Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

Let’s face it. Receiver Odell Beckham Jr. is going to have a permanent place on the stock report’s “stock up” for the rest of the year.

He deserves it too, because when you think he can’t do anything more to endear himself to Giants fans, he outdoes himself every week.

This week, the amazing one continued to dazzle with his two touchdown receptions on Monday night against the Dolphins.

With a huge matchup against Panthers shutdown cornerback Josh Norman, whom Kim Jones of the NFL Network noted has held the likes of Houston’s DeAndre Hopkins, Tampa’s Mike Evans, Indianapolis’ T.Y. Hilton, Dallas’ Dez Bryant and Atlanta’s Julio Jones to just nine receptions for 89 receiving yards this season, Beckham did his best to deflect the spotlight from himself.

“As far as I’m concerned, the Giants play the Panthers,” Beckham told reporters on Thursday.

“There’s 10 other people on the field and everybody has a one-on-one matchup. So no matter who you’re going against, the goal is to win your matchup and that’s the plan for us is to try and win the matchup the most amount of times we can.”

As if that wasn’t humbling enough, Beckham was clearly touched when told of Panthers head coach Ron Rivera’s comparison of him to Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice during Rivera’s conference call with beat writers on Wednesday.

“I didn’t even hear that,” Beckham said, somewhat surprised.

“I mean, to be mentioned in the same sentence as Jerry Rice is still shocking to me, knowing what he accomplished and the things he was able to do. That’s where you want to go, that’s the direction you want to go, but nowhere near there. But I do appreciate the compliment.”

Stock Down: General Manager Jerry Reese

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

I like Jerry Reese as a person. However, in the interest of being objective, the job he’s done with this roster over the last few years has been awful.

Let's focus on something that seems to be a trend this year—the addition of former players who went on to spend the prime of their careers elsewhere only to return when no one else was beating down their doors.

This year, the Giants have added three blasts from the past—safety Craig Dahl, receiver Hakeem Nicks and, most recently, nose tackle Barry Cofield—to a roster where there was no young depth waiting in the wings that was able to step up and bridge the gap when injuries struck.

Now that’s not necessarily to knock Dahl, Nicks and Cofield, all of whom can probably contribute something to the party, but in the long term, none of them are the answers moving forward.

That means all that salary-cap space that the Giants are accumulating—Over the Cap has them estimated at $37,382,100 for next year based on a $150 million cap—is probably going to be used to bring in more free agents (one of whom, given the history of the last few years, is probably going to be a player they played against that struck their fancy).

That’s not the way to build a roster, and yet that’s what it’s come to for the Giants, whose years of bad drafting have set this franchise back for at least another year or two and has put ownership in a tough spot regarding what to do at the end of the year if head coach Tom Coughlin can't get this team back into the playoffs.

Stock Up: LT Ereck Flowers

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

Want to get rookie left tackle Ereck Flowers going? Tell him he can’t play because of an injury.

Fortunately, no one is telling Flowers, who has been nursing an ankle injury for a couple of weeks, that he’s going to have to take a seat on Sunday with the Giants' season on the line.

There was concern, given the short work week, about Flowers being ready to practice Wednesday, but he did, albeit on a limited basis.

He also worked Thursday and made it perfectly clear to James Kratch of NJ Advance Media that he intends to play for however long the Giants’ 2015 season runs.

"It's just one of those, after the season, I'll get it right,” he said. “There's no time to (rest), you know what I'm saying?”

With the Giants needing all hands on deck, the quiet rookie’s actions are certainly speaking louder than any pep talk any of the veteran leaders could deliver.

Stock Down: K Josh Brown

Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

In each of the last two games, kicker Josh Brown, who had a franchise record of 29 straight field-goal conversions, has missed a field-goal attempt, with one—against the Jets—being a potential game-tying score.

While it’s probably too soon to say if Brown is in a slump, the misses are coming at a bad time of the year as every point has to count—even if those points are field goals instead of touchdowns.

Let’s hope that Brown shakes off the last two misses and gets back to starting up a new franchise record-setting streak.

Stock Up: S Cooper Taylor

Jim O'Connor-USA TODAY Sports

It wasn’t that long ago that safety Cooper Taylor’s NFL career seemed to be left for dead.

After beginning the spring OTAs as a starter, the 25-year-old slid down the depth chart, his roster spot saved by the fact that injuries struck down those in front of him.

Ultimately, Taylor did get cut by the Giants once the season began, though they added him back to the practice squad. To his credit, he must have shown the coaches something in practice because within a couple of weeks, he was back on the 53-man roster.

With now-former safety Brandon Meriweather dinged with a knee ailment, Taylor got his chances the last two weeks and performed well enough—particularly on Monday night against Miami—to a point where the Giants felt comfortable enough to dump Meriweather.

“Coop has kind of progressed pretty good,” defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said.

“I remember back in '07 when Corey Webster somewhere during the season was deactivated, still on the roster. Sometimes that generates a little bit of energy and they come back and play with a little bit more inspiration, and Coop’s done that. I think he’s done a really good job, so that’s good to see, and it’s been helpful.”

The biggest difference for Taylor, according to Spagnuolo, has been his grasp of the system.

“He feels more comfortable. I thought I saw a more confident football player when he came back, I will say that,” Spagnuolo said. “And I see him out there and now functioning really well, and that’s great to see.”

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.