Biggest Studs, Duds and Surprises of New York Giants' 2017 Season
In three weeks, the New York Giants miserable 2017 season will finally come to an end.
Whoever the new general manager and head coach are, they’ll have a lot of work ahead of them to tweak a roster that began the year with so much hope and promise but has, for various reasons, finished with a dud.
The Giants are on track to finish with its worst regular-season record since the league went to a 16-game format.
While there have been quite a few duds to take the field for the Giants this year, there have also been some studs around whom the next leadership tandem might look to build.
Here is a look at some of the biggest studs and duds of a season that has gone awry.
Stud: DT Damon Harrison
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The Giants big man in the middle, Damon Harrison, was named as the 96th overall best player on the NFL's Top 100 list run during the offseason, but in retrospect, that ranking is probably too low.
All Harrison has done is clog up the interior running lanes, swallowing up any running back who dares to try to get past him. Harrison is currently second on the Giants with 64 total tackles and is tied for third on the team (with defensive end Olivier Vernon) for tackles for a loss with five.
But this big man is much more about stopping the run. As he did later in his career with the Jets, Harrison has shown he has a little pass rushing ability. He is such a load to handle that it often takes two or three blockers to stop Harrison from collapsing the pocket.
He's also recorded 1.5 sacks this season, giving him 4.0 sacks in his two seasons as a Giant thus far. Throw in three passes defensed and an interception over that two-year period, and Harrison has been a dominate force on that defensive line.
Dud: CB Eli Apple
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Eli Apple, the team's first-round draft pick last year, started out his NFL career with so much promise.
But this year has definitely been one to forget.
It started earlier in the season with Apple being benched for three series during the Week 5 game against the Chargers due to disciplinary reasons stemming from his speaking back to an assistant coach, an incident in which an unhappy Apple dropped a big hint about the Giants culture being the reason for the team's struggles instead of just one guy.
He was then fined after the bye week because he was a day late returning to East Rutherford. More recently, a report by the New York Post said Apple nearly walked out of the team's facility during former head coach Ben McAdoo's "brutally honest" team meeting in which Apple was reportedly lit up by his teammates when two of his plays were featured as examples of effort lacking.
Apple's latest transgression involved some poor optics when he retweeted a tweet by an Ohio State fan club celebrating Cowboys running back Rod Smith's 81-yard touchdown reception against the Giants.
All of this has no doubt led to Apple being buried on the depth chart, though with a new face in charge in defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, there is hope that Apple might emerge from the doghouse.
"I talked with Eli before the game when we deactivated him. He sat in my office and I said, 'Look, we need to get you going. Everybody wants you here helping us out, but this wasn't the week to do it,'" Spagnuolo said Monday in revealing what went into deactivating Apple for the fourth straight game.
"He didn't get enough reps during the week. He did get some on Friday. I just didn't think it was enough to have him ready to do the things we were going to do in the defensive game plan and he understood that and the goal there as we shook hands and hugged was, 'let's get you up and running next week.'"
Whether the tweeting incident affects that remains to be seen.
Stud: TE Evan Engram
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Despite losing receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall in Week 5, rookie tight end Evan Engram has tried his best to help ease that sting.
All Engram has done is catch at least one pass in his eight games played since that Week 5 drubbing by the Chargers.
Engram also recorded at least one touchdown pass in Weeks 6-10, which has certainly helped the struggling Giants offense.
He has also been quietly setting some NFL records. Per 247Sports' Dan Schneier, Engram became one of 17 NFL players (receivers or tight ends) to record at least 30 receptions, 300 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns in his first seven games.
Engram also has the Giants franchise record for most touchdown catches by a tight end in his rookie season.
Besides having emerged as a legitimate threat in the passing game, the Giants' No. 1 draft pick has also shown that he can handle himself in the blocking game.
Overall, the future is bright for this young man, who should be a staple of the Giants offense for years to come.
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Dud: OL Bobby Hart
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After what started out as a promising offseason and preseason, things were certainly looking up for offensive tackle Bobby Hart.
In fact, Hart was so encouraged by what he had done in the summer that at the start of the season, he told Dan Duggan of NJ Advance Media that he believed himself to be the "best right tackle in the league."
As it turns out, Hart was drunk on his own confidence. While an ankle injury has certainly slowed him down some, especially earlier in the season, the coaches have been reluctant to go back to Hart as injuries have piled up on the offensive line. They've gone with undrafted free agent rookie Chad Wheeler, who had minimal experience at the right tackle spot, instead of Hart after Justin Pugh went down with his back injury.
Last week, Hart did get into the game, but only because Pugh was scratched while Wheeler was still iffy after suffering a concussion the week prior. With the offensive line likely headed for a major overhaul in the offseason, it's hard to imagine Hart will be back as a starter on that unit—if he's back at all next season.
Stud: DT Dalvin Tomlinson
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Defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson is just a rookie, but like Damon Harrison, Tomlinson has been a force in the middle of the Giants defensive line.
Logging 40 total tackles for the season, Tomlinson is still a work in progress as far as his pass rushing skills are concerned, but he has quite a bit of upside and has been a consistent, if underrated performer in the defense.
Mature beyond his years, the rookie has not only been a constant presence on a defense that has seen different guys come in and out of the lineup due to injury, he's also quietly done his thing by recording at least two solo tackles in all but five games this year.
Since returning from the bye week, Tomlinson has really cranked things up, recording 22 of his total tackles thus far from Week 9 onward. In that period, he also recorded his first sack and his first tackle for a loss of the season. With a solid rookie season under his belt, the arrow is pointing up for this young defender.
Dud: The Linebackers
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As was the case with the rest of the team, the Giants hoped that the slight tweak they made to their linebacker unit—they swapped out Kelvin Sheppard for second-year man B.J. Goodson at middle linebacker—would make it better.
Turns out that wasn't the case. First, Goodson has had trouble staying on the field, which has necessitated at least three other starting middle linebackers take his spot, thereby making it difficult for a consistent voice to be there calling the plays.
Then it was weak-side starter and defensive captain Jonathan Casillas, ranked as the 12th best 4-3 outside linebacker by Athlon Sports & Life before the start of the preseason, who fell victim to the injury bug, with his season ending last week due to an ongoing neck issue.
Couple that with an overall drop on performance by the unit—linebackers failing to shed tackles or fill holes—and it's little wonder that last year's solid run defense has deteriorated faster than a sand castle exposed to the elements.
Stud: RB Wayne Gallman
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Rookie running back Wayne Gallman has been making a strong late season push to contribute to the Giants ground attack.
Gallman is currently second on the team in rushing with 330 yards on 78 carries (behind team leader Orleans Darkwa). Gallman’s 4.2 yards per carry average has included a bunch of tough runs in between the tackles with an occasional glimpse or two as to what he can do on outside runs.
Where Gallman, who this week had more carries than Darkwa, has also picked up his game is in the receiving end.
He’s caught 22 out of 31 pass targets for 109 yards and a touchdown. And per Pro Football Reference, Gallman is actually the top targeted running back on the team when it comes to red zone opportunities, where he’s two of two.
Dud: WR Brandon Marshall
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When the Giants signed receiver Brandon Marshall last March, the move was hailed by many as a brilliant strategy and an upgrade to Victor Cruz, whom the team parted with the month prior.
And why not? Not only was Marshall a taller receiver, but he was more accomplished and thought to be a good addition to a Giants offense that is built around the passing game.
Instead, Marshall never quite fit in with the Giants offense. He and Manning didn't connect for a single reception during the preseason, likely due to Marshall's shoulder injury.
But even more disappointing was his play in the regular season. Before suffering a season-ending ankle injury in Week 5, Marshall caught 18 passes for 154 yards (8.4 yards per catch) with zero touchdowns and two drops.
Manning tried to defend Marshall earlier in the season, noting that the reason why Marshall didn't get many pass targets was because there weren't chances to get him the ball.
But what no one was ever able to explain was why Marshall only managed to connect with Manning on just 56 percent of the pass targets they did have, which is the third-lowest completion percentage on the team (out of receivers who have been targeted at least 30 times this season).
Patricia Traina covers the New York Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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