Pro Football Focus believes the New York Giants have one of the best receiving corps in the NFL, ranking them seventh best.
One of the reasons many believe the New York Giants will have a bounce-back season in 2018 is the talent they currently employ at the wide receiver position.
With Odell Beckham Jr. fully recovered from fracturing his ankle and the addition of free agent Cody Latimer to go along with Sterling Shepard and tight end Evan Engram, the Giants could have one of the most explosive offenses in the league.
Based on how well he's running routes, OBJ is 130% healthy. #GiantsPride #NYG pic.twitter.com/C2xxmt0mXE
— Jason Leach (@JasonKLeach) August 2, 2018
When Pro Football Focus ranked all 32 receiving corps recently, they ranked the Giants seventh best in the league.
Only the Vikings, Chiefs, Buccaneers, Falcons, Steelers and Browns were ranked higher. The Giants would have probably been ranked higher if not for various limiting OBJ, Shepard and Engram only playing together for four games.
Pro Football Focus also downgraded the unit because Engram led all tight ends in drops last season with 11. Now that he has a full year of NFL experience under his belt, it’s a safe assumption that Engram will not lead tight ends in drops this season.
This year the Giants are implementing a new offense under head coach Pat Shurmur, along with offensive coordinator Mike Shula, and receivers coach Tyke Tolbert.
In the new offense, receivers will be lined up in different positions across the field. On one play, Beckham could be lined up in the slot, with Shepard and Latimer split out wide, with Engram at tight end. The next play it could be Shepard in the slot with Beckham and Latimer split wide. This is a concept that the Giants have been implementing since OTAs.
Coach Tolbert spoke about the versatility of his receivers.
“When we first got here and started putting the offense in during the off-season, I purposely did not let anyone know what position they would be playing. I wanted to install the offense as a whole and have them concentrate on the concept of the play and not worry about, ‘I’m X, I’m Z, I’m F’, and once they learned the concept, they didn’t know what position they were playing until the first day of OTA practice because I was playing them everywhere. Once we had to go out and practice, I said, ‘You’re the Z, you’re the X, you’re the F’, but by then they had already comprehended the concepts. Now when we start game planning, we can move guys anywhere because they know the concept and we go no-huddle and they can line up anywhere, they can go out and play it because they know the concept.”
Receivers coach Tyke Tolbert talking about the versatility of his wide receivers. #GiantsPride #NYG pic.twitter.com/rH83CYnxIU
— Jason Leach (@JasonKLeach) August 3, 2018
Under the guidance of Tolbert and with future Hall of Fame quarterback Eli Manning throwing them the ball, the Giants receiving corps can prove that they’re better than the seventh-best receiving corps in the league.
