Pro Football Focus Review of the Preseason Offense

Pro Football Focus is one of the premier tools that football fans have at their disposal to analyze their team and how they relate to others. So let's use this tool and take a look at how our New York Giants have been doing.

It's no mystery that the New York Giants offense, well, stinks. Aside from some late game heroics from the 2nd and 3rd stringers, through 4 games, there's been little semblance of continuity and rhythm from the 1st team offense. Of course, there was that one 2 minute drill before the half in the game against the New York Jets, but ideally, you want more than that. PFF agrees, scoring the NYG offense as a total a pathetic -36.7, good for 27th in the league. Let's take a look at the individual positions more closely.

Quarterback

The standout: Ryan Nassib, of course. He's got a +4.9 grade, good for fourth in the entire league. He has a QBR of 116.0 and really has been something of a pleasant surprise. In stark contrast to last year's preseason, he shook off being demoted to third team after games against the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers to command the offense and march them down the field against the Indianapolis Colts and New York Jets. I can't believe I'm saying this, but should Eli Manning go down, I don't believe that Nassib coming in would be an automatic loss.

The disappointment: In perhaps the understatement of the century, this belongs to Eli Manning, whose -9.0 brings up the rear of PFF's QB rankings. Can't say I disagree. While marred by a poor offensive line, Manning hasn't done himself any favors. Poor mechanics, poor decisions, locking on to receivers, I've never seen a regression this bad before. It's gone beyond simply issues running a new offense. The saving grace here is that I've also never seen a quarterback with the competitive amnesia and "bounce back ability" that Manning has, so let's hope he can turn it around.

The surprise: Not much surprise here, unless you want to go with Nassib far outplaying Manning in the early going.

Running Back/Full Back

The standout: This belongs to Henry Hynoski, who's +1.8 paces the team. He's got positive grades in run blocking, pass protection, and pass catching. He even scored a touchdown against the Jets. It's become clear that he's going to be the fullback on the 53 man roster if the Giants keep one.

The disappointment: Kendall Gaskins, whom I had high hopes for. He checks in at a -3.3. Despite some good work in the run game, he's allowed an absolutely unacceptable two quarterback hits and two quarterback hurries hurries in only 14 pass protection snaps. That's an ungodly number. He's also dropped a few balls in the pass game.

The surprise: A bit of a surprise here is how much PFF does not like Rashad Jennings, who comes in at -2.3. PFF dings him for his pass protection, where he's allowed a hurry, and for his inability to break tackles, forcing only one in 32 rushing attempts. In stark contrast, the violent style of Andre Williams has forced 10 missed tackles (most in the league) in 33 rushing attempts.

Wide Receiver

The standout: Anybody want to take a guess? Corey Washington has a +3.7 (second-best in the NFL) grade while leading the league in touchdowns with four. Quarterbacks have a perfect 158.3 QBR throwing at him, as he has caught 9 of 11 targets for 152 yards and no drops. He also blows the rest of the league away in yards per route run with 4.11 (next-best is 3.96).

The disappointment: Not a bad group overall, considering the state of the offense. Julian Talley has a -1.4 grade, because he hasn't come up with quite enough YAC for PFF's liking, and didn't always catch everything thrown his way.

The surprise: The surprise here is that this group isn't as bad as people have thought. Travis Harvey, Preston Parker, Washington, and Victor Cruz all have positive grades. Jerrel Jernigan and Rueben Randle have slight negatives, and Mario Manningham seems all but gone with a negative grade as well.

Tight End

The standout: Can I say nobody? I haven't really seen anybody stand out, per say, but the best grade goes to Daniel Fells at +1.9, mostly for his work as a run blocker.

The disappointment: This has to be Larry Donnell. Given the keys to the starting position early on, he's made the least of his opportunity, scoring an awful -4.3. Yikes!

The surprise: The surprise here was that the older veterans would far outstrip the young up and comers. Fells and Kellen Davis have a combined +3.0 to the combined score of -5.8 for Adrien Robinson and Donnell.

Offensive Line

The standout: A name you might not have heard of all too much, but in recent weeks, has been making some noise, the best offensive line player has been Rogers Gaines, with a superb +4.1 grade, scoring positively in every category. Kind of cool to see an unknown excel like that. James Brewer, shockingly enough, is second-best with a +2.0.

The disappointment: I'm going to cheat and say all of Jerry Reese's offseason free agency additions. In the early going, they've all been busts. It doesn't mean much given that they are new working together, but it's still quite concerning. The prized acquisition (who's now injured indefinitely) Geoff Schwartz is -3.1, while J.D Walton has a team worst -5.5. Depth players John Jerry (-5.1) and Charles Brown (-3.3) haven't been any help, either.

The surprise: I suppose the fact that Weston Richburg has been able to hold his own thus far, despite playing 3 different positions, is a surprise. He has been absolutely horrid in the run game, but has been the team's best pass protector, allowing only 1 QB hurry in 88 pass block snaps. Justin Pugh (+1.7) has looked good run blocking according to PFF, while Brandon Mosley and Will Beatty have been mediocre (not bad, just mediocre) thus far.

Final Word

Thus far, what we can gather from the preseason has been this. The Wide Receiver group is by far the deepest and most talented position on the offense, and that's without first round pick Odell Beckham Jr. There's a tale of two quarterbacks as well, and it's unfortunate that the starter is the one that's been doing poorly.

The running backs have been mediocre, thus far, with Michael Cox scoring a team best +1.0. Andre Williams also scored positively but everybody has work to do in pass protection in that regard. The offensive line remains a work in progress all the way through. With news of Geoff Schwartz's injury, I'm assuming the new line will be:

Will Beatty - Weston Richburg - J.D. Walton - Brandon Mosley - Justin Pugh

That won't be a very good run blocking line, but there is still hope for the pass game there. Let's hope this squad gets it's act together before the regular season, or we are in BIG trouble.