Golladay has ‘a lot to prove’ in 2nd season with Giants
EAST RUTHERFORD » Kenny Golladay loathes the idea of talking about last season, yet he can’t help but smile when asked if Giants fans have seen the “real” Kenny Golladay.
“No, I wouldn’t say so,” Golladay said after Tuesday’s practice. “Maybe I probably showed glimpses last year in New Orleans a little bit. I definitely would say I got a lot to prove, not just everybody else. I would say to myself I’m always in a daily competition with myself, just trying to better myself each and every day.”
Golladay admits that his 2021 debut in New York was frustrating, but now he simply wants to flush the pain and enjoy a clean slate with a new coaching staff.
No one could blame the 28-year-old for having that mentality after he went through a season without scoring a touchdown for the first time in five NFL seasons. A former Pro Bowler who led the NFL with 11 touchdown catches for Detroit in 2019, Golladay had only 37 receptions for 521 yards in 14 games in the first year of his four-year, $52 million deal with the Giants.
So it begs the question: Is he still the No. 1-level receiver that the Giants thought they were signing up for?
“I’m not just going to talk about me as far as how important it is to me; I think it’s important for everyone,” Golladay said. “We’ve got new coaches and a new offense. I think everyone is going to probably come into this season with a little chip on their shoulder. Even from the coaching standpoint, everyone is going to come in with that edge to try and meet the expectations.”
The optimistic outlook is that Golladay, like many players on the Giants, struggled to perform in former coordinator Jason Garrett’s stale offense. Garrett was fired last November as his unit failed to consistently get its play-makers into open and scored only 42 touchdowns in 26 games dating back to 2020.
Daboll and new offensive coordinator Mike Kafka are blending concepts from the Bills’ and Chiefs’ high-powered offenses, with pre-snap motions, shifts and openended routes for receivers who will likely be crisscrossing all over the field in an effort to confuse defenses.
“You’ve just got to be a smarter player with this offense,” Golladay said. “There’s a lot of moving parts as far as different guys in different positions. If you can play multiple positions, you can be on the field a lot of the time.”
Only time will tell if the 6-foot-4 Golladay is up the challenge of leading
the Giants’ fresh wide receiver corps. He has had an uneven camp filled with contested catches and unsightly drops, but inconsistencies have been widespread as the players build chemistry in Daboll’s system.
Kadarius Toney, the Giants’ first-round pick in 2021, returned to practice Tuesday after missing a few days with a knee injury. His availability is critical given that he is one of the NFL’s shiftiest receivers. Rookie Wan’Dale Robinson is a similar mold, and the Giants are also hoping to have veteran Sterling Shepard (Achilles rehab) back in time for the season opener Sept. 11.
Golladay says one of his goals this season is to haul
in more “50-50” balls, and he insists he isn’t worried about any outside noise surrounding his production since he is his harshest critic.
“I pride myself on just catching the ball, period, to be honest,” Golladay said. “I would say just going back and looking at little stuff I could do better. I’m the type of person whenever my number is called, I just want to make the play.”
ROSTER CUTS
The Giants made a series of moves to satisfy the NFL’s requirement of teams getting their rosters down from 90 to 85 players by 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Tight end Jeremiah Hall and defensive back Gavin Heslop were both waived,
while wide receiver Austin Proehl was waived/injured.
Hall, an undrafted rookie out of Oklahoma, was a surprising cut because he had been getting reps with the first-team offense in camp. Plus, other tight ends such as Andre Miller and Ricky Seals-Jones have been out with injuries.
At this point, there is little clarity on the Giants’ tight end depth beyond the belief that fourth-round pick Daniel Bellinger is locked in as the starter.
RING OF HONOR
When the Giants host the Cowboys on Sept. 26 at MetLife Stadium, the franchise’s Ring of Honor will expand to 50 members.
The team announced
that the 2022 Ring of Honor class will feature six former players along with a current staff member.
The inductees are former running backs Joe Morris, Ottis Anderson and Rodney Hampton, defensive end Leonard Marshall, defensive back Jimmy Patton, halfback/receiver Kyle Rote and head athletic trainer Ronnie Barnes.
Patton and Rote are deceased, but the other four players were at practice. Head coach Brian Daboll introduced them to the team, and president John Mara announced their inductions.
Barnes has been with the team’s medical staff for 47 years and also serves as senior vice president of medical services.