Big Blue View
Another week, another poor performance. This is the 2025 New York Giants. Actually, this is most weeks of most seasons for the Giants. No one grades coaches or general managers, but Pro Football Focus still grades players after each game, so let’s take a look at who they thought played well or poorly Sunday, along with who was on the field.
First, the entire offense:
Now, individual position groups, starting with quarterback:
This was Jaxson Dart’s lowest-graded game as a starter since his first start against the Chargers, although that was due more to his low rushing grade (which included a fumble) than his passing grade, which was similar to the previous week’s. Dart was pressured on 41.9% of dropbacks, which partly explains that, although both of his TD passes came when pressured and his overall passing grade was higher under pressure than not. Overall Dart had three big-time throws, but unfortunately he also had two turnover-worthy plays, one of which was intercepted (whether by his own fault or Jalin Hyatt’s, we don’t know).
That performance under pressure is not common among NFL quarterbacks and is one of the things that makes Dart’s future so intriguing to me. When I watch him, I think, imagine him in a Sean McVay or Ben Johnson offense with a healthy Nabers and a true WR2 – Jordyn Tyson or Carnell Tate, anyone?
Here is Dart’s passing chart from yesterday:
He did target deep and intermediate parts of the field quite a bit, including both of his TDs and his one INT. His accuracy beyond 20 yards was not great, though one of those was a pass Darius Slayton should have caught.
Now let’s look at the pass blocking:
I’m surprised by this chart, which only lists 10 pressures allowed by the pass blockers. Specifically, I remember a series when Von Miller was giving Jermaine Eluemunor fits on three consecutive downs, yet Eluemunor was only charged with one pressure. I suspect there is a twofold explanation: (1) If you look at the Dart passing pressure chart earlier in this post, you can see that he was pressured 18 times, not 10. The difference? In PFF’s view Dart was apparently blamed himself for eight of the pressures he got. (2) The one QB hit Dart took was blamed on Theo Johnson, not Dart or Eluemunor. Otherwise the OL had a pretty good day, with Andrew Thomas his usual excellent self and only Jon Runyan Jr. grading a bit below average.
Next, the run blocking:
Other than Andrew Thomas, the rest of the line was at best mediocre in run blocking, and the two tight ends who played the most were just bad. This is a recurring problem that next year’s GM needs to solve. The Giants have all too many running plays that go nowhere, which puts Dart into more difficult situations than he’d face if he got more second-and-5 situations to deal with.
Now the receivers:
Daniel Bellinger is...
