Pro Football Focus Offers Curious Take on Giants Offseason Roster Moves

O ye of little faith?

That's our reaction to Pro Football Focus's early roster rankings in which the popular analytics site is, shall we say, less than impressed by the New York Giants' off-season moves.

Authors Dalton Wasserman and Jim Wyman drew this conclusion about the Giants' upcoming season:

The Giants are due for some regression to the mean. They finished 9-7-1 despite being the fourth-lowest-graded team in the NFL overall. They’re heavily reliant on the running game, and their back seven on defense has major question marks. A last-place finish in the NFC East wouldn’t be that shocking.

Further, they are on record as taking the under of 7.5 wins for the Giants' upcoming season.

Seriously.

With all due respect to the authors, to say a team is "due for some regression" is just not a good argument.

The authors write that the Giants' biggest weakness is the team's back seven. They noted that the Giants' linebackers "finished as the fourth-lowest-graded group in the NFL, while their safeties were second worst."

But that's based on last year's lineup in which the Giants went through multiple linebackers, including Tae Crowder, Jaylon Smith, Landon Collins, Micah McFadden, and Jarrad Davis--a group that, by the way, no longer includes Crowder, Smith or Collins, but which added Bobby Okereke, and which is getting back a healthy Darrian Beavers and Davis, who last year had to hit the ground running after joining the team late int he season and often looked like he was struggling to keep his head above water as he was force-fed the defense.

They also fail to mention that the Giants were without starting safety Xavier McKinney for the last eight games of the year while he recovered from a broken hand suffered during a bye-week ATV accident.

The Giants added speed to the defense's back end, starting with first-round draft pick Deonte Bankes out of Maryland, who was the author's choice as the rookie to watch. They wrote of Banks:

He is an athletic freak with the potential to be a CB1 if he’s developed properly. Adoree' Jackson was the Giants’ only cornerback in 2022 to play 100 snaps and grade out with at least a 70.0 mark. Banks fulfilling that potential soon would make a huge impact on a unit that plays more man coverage than any other team.

On the plus side, PFF names tight end Darren Waller as the X-factor, noting:

The Giants sent a third-round pick to Las Vegas for Waller. He brings needed athleticism and versatility to their tight end room. Giants tight ends ranked in the bottom 10 in receiving grade, receptions, and receiving yards during the 2022 regular season. Waller should be an excellent scheme fit working across the field in Daboll’s system. Health is the key for Waller, as he’s missed 14 games over the past two years after terrific seasons in 2019 and 2020. A healthy Waller would be huge for an offense searching for big plays through the air.

Again, the focus by Giants general manager Joe Schoen was to add speed to both sides of the ball, and a healthy Waller can not only bring that, but he can help open up things for the revamped wide receiver group--a group that last year overachieved in part thanks to the creativity of offensive coordinator Mike Kafka.

To be fair, the talent assembled by Schoen needs to jell and stay healthy, the latter being an annual challenge for this Giants team. But the site is going to make conclusions based on its grading system, wouldn't it make more sense to look ahead by incorporating the grades of the new talent acquired rather than the grades of the talent no longer on the roster?

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