Film Review: What Does Kenny Golladay Bring to the New York Giants Offense?
After what seemed like forever in the universe of a New York Giants fan, the wait is now over. Kenny Golladay and the New York football Giants have agreed to a 4-year, $72 million (up to $76 with incentives) contract, with $40 million guaranteed.
The Giants get their traditional “X” type of receiver who can be a dynamic vertical threat while having a lot of success in Jason Garrett’s quick game.
The 2020 season wasn’t too kind to Kenny Golladay, who only played in five games; he was dealing with a hip issue, and he was purportedly on the rocks with the Detroit Lions coaching staff.
Golladay had 20 catches on 32 targets for 330 yards and two touchdowns. In his career, Golladay has 21 career touchdowns, 3,068 yards receiving, and 183 receptions.
Golladay brings unique vertical ability, excellent body control/adjustment, strong hands, good route running, and a big red-zone target with an exceptional catch radius. We’ll see all these things on display throughout this article.
Kenny Golladay is No. 19
Contested Catch
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Golladay took rookie DeAndre Baker, No. 27, to task in the Giants' Week 8 loss to the Detroit Lions in 2019. Golladay has the hand usage and physicality to defeat defenders jam attempts in press alignments, but he also just avoids the contact well.
He releases inside here and angles vertically for a bit up his stem before fully committing to the horizontal cross at around midfield. Baker does a good job closing width and riding the outside hip of the big receiver.
Baker then gets his hand into the catch point, but Golladay extends his big mittens and secures the catch into his frame until he’s tackled to the deck.
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Here’s another play against Baker that went for a touchdown. Baker tries to slow Golladay down at his breakpoint, but the receiver just runs through his outside shoulder.
Then he jumps over the top of Baker and makes an acrobatic and nimble catch while toe-tapping his way for six points. Baker shouldn’t feel bad though, Golladay did this to his current team as well.
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With a defender draped on his back, Golladay is able to leap and high point this ball while ensuring that he gets both feet in bounds. It takes a lot of concentration and spatial awareness to make these types of catches against NFL players.
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Golladay also is elite at using his body to shield the catch point. He comes off the line of scrimmage nicely on this seven (corner) route; the coverage is tight on the hip, but Golladay does a good job angling his body, so the cornerback in coverage can’t play through the catch point. He secures the catch through the contact and earns himself a touchdown. This is something that Golladay shows a lot in his film.
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Golladay fights through tight coverage in the clip above; he uses his inside arm to break the contact between the corner and himself, but it doesn’t do much. He then breaks his route off as a deep comeback at the sticks.
Since the defender was initiated in contact, Golladay can use a bit more of a push-off and get away with it--he does just that. He pushes and angles himself between the quarterback and the defender while jumping up to make a strong hands catch for a first down.
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Golladay does a very good job winning in one on one, contested-catch situations, something that should benefit Daniel Jones greatly. He destroys the cornerback at the line of scrimmage in the clip above.
He quickly stacks on him and puts him into a frantic position up his stem before hitting the dig route. The throw is not on target--it’s slightly behind, but Golladay adjusts in a beautiful manner to haul in a difficult catch through contact.
These types of acrobatic catches are well within his wheelhouse, and he makes them look easy. He takes some hard hits here and falls awkwardly at times, but he really climbs the proverbial ladder to secure some tough catches for his quarterbacks. He really does a good job adjusting his body and controlling himself in the air to make these catches…
Body Adjustment
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Golladay is going up against the Jacksonville Jaguars this past season. He releases outside and is able to out-pace the cornerback to create vertical separation. Golladay has long strides and is able to eat grass quickly while using those strides well on these vertically-based routes.
He displays concentration, control, and the ability to track/locate the football at its highest point to secure into his frame with his big catch radius and pick up the yardage. He just jumps in front and over the top of the cornerback to make a play for his offense.
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Golladay has to quickly adjust on this throw because the quarterback purposely throws it behind him due to the coverage in the middle of the field. He does a very good job adjusting his body and stopping his momentum to secure the quick back-shoulder throw on the dig route.
Golladay does a solid job getting in and out of his 90-degree break well, and the quarterback does a good job not getting him killed with the placement of the football.
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Golladay just attacks the football here with strong hands, something that you love to see; this is an absolute laser from Stafford and Golladay is able to adjust his body in a unique way. He leaves his feet, locates the ball which is not in front of him and makes this catch for a touchdown.
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This is a different type of adjustment - a route adjustment from Golladay on a play-action deep curl. He decelerates well into his break, and that creates around 5-yards of separation once he turns around.
Unfortunately, the underneath defender is at a dangerous depth for the throw, so Golladay has to extemporize the route to save the play.
Golladay continues to come back towards the quarterback to maintain his separation on the corner while flowing laterally outside as to get away from the underneath defender. It’s subtle - but it’s important. Stafford sees the adjustment and throws a completion to Golladay.
Vertical Ability
He’s a vertical threat that does a great job securing deep passes, which meshes very well with Daniel Jones's skill-set. According to PFF Giants on Twitter, Golladay had 628 deep yards in 2019, which ranked second in the NFL that season.
Jones' big-time career throw percentage is 39.5% (NFL average is 29.5%), and his on-target percentage is 51% on his deep passes (NFL average is 42%). Golladay averaged 17 yards per catch in 2017, 15.2 YPC in 2018, 18.3 YPC in 2019, and 16.9 YPC last season. He doesn’t just win deep with speed - he also has a lot of nuance to how he sells and wins with his routes.
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This is a 9 route against off-man coverage in a middle-of-the-field closed look. Golladay has to manipulate the cornerback and safety, the former who is in off coverage, and he does just that.
He fires off the line of scrimmage and then explodes off his outside foot selling a skinny post while subsequently exploding back outside off his inside foot; this gets the cornerback guessing and forces his feet to be “stuck in mud.”
The double move gives this corner some confidence that Golladay is staying outside with his stem and that the manipulation tricks are over - this is false confidence. The former third-round pick out of Northern Illinois closes width, gets up to the corner’s feet, gets his hips turned and then explodes back inside before stacking the corner and fading back outside to avoid the middle of the field safety.
He then gets his eyes up, locates, and tracks the football into his grasps for a beautiful secured contested catch. This is just a great work of art from Kenny Golladay.
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This is a beautiful 30-yard touchdown reception where Golladay does a great job getting off the line of scrimmage against a press alignment. Golladay starts his stem inside and starts to lean into the cornerback at around the 25-yard-line; this makes the corner panic and will create natural separation once a break inside happens.
He continues to lean up till the 20-yard line, and then he breaks hard on his outside foot, creating just a bit of separation on the post. Quarterback Matthew Stafford puts up a beautiful pass over the middle of the field, and Golladay wins the contested catch situation for a touchdown.
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Former Giants’ cornerback Prince Amukamara gets beaten badly in the clip above. There’s a lot of nuance to this Golladay route. Golladay attacks the inside of the cornerback while facing the jam.
He shows good physicality to fight through with his outside arm while showing some bend to dip his outside shoulder around Amukamara. Then, at around the 34-yard-line, he turns his torso and angles his route more inside, signifying a horizontal breaking route. He ever so slightly turns his shoulders, his head and tilts his body in that direction to further deceive.
This prompts Amukamara to stop moving vertically and start going horizontally. Once that mistake is made, Golladay just explodes back vertically, leaving Amukamara in the dust. Another great manipulation tactic by Kenny Golladay.
Quick Game
Jason Garrett uses a lot of slant/flat combinations and whole field spacing concepts; I believe most Giant fans would share the sentiment that he does this to a fault.
Nevertheless, Golladay is going to do well in these short quick game concepts-- he’s a lot more than just a tall receiver who does well vertically. He also uses his body well to shield defenders from the catch point, and this comes in handy on quick curls and slants.
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It appears to be an obvious run down with the Lions in 22 personnel, but it’s just a play-action, slant/flat, route concept where Golladay does a great job getting inside the press alignment. Golladay shows some more flexibility by dipping that outside shoulder around the jam attempt.
He then subtly pushes off the cornerback and extends his arm, but not fully as to draw a flag. This slight extension helps create separation between Golladay and the covering defender.
He then sticks his plant foot into the ground and makes a tough catch through traffic and just before another defender comes to hit him over the middle. His spatial awareness doesn’t only bail him out when he’s near the sideline--he also knows when to get down.
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Get used to it, Giants’ fans: quick curls may be something we see, yet again, in 2020. Golladay has the awareness to see the first down and dive to get to it after turning well on the quick hitch.
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Golladay runs a nice pivot route from a more inline position out of the slot. It’s a route we saw Evan Engram attempt to run last year, but Golladay could have so much more success because he’s very used to quickly finding the ball in the air and securing tough catches.
He comes off the line and chops his feet into an inside break against a linebacker, a mismatch, before pivoting off his outside foot into open space. It’s very simple, but also a nice display of route running in the short parts of the field.
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Golladay does a good job selling the vertical route just long enough to break the route outside. This gives Stafford the time to hit his back foot and fire the football into plenty of space away from the defender.
Golladay is known for being a vertical threat, but his ability underneath shouldn’t be understated, and it’ll help the 2021 Giants.
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- What the New York Giants are Getting in LB Reggie Ragland
Final Thoughts
Daniel Jones receives a very talented and long wide receiver who is a dangerous red-zone threat with both vertical and underneath ability.
His strong hands and long catch radius will be a welcomed addition to Jones’ weapons that now consist of Golladay, Saquon Barkley, Sterling Shepard, Darius Slayton, and Kyle Rudolph in an 11 personnel package. Evan Engram will also be used, hopefully, more as a mismatch type of player than anything else.
The Giants' skilled position players, with the addition of John Ross, are looking a lot better now than they did in 2020. Now we must hope that the offensive line continues to ascend and that the Giants have an impactful draft that will hopefully maximize either the defense or Daniel Jones as he heads into his third season.
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