The New York Giants’ wide receiver situation took yet another turn in Monday night’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Veteran Sterling Shepard was injured on a non-contact play and did not return to action.
One day later, and the Giants’ worst fears were realized. Shepard suffered a torn ACL and will miss the remainder of the 2022 season.
From a micro perspective, this is just brutal news for Shepard. He suffered a season-ending torn Achilles’ in Week 15 of last season and did his best in rehab to make himself available for Week 1. He’s now going to enter the 2023 season having played in all of eight games since the end of the 2020 campaign. For a player that looked like a breakout performer during his first few seasons in the NFL after the Giants made him a second-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, this is just terrible.
From a macro perspective, losing Shepard for the season adds even more issues in the Giants’ wide receiver room. The team has already been dealing with drama surrounding high-priced and unproductive wide receiver Kenny Golladay and has struggled finding a use for 2021 first-round pick Kadarius Toney.
Fresh off their first loss of the season, let’s look at three wide receiver options for the Giants following the Sterling Shepard injury news.
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New York Giants have in-house wide receiver options
Whether the situation between Golladay and the Giants is past the point of fixing remains to be seen. The Giants are looking to deal Golladay ahead of the Nov. 1 NFL trade deadline. They are even willing to pick up a nice amount of his salary after former general manager Dave Gettleman signed the Detroit Lions Pro Bowler to a four-year, $72 million deal back in March of 2021. No one has shown interest.
Despite Golladay’s comments about a lack of playing time and the fact that he won’t rule out requesting a trade, these two might be stuck with one another for the remainder of the 2022 season. Sterling Shepard’s injury could also open the door some after Golladay played in all of 26 offensive snaps over the past two games.
| Player | Receptions | Targets | Catch % | Yards | AVG | TD |
| Richie James | 14 | 17 | 82.4 | 146 | 10.4 | 0 |
| Sterling Shepard | 13 | 24 | 54.2 | 154 | 11.8 | 1 |
| David Sills | 5 | 8 | 62.5 | 58 | 11.4 | 0 |
| Kenny Golladay | 2 | 5 | 40.0 | 22 | 11.0 | 0 |
| Kadarius Toney | 2 | 3 | 66.7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wan’Dale Robinson | 1 | 1 | 100.0 | 5 | 5.0 | 0 |
Richie James is the Giants’ leading receiver with 14 catches. Shepard was tied with running bac Saquon Barkley with 13 receptions before going down to injury. Both will be relied on in the passing game for struggling quarterback Daniel Jones moving forward.
Though, New York needs to find a way to get Kadarius Toney involved in the offense. Prior to missing Week 3 with a hamstring injury, Toney had played in all of 35 snaps on offense in the past two games. He’s caught two passes for zero yards this season. Whether it’s bubble screens or something else, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka must call up plays for Toney moving forward.
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New York Giants sign Will Fuller
General manager Joe Schoen and Co. will likely have to sign a street free agent at some point soon. If nothing else, to add depth to the mix at wide receiver. Fuller joins the likes of T.Y. Hilton, Odell Beckham Jr., Emmanuel Sanders and DeSean Jackson as somewhat big names still available on the market.
Of that group, Fuller would make the most sense. The former Notre Dame standout is averaging 14.7 yards per reception throughout his career. In his last regular action with the Houston Texans back in 2020, the former first-round pick averaged a whopping 16.6 yards per catch. Sure Jones struggles getting the ball down the field. But providing him with someone who can take the top off the defense is a necessity. New York doesn’t have that right now.
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New York Giants trade for Nelson Agholor
Despite their loss to Dallas on Monday, the Giants are still 2-1 on the season. They face an average Chicago Bears team in Week 4. Making a win-now move could be in the cards given the decent start to the Brian Daboll era in Jersey. If so, Agholor would be a great fit and could come on the cheap in terms of compensation heading the New England Patriots’ way.
Agholor was firmly on the trade block this past offseason. He’s responded by catching 11-of-14 passes for 179 yards and a touchdown through the first three games. In terms of yardage, the former Philadelphia Eagles’ first-round pick would actually be New York’s leading receiver. Offer up a mid-round pick and see if the rebuilding Patriots bite.