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The Giants offense has been as exciting to watch as a rusty, beat-up refrigerator left on the side of the highway.
If that doesn't make much sense, well, neither does the Giants' awful preseason. Not at face value, at least.
After the free-agent shopping spree and drafting of Sterling Shepard, the expectations over what the Giants offense would be was dreamy.
But the preseason has been a nightmare ...
Yikes.
Is it panic time? Should Fantasy owners bail on the Giants?
Well, before you do, check out how they did last preseason ...
Shepard is a rookie who was in college this time last year, so he gets a pass.
It's as if the Giants decided to do something crazy and use the preseason to get back in rhythm, not show their entire playbook and learn from their mistakes. Imagine that.
Whatever they're doing with their preseasons, it's working. Manning has posted back-to-back seasons with more than 4,400 yards and 30 touchdowns despite poor preseason totals. Beckham has back-to-back seasons with at least 1,300 yards and at least 12 touchdowns without flashing in August.
Former Giant Rueben Randle, the second-best receiver in the Giants offense the past two seasons, had more than 900 yards in 2014 and eight touchdowns and almost 800 yards in 2015. You know he didn't do anything awesome in the preseason, and the only reason why I'm bringing up Randle is because he played in the role Shepard will inherit.
Even Victor Cruz, who was finally on the field after missing all of last year, should play a role for the Giants. He'll man the slot and, depending on just how well Shepard acclimates, will either be more of a supporting cast member or a candidate for some decent numbers. He's not worth a bench spot on a typical Fantasy team, but it's not out of the realm of possibility that he could emerge as a trendy waiver-wire pick-up once the season gets going. And it's worth adding that he looked pretty good.
The most important common denominator for the Giants offense: Ben McAdoo has been calling the shots for the past two seasons and is now in charge as the Giants coach.
Same system, same playbook. It all seems to mesh well with Manning, good preseason totals or not.
Maybe the only concern is Jennings, who didn't look very quick behind an offensive line that didn't give him (or any of the Giants' top running backs) a lot of room to maneuver.
If this were to continue into the season then Jennings might lose some Fantasy appeal, but it's not like the Giants have a great back waiting in the wings. Not even rookie Paul Perkins (averaging 3.5 yards per carry) can be viewed as a sure-fire replacement.
Hopefully your leaguemates have seen how bad the Giants have played this preseason and are ready to not draft any of them. Then you can draft them all at depressed values. The track record suggests no drop-off for the Giants passing game despite the slow August.
As for the run game, Jennings is best viewed as a guy who should be a decent starter for your roster to begin the season but not someone you can depend on for 16 weeks.