Even with Malik Nabers working his way back from a severe knee injury, plenty of Giants fans never seemed too broken up about Wan’Dale Robinson leaving in free agency this spring.
The early returns in Tennessee have only made that look smarter.
Robinson enters Week 6 with 25 catches for 198 yards and two touchdowns for the Titans, production that hardly screams difference-maker. His yards per reception has fallen from 11.0 to 7.9, and he’s been on the field for only 67 percent of Tennessee’s offensive snaps. After landing $38 million in guaranteed money, he’s currently on pace for 71 catches and 561 yards.
That’s a step down from what he did in New York. Over his final two seasons with the Giants, Robinson averaged 93 catches and 857 yards, and he also reunited with Brian Daboll in Tennessee.
The move was supposed to give him a familiar home and a featured role. Instead, it has settled into something far less convincing.
Part of that is on quarterback Cam Ward, and Daboll doesn’t get a free pass either. But the biggest concern right now is Robinson’s recent spike in drops.
Pro-Football-Reference credits him with three drops on 37 targets, which works out to an 8.1 percent drop percentage - a career high. Last season, he had just four drops on 140 targets and looked like a dependable safety valve for Jaxson Dart.
That said, this doesn’t look like a player who cashed in and stopped caring. Robinson always seemed like the kind of receiver who had a big year, got paid off it, and landed exactly where his market said he should. He was a solid No. 2 option in New York, and he still could be that in Tennessee.
The problem is that Tennessee hasn’t exactly put him in an environment built for easy success. The Titans used the No. 4 pick on Ohio State receiver Carnell Tate, who has been phenomenal despite everything working against him, but the larger picture around Robinson remains ugly.
This is the same organization that has already made a mess of things since the Mike Vrabel firing, and Amy Adams Strunk recently convinced herself Daboll and Robert Saleh were the ideal pair to develop Ward. Great job.
Even the spending spree at tight end hasn’t paid off. The Titans handed former Giants tight end Daniel Bellinger a $14 million signing bonus, and he has responded with five catches for 30 yards while playing 43 percent of the offense’s snaps. Wonderful.
And yet Robinson at least already has his own $12 million signing bonus in the bank. So if the drops keep coming, he’s still very much ahead of the game.
In Other News...
Giants Suddenly Have A Backfield Question They Can't Ignore
The Giants have managed to stay atop the NFC East even with Jaxson Dart sidelined for the season, but the more immediate roster concern may be the backfield. Cam Skattebo is back from injury, yet his recent play has been uneven enough that his workload has started to shrink, leaving New York without a clear answer at running back as the season moves deeper into October.
That uncertainty has opened the door to outside chatter about whether the Giants need to keep looking before the trade deadline. Connor Hughes raised the possibility that New York could explore adding another primary runner, a sign that the team may be viewing Skattebo more as part of the solution than the centerpiece of it. For a team trying to protect its place in the division, the next move at running back could say plenty about how aggressively it wants to lean into the moment. [Read more 🡒]
Isaiah Likely Is Giving Giants Fans A Bigger Debate Than Expected
Isaiah Likely has quietly turned himself into one of the more interesting storylines on the Giants offense, and not just because he has become a reliable target. Entering the Texans game, the tight end has already carved out a place near the top of his position group leaguewide, and the production has started to force a bigger conversation about where he fits among the best tight ends in football.
What makes the discussion even more notable is how quickly the season has changed the ceiling around him. His current pace has him on track to push past the franchises single-season marks for a Giants tight end, and that kind of year is starting to put first-team All-Pro consideration in play. For a team still sorting out its broader offensive identity, Likely has become one of the clearest signs of progress. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Suddenly Have A Real Kayvon Thibodeaux Decision
Kayvon Thibodeauxs spot with the Giants has quietly gone from assumed to uncertain. He is now working as a backup edge rusher while playing on his fifth-year option without a contract extension, and the team has already explored the idea of trading him without actually pulling the trigger. Depth has been the biggest reason to hold off, because New York could not afford to thin out a pass-rushing group that still needs bodies.
Trace Fords emergence changes that calculation. The undrafted edge rusher has started to look like a real part of the rotation, giving the Giants a little more flexibility than they had before and making a midseason move on Thibodeaux more plausible than it seemed earlier. If Ford can keep showing he belongs, New York may soon have to decide whether keeping Thibodeaux for the stretch run is worth more than recouping a draft pick while his value is still intact. [Read more 🡒]