When the New York Giants signed former Indianapolis Colts and Ohio State star wide receiver Parris Campbell in free agency last March, they felt they had a bit of a steal.
Campbell was coming off the best season of his injury-laden four-year career, grabbing 63 passes for 623 yards and three touchdowns on a Colts team that had a world of uncertainty at quarterback.
The Giants were coming off a season in which they had qualified for the postseason for the first time since 2017 and quarterback Daniel Jones was on the precipice of becoming one of the best in the league.
That did not happen. Jones had several injuries, including a torn ACL that ended his season, and the Giants’ offense sunk to the bottom of the NFL rankings.
The Giants’ wide receiver unit took a big hit production-wise, but none more than Campbell, however, who never seemed to fit and get untracked. As of this writing, he has just 20 receptions for 104 yards and no touchdowns in 12 games.
In Week 14, Campbell became more of an afterthought when he was a healthy scratch in the Giants’ 24-22 thrilling victory over the Green Bay Packers on Monday night.
The benching was both shocking and hurtful to the fifth-year veteran, who many were projecting to be a key figure in the Giants’ offense this season.
“Yeah, I definitely was shocked,” Campbell told the New York Daily News. “Shoot, I was more so just hurt, more than anything… hurt that I know what I put into it each and every week. And to be inactive for the first time in my career was definitely hurtful, was definitely shocking. A lot of different emotions [are] going on, for sure.”
Campbell said that the team handled it the right way, telling him 24 hours in advance of their decision, which helped ease the blow, but not enough.
“I was grateful for that, because they respected me enough to tell me early enough, and it wasn’t a blindside shock right before the game,” he said. “So I 100 percent respected that. That doesn’t take any hurt away or any pain or frustration away from it, but I definitely respected that.”
It is no shock to us here at Giants Wire that Campbell has been bumped from their future plans. He was one of the five players we identified as one of the five players most likely to not be asked back in 2024.
Campbell was inked to a one-year, $4.7 million ‘prove-it’ deal, so he’ll be a free agent. The Giants have apparently moved on from him earlier than expected.
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