During the opening drive of Thursday night’s preseason game against the New England Patriots, wide receiver Kenny Golladay dropped a pass at the goal line.
The drop prevented the New York Giants from scoring a touchdown, instead forcing them to settle for a field goal. Immediately, the complaints about Golladay poured in.
But was Golladay actually at fault for the drop? Was his slow-developing route open for criticism? Not so much, says Giants head coach Brian Daboll.
“I mean it always can be a little bit better and we can finish it a little bit better, but again that’s the redzone,” Daboll told reporters. “Making tight throws, tight catches, you’d like the accuracy to be exactly where you want it, (Daniel Jones) put it a little bit low, and we just failed to convert on that. That’s part of the technique and the fundamentals that we’ll work on.”
At the start of Daboll’s press conference, he acknowledged the coaches had not yet gone over film of the game. Perhaps he saw it differently from the sideline and would get a better view on film, but he was quick to place the blame on Jones.
To the naked eye and the casual observer, Golladay appeared to cut the route short, was slow out of his break and then simply had the ball bounce off the numbers on his chest. At the time of the release, Jones was a split-second away from taking a big hit from unblocked defender.
A lot went wrong on the play, but none of it really appeared to be Jones’ fault. If the pass was low, it was maybe by just an inch or two (the pass reached Golladay at chest height).
3rd down and…. Kenny Golladay drops it. pic.twitter.com/u5nLX1nZ7h
— Bobby Skinner (@BobbySkinner_) August 11, 2022
It’s curious that Daboll would single out Jones for Golladay’s drop, but DJ would likely assume the blame anyway.
No matter how the Giants want to present it, they have a Golladay problem. He’s lacked an ability to separate dating back to last season, frequently drops passes in big moments and just generally seems lazy in his route running. No amount of blaming Jones is going to change that.
