The New York state of mind will be heading for an influx of new talent as the offseason rolls along, and after a 6-10 record in Joe Judge's first year as the Giants head coach, they look to improve this roster and compete in the NFC East.

Despite having double-digit losses in 2020, the Giants finished just one game back from winning the division. They were without star running back Saquon Barkley, who missed 14 games after suffering a torn ACL, and quarterback Daniel Jones hit some road bumps in his second season in the league.

The hire of Judge was a questionable one at the time, but he had this team fighting on a weekly basis without their best player for the majority of the year.

The offense struggled mightily, scoring only 25 touchdowns throughout the entirety of the season, which is extremely low. Jones finished the year with 2,943 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 10 picks in 14 games, which needs big improvements if they want to compete going forward.

Judge's Giants finished the year 31st in yards and points per game, 29th in pass yards, and 9th in points against, and if they want to have a shot at winning the NFC East they have their work cut out for them. The defense needs work, the offense needs work, and Jones needs to improve as a quarterback for this team to have any type of hope.

The Giants will have a lot of work to do this offseason, and there should be some roster cuts in the Big Apple, with one surprising one happening on the offensive side of the ball.

WR Golden Tate

The signing of Tate seemed like a terrific one a couple of years back, but it's safe to say he hasn't worked out as they had hoped. They signed Tate to a four-year deal worth $37.5 million and so far he hasn't lived up to expectations.

He has a cap hit of $10.8 million in 2021, and the Giants have quality receivers in Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton and don't need Tate taking up a roster spot anymore.

Tate put up 388 yards on 35 catches and a pair of touchdowns in 2020, and in 2019 he posted 676 yards with six scores on 49 catches. He failed to play more than 12 games in either season for the Giants and was involved in some headlines as he asked for more catches and in turn was disciplined and missed a game because of his actions.

Tate was frustrated after not being thrown the ball, and his wife made matters worse with a social media rant. Either way, it's unclear if Tate ends up getting more touches with Slayton, Shepard, and tight end Evan Engram, not to mention Barkley coming back and culturing touches from the rest of the offense.

Slayton had 751 yards and Shepard had 656 yards, neither twice as much as Tate. The Giants are facing a movement of youth as well, and with Tate on the wrong side of 30, it makes sense not just for the Giants, but for Tate as well as he looks to go to a team with more opportunity on offense.

Tate spent the first four years of his career with the Seattle Seahawks and was a member of the Super Bowl team before going to the Detroit Lions where he had his best years.

In four years in Detroit, he had three seasons of 1,000 yards before being sent to the Philadelphia Eagles halfway through the 2018 season.

The offense needs a spark and will need to be much better than they were last year, and a lot of that falls on the shoulders of Jones. Of course, having Barkley back will do wonders for that group.

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Judge and the Giants front office have a ton of work to do and cutting Tate will not only free up cap space, but it will also allow the troubled wide receiver to go elsewhere, allowing for fewer altercations in the locker room and disruptions on social media.

They need to upgrade positions on both sides, including cornerback, edge rusher, and perhaps adding a tight end that can catch the football after Engram disappointed once again in 2020.

The salary cap is expected to decrease a little bit due to the pandemic, although the league hasn't officially set it.

Tate should have no problem finding a job on another team, but being a number one or number two receiver like he wants to be might be hard to come by, especially with the receiver class in the upcoming draft being deep.

 

 

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