Kenny Golladay's highly touted arrival in New York has yet to produce the statistical explosion many hoped for with the Giants.
It has, however, produced some frustration.
Golladay was visibly upset by the operation of New York's offense in a close loss to Washington a week ago, letting his thoughts be heard via shouting on the sideline in a moment caught by FOX's cameras. The angle appeared to show Golladay yelling at quarterback Daniel Jones near the end of a game in which the receiver was targeted eight times, but caught just three of those targets for 38 yards.
Golladay later clarified he was angry with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, not Jones. Garrett spoke on the matter Thursday.
"To me, it's not a big deal at all," Garrett told reporters. "We're excited about having Kenny Golladay here. We liked him a lot in free agency and we brought him here and he's done a really good job for us. I love the guy. I love his competitive spirit. We talk a lot about passion, emotion and enthusiasm in our players, that's line one, and demonstrating that. We talk a lot about fighting and competing, he's a guy who wants to be a part of this thing. Missed a lot of time during training camp, has done a good job when he's gotten some opportunities here in the first couple weeks. Had a couple in that game the other day that, unfortunately, we didn't finish and probably had some frustration and that stuff happens on sidelines all the time.
Golladay has caught half of his 14 targets in two games for New York for 102 yards, and he's yet to find the end zone in his new uniform. The Giants are 0-2, losing in painful fashion to start Week 2. Frustration is certainly a realistic response to this result.
"We ask our players when they're between the stripes to go out there and compete and battle and scratch and claw and we can't say when they come to the sideline, all of a sudden we're choir boys again. We understand that, I've been on sidelines for a long, long time so that happens," Garrett continued. "He and I had a good visit after the game. It was not an issue at all going forward. There's always better ways to handle things as you go forward, better ways to communicate but wasn't a big deal to me or our team at all."
Golladay isn't alone in struggling to produce as expected. First-round pick Kadarius Toney -- who had an eventful training camp for many of the wrong reasons -- also hasn't gotten going, either, catching both of his Week 1 targets for a grand total of -2 yards.
Toney played just five snaps in Week 1, and 19 snaps in Week 2, going without a target against Washington. It's about as slow a start as a high draft selection can have in a rookie season.
"He hasn't played a lot of football for us so far," Garrett said of Toney. "Receivers take some time to transition into the NFL. We all know that."
So far, the transition for both Golladay and Toney has been difficult. The good news: The Giants still have 15 more games to figure it out.
