Guess we're not going to see Jameis Winston slinging it to Malik Nabers and Darius Slayton after all. The Giants have signed Russell Wilson to a one-year, $21 million deal; apparently his agent is five times as good as Winston's (who signed for 2 years and $8M).
Last week I wrongly surmised that signing Winston meant the Giants wouldn't be interested in signing Wilson. Stung by that, I'm not going to say that signing Wilson means New York won't be drafting a quarterback at No. 3 overall (popularly, Shedeur Sanders). Clearly nothing can be taken for granted. Signing Wilson to a one-year deal and Winston for backup money suggests New York will need a quarterback in 2026, too, so they could still draft Sanders and give themselves three different possibilities to start games this season. Four if we're including Bobby or Jimmy or Tommy DeVito, who they resigned three weeks ago. A month ago they had no quarterbacks; today they've got three. Who nobody else wanted, it seems; I'm not sure who the Giants outbid for Wilson's services.
Wilson's days as a fantasy asset are pretty much over, except in SuperFlex leagues. Four years in a row he's ranked 14th-24th at the quarterback position in a fantasy leagues, making him a serviceable backup with minimal upside in typical one-quarterback leagues. He doesn't run anymore, nor does he move particularly well. He's averaged exactly 3 sacks per game in each of the last two seasons, pretty much in line with his career averages. While in the past it was due to his scrambling around extending plays, now it's more due to him not being able to elude pass rushers.
I think it's also fair to question what Wilson can do as a passer these days. Did the Giants look at the bulk of his season in Pittsburgh?
Wilson replaced Justin Fields (hey, they'll be playing their home games in the same stadium again this season!) in Week 7 last year, and won six of his first seven games as a starter. The highlight was a 414-yard, 3-TD game at Cincinnati, which we should probably assign an asterisk to because everyone was lighting up the Bengals defense last season. But check out his last five games of the season after that Bengals game.
| RUSSELL WILSON, WEEK 13-18 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Result | Com | Att | Yds | TD | Int | Sk |
| Cle. | W, 27-14 | 15 | 26 | 158 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| at Phi. | L, 13-27 | 14 | 22 | 128 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| at Bal. | L, 17-34 | 22 | 33 | 217 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| K.C. | L, 10-29 | 23 | 37 | 205 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Cin. | L, 17-19 | 17 | 31 | 148 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
In those five games, Wilson threw a total of 6 touchdowns while taking his usual 15 sacks. He averaged 171 passing yards and didn't throw for even 220 in any of those games, the last of which included Cincinnati again. Those holding out hope for him might point to him throwing for 270 yards and 2 TDs in a 28-14 playoff loss at Baltimore. But Pittsburgh was never in that game, trailing 21-0 at the half and never closer than 2 TDs from the second quarter on. Garbage-time counts too in fantasy leagues, but not something to build a lineup around each week.
Compared to Winston, it's a negative for Malik Nabers. Wilson's top wideout, George Pickens, finished 42nd in PPR leagues last year. Nabers is a different kind of receiver and should catch more short passes, but I don't think he'll see the 170 targets that made him a top-10 wideout a year ago. Wilson's top wideout the previous season, Courtland Sutton, finished 35th.
Besides all that, the Giants could conceivably draft Shedeur Sanders, creating the weekly question of whether they'll opt to put him in the lineup. One would think he'd be the No. 3, but maybe New York will opt to send Winston elsewhere if they draft Sanders, and he looks competent in August.
In any case, hard to get excited about this signing, for anyone.
--Andy Richardson