2022 Dynasty/Fantasy Preseason Week 2 Game Report: Giants 25, Bengals 22 (by Ross Jacobs)
This was a very poor look for the Giants despite the win. As RC keeps talking about, in the preseason you want to see the backups of good teams mopping the floor with the starters and backups of weak teams. Cincy's 2nd team handled the New York starters just fine. The Giants are getting better, which I'll talk about in a minute, but they are still a bottom 8 team and the Bengals backups were playing right there with them if not better.
Let's start with Daniel Jones because there are a lot of smart people that think he's going to play much better with Brian Daboll this year and just from what I saw here...I would say that's accurate. I don't think he's suddenly going to turn into a franchise QB but he won't be a complete embarrassment either. I know I said the Giants starters were basically playing even with the Bengals 2nd team but the starting skill position players from New York were all out so evens out a little.
Jones looked more comfortable than I've seen him in the past. The offense Daboll is running is basically the Alabama offense. It's very controlled, well-structured, and QB friendly. Daboll is doing everything he can to simplify reads for Jones and get the ball out of his hands quickly, and Jones, being a book-smart QB, is running this simple offense rather well. His accuracy holds up so long as the ball is out before pressure arrives and he's getting to his checkdowns quickly. There will still be occasional horrible interceptions where he fires blindly right to a linebacker he didn't see though.
Don't expect monster numbers from him this year, but this might be ok, especially for fantasy. I think we're going to see a lot of 200-250 yard games with 1-2 TDs and less interceptions. He can still add a little on the ground running too. Add in a very soft schedule and I won't be surprised if Daniel Dimes has a 2nd year Josh Allen type season statistically (about 3500 yards, around 20 TDs/12 INTs, and 400 or so rushing yards with another 3-4 rushing TDs). That might be enough to land him as a QB2 and make him a decent value play in DFS. It isn't going to translate into many real world wins but hey we only really care about fantasy anyways.
Antonio Williams was the starter at RB signaling he's the #3 back or at least is battling for it with Gary Brightwell (who didn't play). He looked pretty good and was running with nice effort. Rookie Jashaun Corbin doesn't look nearly as fast or explosive as he did in college. He's really a one-cut runner though and never got a full head of steam here. He probably gets stashed on the p-squad.
Cincy RB Chris Evans continues to impress. He looks so much smoother and quicker than he did in college, an extension of what we saw last year. He's an excellent return man and 3rd down back for now with a chance to split with Perine if Mixon gets hurt.
The Bengals have a couple of interesting rookie receivers playing. The better of the two in my opinion is Kwamie Lassiter. His measurables are ugly but man he looks quick on the field. The Giants had their hands full trying to cover him. He did drop an easy 2-pt conversion in the endzone though. Coaches hate that kind of thing. The other player is Kendric Pryor. He looks and plays way bigger than he actually is, has solid hands, but doesn't separate well. I doubt either one makes the team. They simply have too many other experienced players ahead of them.
The best receiver on the field for either team though had to be Alex Bachman. He's been floating around the league for a few years now not doing anything, but he put on a clinic this game. The Bengals just could not cover him no matter what they tried. This is a weird comp but he reminds me of a short Chris Hogan mixed with James Proche. Figure that one out RC! *FROM RC: OK, I will…so, former lacrosse player/great hands grinder WR Tom Kennedy/DET then? :)*
Alex Bachman Wk2 Preseason 2022
Again I doubt Bachman will make the team simply because it's a numbers game ahead of him. Golladay, Shepard, Toney, Robinson are all making the team. That leaves room for 1 maybe 2 more receivers and he's got David Sills, Darius Slayton, and return man CJ Board all theoretically ahead of him. He would have had Collin Johnson ahead of him too but sadly Johnson tore his ACL and is out for the year.
Cincinnati was in control of this game almost the entire time, so how/why did the Giants win this game? Because Davis Webb was the best backup QB playing and he had no trouble scoring twice with little time (including an easy drive with 3 minutes remaining) against the Bengals 3rd stringers. I get that Tyrod is a steady hand and won't make many mistakes, but he also has no upside. The Giants should trade him to SF and ride with Webb but they won't. I'm not saying he's some savior or anything, he's definitely worse than Jones, but at least he's got a little something extra to offer.
I have a handful of notes on the defensive side: my most notable would be to take Tae Crowder ahead of Blake Martinez in IDP leagues. Martinez is coming back from a torn ACL and looks like he's not quite himself yet. Crowder on the other hand was everywhere making tackles. He looks fast and aggressive and is coming off a very impressive 130 tackle season.
Quincy Roche was buried with the 3rd string defense for reasons I will never understand. I'm not saying he's a star but he can play and was borderline unblockable for the Cincy backups.
RC favorite Aaron Robinson played with good energy and competitiveness but really needs to work on some things. He's going to get flagged a lot this year if he keeps up the grabbing and hand fighting and he's got to get his head around in coverage. The movement skills are there but there might be some growing pains in 2022.
I have no idea how Clay Johnston had 20 total tackles. I barely remember even seeing him. Actually I do know how it happened. He just happened to be in the area where the Giants kept dumping short crosses and checkdowns to the RB. It wasn't anything Johnston himself did. Just cleanup duty. Nothing to see here.
I had high hopes for Giants rookie linebacker Micah McFadden but man he looked slow and stiff here. I did not expect to see that after the measurables he put up. Maybe he was just thinking too much and it caused him to react slowly but it was jarring to see him look that sluggish. It looked like his instincts were good, he knew where to go, but it was like his feet had cement blocks on them. Hopefully it was just a one time thing and he'll fix whatever the issue is because there's some ability here.
