Tyrod Taylor’s rain-making pass hung in the air for so long Sunday as it traveled 60 yards downfield that it allowed time for wandering minds to consider bigger questions.
Is the Giants offense more aggressive with Taylor — or even Tommy DeVito — at quarterback than it was with Daniel Jones?
We’ll look into that once we’re done with the season,” head coach Brian Daboll said Monday, wrapping up a 26-25 loss to the Rams.
Quarterback Tyrod Taylor has thrown 80- and 69-yard touchdown passes to Darius Slayton in consecutive weeks.
Robert Sabo for the NY Post
Here’s one stat Daboll might see: Taylor’s Average Intended Air Yards — the vertical distance that a pass travels from the line of scrimmage to reaching its target — is 8.6 yards per pass, while Jones’ 6.8 is much closer to DeVito’s 6.5 and to the bottom of the league, according to NextGenStats.
The eye test of Taylor’s 80- and 69-yard touchdown passes to speedster Darius Slayton in back-to-back weeks support the analytics.
“I thought they had some really good designs … and I thought there were some really good examples of Tyrod being able to buy some time, escape the rush and give chances for things to develop off-schedule,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “They were able to create some explosives in the pass game where you felt that.
Here’s a second stat Daboll might see: The Giants’ average pass is 5.82 yards with Taylor (148 attempts), 4.29 yards with DeVito (176) and 3.97 yards with Jones (160).
They averaged 4.7 yards gained or fewer per pass attempt in four of the five games when Jones played the majority of snaps compared to 5.2 yards gained or more per pass attempt during six of the 11 games when Taylor or DeVito played the majority.
And a third: Jones is 12 of 37 over two seasons under Daboll on passes covering more than 20 yards, while Taylor is 8 of 22 and DeVito is an impressive 7 of 14, according to Pro Football Focus.
“From my perspective, whenever we see a receiver even with the safety, then we give them a chance,” Taylor said. “You want to create as many explosives as you can week-in and week-out.”
Daboll encouraged the undrafted rookie DeVito to look downfield, so it’s safe to assume that he wants the same out of the Giants’ $160 million investment in Jones or any quarterback added to the mix via free agency or the draft this offseason, when Taylor is expected to explore other opportunities
See it, let it go,” Daboll previously said. “Trust your eyes. Be intelligently aggressive.”
Daboll credited Taylor’s decision-making against the Rams for fueling the chunk gains.
“Every game is different, but he’s done that the last couple of games for us which in turn helps,” Daboll said. “You skip some third downs and usually it gives you points.
