The Giants got their first win of the season against the Vikings on Monday night, but the team’s change of fortune didn’t extend to one of their starting wide receivers.
Hakeem Nicks dropped several passes during the game, continuing a campaign that’s featured more bad than good. Nicks has been criticized for not fighting hard enough for balls in addition to not holding onto enough of them, two reasons why Giants coach Tom Coughlin said Wednesday that Nicks hasn’t been a reliable enough player to this point in the season.
“You’ve got to get to the point where the reliability factor is there as strongly as it always has been,” Coughlin said, via the New York Daily News. “Has it been there up to this point? No. But we’re saying ‘Let’s get back to work and get this done.’ We count on this guy.”
Nicks didn’t endear himself to Coughlin by skipping voluntary work this offseason, but the coach said Wednesday that he doesn’t think thoughts about impending free agency are contributing to Nicks’ on-field struggles. If they are, it’s a real problem for Nicks because struggling now is going to negatively impact the contract he gets later whether he gets it from the Giants or someone else.