After two completed games, is Davis Webb the future quarterback that the New York Giants are looking for? He’ll likely have significant playing time in tonight’s game against the Jets, but before that happens, it’s time to look back at his performance against the Detroit Lions. It had a big contrast from his first game of the preseason.
Webb’s Performance Last Game
14 completions from 20 attempts, 140 yards, and one touchdown with no interceptions is what Webb finished the game with. But the stats only tell part of the story. A rather surface level version of it. It’s important to see just how Webb got those completions and yards, and a more detailed study of the tape gives mixed results.
On the good side, Webb’s deep arm is something that showed. Perhaps most notably when he made a 27 yard completion to Sterling Shepard, placing the ball by the sideline and leading Shepard to a completion by making sure that the pass landed right in front of him. There was decent pass coverage on that play. Good coverage, even, but Webb showed the ability to beat it.
That arm was a double edged sword in this game, though. There were also times when Webb tried to gun the ball into an area that was covered, resulting in a pass breakup at best and a chance for the other team to get an interception at the worst. At first, some of the completions seemed like they might be the result of slightly inaccurate passes.
But really, it looked like Webb could have used better decision making on some of them. His current style will fly in the preseason, but if Webb ends up in an actual regular season game for any reason, it would be smart for him to make more conservative choices and take less risks putting the ball into covered areas.
Webb only played the first half, with Kyle Lauletta coming in for the third quarter, but that half gave us some good insights. Unlike the first game, Webb looked more like an NFL player. Not perfect, but he flashed his arm strength and deep accuracy and showed awareness in the pocket, even if he looked a bit jumpy at times.
With a Teddy Bridgewater trade likely off the table because of Bridgewater’s one year deal with the New York Jets, it looks like the Giants will be stuck with Webb and Lauletta behind Eli Manning for better or for worse this year. And with one more good performance, this time against the Giants’ city rivals, it’s safe to say that Webb is expected to enter the season as the number two that is being groomed to eventually come in for Eli Manning.