Anthony Rivardo
The NY Giants signed Darnell Mooney to be the field-stretching WR2 next to Malik Nabers, but that role could become even more important early in the season.
Nabers is still working back from a significant knee injury, and his recent clean-up procedure has made his Week 1 timeline a little less comfortable. If the Giants are forced to manage his workload out of the gate, Mooney may be the receiver asked to carry more volume than originally expected.
This could give him an opportunity to eclipse the 1,000-yard threshold for the second time in his career.
Mooney has already proven he can handle the workload
Mooney’s best NFL season came in 2021 with the Chicago Bears, when he caught 81 passes for 1,055 yards and four touchdowns. That remains the only 1,000-yard campaign of his career, but it is not some distant outlier built on a small sample. He handled 17 games, produced as the clear top target, and gave Chicago consistent downfield juice in an offense that was far from loaded with reliable receiving talent.
The Giants should be especially interested in who was overseeing that offense. Matt Nagy was the Bears’ head coach during Mooney’s first two seasons in Chicago, including that 2021 breakout. Now Nagy is the offensive coordinator in New York, giving Mooney a familiar voice and a system that should already understand how to use his speed.
Mooney nearly crossed the same threshold again in 2024 with the Falcons, finishing with 64 receptions for 992 yards and five touchdowns. Missing the mark by eight yards is not a coincidence-level contribution. It is WR2 production with legitimate explosive value.
The 2025 dip needs context
The concern with Mooney is obvious: his 2025 season did not come close to matching that 2024 form. He finished with 32 catches for 443 yards and one touchdown, a steep drop for a receiver who had looked like one of Atlanta’s better offensive additions the year before.
The context matters, though. Mooney’s season was disrupted before it really got moving. Falcons head coach Raheem Morris later said Mooney broke his collarbone on the first play of training camp, then he dealt with a hamstring setback in the fall. That meant limited practice time, a compromised ramp-up, and an inconsistent connection with Michael Penix Jr.
Atlanta’s quarterback situation did not exactly create stability around him, either. The Falcons started multiple quarterbacks for the fourth straight season, with Penix starting nine games and Kirk Cousins starting eight, according to the team’s 2025 quarterback review. For a receiver whose game is built on timing, speed, and vertical separation, that kind of disruption matters.
The Giants may need more than WR2 production
In a perfect version of this offense, Nabers is healthy, Jaxson Dart has a true No. 1 receiver dictating coverage, and Mooney spends the season attacking favorable matchups as the second option. That is the cleanest path for Nagy’s passing game.
The Giants may not get that clean version right away.
If Nabers is limited early, Mooney becomes more than a complementary deep threat. He becomes the veteran receiver Dart may need to lean on while the offense finds its rhythm. His 13.0 career yards per reception shows he can still create chunk gains, and his 4,028 career receiving yards give the Giants a proven option instead of asking a young receiver room to absorb every snap and target.
That does not mean Mooney needs to be force-fed like a true WR1 for 17 games. It does mean the Giants have a path to getting far more production from him than the typical one-year veteran signing. If the early workload spikes and Nagy taps back into the version of Mooney he once had in Chicago, the 1,000-yard threshold is not out of reach.
The Giants brought Mooney in to raise the floor around Nabers and Dart. If Nabers’ recovery opens the door for a larger role, Mooney may have a chance to give them much more than that.
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