Can Jonathan Stewart be a steady contributor for Giants this season?
Giants running back Jonathan Stewart practices during training camp. Credit: Brad Penner
It’s easy to say it’s only the preseason and pooh-pooh a lack of production when a player is in his prime. When a running back is north of 30, is entering his second decade in the NFL and seems unable to execute a carry for positive yardage in any of the three preseason games he’s played in, however, you start to wonder.
Is it over? Is this it, the big steep slide into football oblivion?
That’s what the Giants have to decide when it comes to Jonathan Stewart. So far they remain confident that the 31-year-old will be able to ramp up his game and contribute more in the regular season than he has in the preseason. That despite his putting together the most glaring stat line on the team: 10 carries for a combined minus-5 yards with a costly fumble inside the opposing team’s 10-yard line. But on Sunday, coach Pat Shurmur suggested that there really is no way of being certain.
“You never totally know,” Shurmur said. “But I know he’s a pro and I know the history behind how offseason training has gone for him. We have intimate knowledge about him as a player as he’s gone through the years. Again, we trust Jonathan and we trust that he’ll be productive.”
That word, or course, can have all kinds of meanings. Productivity comes in various forms. The Giants signed Stewart to a two-year, $6.8-million contract with $3.45 million guaranteed and insisted at the time that he had plenty of plays left in him, but the way the Giants’ running back group has evolved since then, that might not be exactly what the Giants need from him.
Ideally, Saquon Barkley will be on the field for the majority of plays, and second-year back Wayne Gallman has shown an ability to run and catch the ball at a decent level this summer. That doesn’t leave much room on the field for Stewart. If he has to play more than a dozen snaps in a game and touch the ball more than five or six times per contest, chances are the Giants are in trouble at running back anyway.
General manager Dave Gettleman has said about signing veteran players: “As these guys age, if you manage them properly, you can get some quality snaps out of them. Now it’s about quality snaps, it’s not about quantity.”
Stewart needs to be able to show some statistical reason to be on the team. He downplayed his numbers.
“I think this is a time, obviously, where you have an opportunity to work on your craft . . . At the end of the day, [you need a] goldfish memory,” he said, “because once something bad goes wrong, you have to learn how to bounce back and move forward to the next play because time is going to continue to tick.”
Toward the opener, and maybe toward the end of a career.
“Age has its lows, but it also has its strengths,” Stewart said. “I feel good. Health-wise, I’m maintained pretty well. It’s been a good offseason for me. I’ve just been working on my health, staying active and staying in shape.”
Whether he can contribute for the Giants this season remains the biggest mystery. The Giants can be hopeful and gamble that he will. But as Shurmur pointed out, there’s really no way of determining it until the answer is made clear on its own when it counts the most.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
