Giants WR Kenny Golladay catches a break with Jason Garrett gone

The Giants may have lost an offensive coordinator, but perhaps they’ll gain a wide receiver.

While the firing of Jason Garrett has certainly sent emotional shock waves through the organization, representing the exit of someone with decades of ties to the franchise and clearly close relationships with every level of the team from ownership to the starting quarterback, the ultimate winner from his departure could very well be the player who was brought in this past offseason to help Garrett spice up the offense.

Kenny Golladay has been targeted four times in the past two games.

That’s about to change.

"We’ll make sure to correct that," Joe Judge said of Golladay’s minuscule role in the two games since he returned from a knee injury during his postgame torching of the team’s offensive philosophies.

The Giants signed Golladay to a four-year, $72 million contract with $40 million guaranteed in March. While injuries have plagued his first few months of work on the field with the Giants, including a hamstring issue that robbed him of nearly all of the preseason and training camp, Golladay has been grossly underutilized during his time on the field.

In seven games he has caught just 20 passes for 322 yards. Nearly a third of that production (6 catches for 116 yards) came in one game against the Saints, meaning in his other six outings for his new team he has pulled in just 14 passes for 206 yards. Oh, and he has yet to score a touchdown for the Giants despite having been brought in to help boost the number of points scored.

Golladay and Garrett got off to a rocky start, though, and it did not take long for their relationship to deteriorate. By Week 2 the receiver was seen yelling at the coordinator on the sideline.

Golladay was not made available to the media after practice on Wednesday, but at the time of that heated argument Golladay said it was "pretty much me just talking to [Garrett] a little bit… More so just me wanting to do anything I can. Not so much get me the ball more."

Maybe he should have been more direct about getting the ball more.

Then again, maybe he has been.

Judge made a point of saying that if he was a player he’d be frustrated with the coaching from Monday night’s 30-10 loss too. This despite no overt instances of boiling over frustration that were noticed by the television cameras on the sideline. And when asked about Golladay’s state of mind on Wednesday, Judge indicated that Golladay had brought his grievances to him.

"If you have an issue inside the building, you have to address that issue," Judge said. "We’re not going to let something just fester at the source. If you have an issue, come and address it right away. We’ve got a group of guys who communicate very openly. We do it the right way, we talk very directly, we talk to the people who can fix the problems because if you’re not talking to the people who can fix the problems, all you’re doing is complaining."

Whether or not Golladay nudged Garrett out the door, he should benefit from it. Now he has to make it count.

"It’s just finding those opportunities when he is in a matchup we like or running a route that we like," Daniel Jones said of getting Golladay more involved. "He’s got to do a good job of getting open and winning in those situations."

Could be that with the staff shuffling which occurred this week, he already has.

"You want to create scenarios for your best players to go ahead and make impact plays," Judge said of the offensive philosophy he wants to employ in this post-Garrett era.

It’s now Golladay’s chance to show he is one of them.

NOTES & QUOTES: Judge would not announce who will call the offensive plays on Sunday but said he has a good idea who it will be. The expectation remains that senior offensive assistant Freddie Kitchens will handle the responsibility … One thing Judge did say about that job is where he’d like for it to happen. "I would expect everyone involved in calling plays being on the sideline," he said. "I think it’s important for a play-caller to be on the sideline to have direct communication with the quarterback, number one. Also, to be there to present anything new to the team if he has to draw something up or present a concept or a scheme we’re going to have to do" . . . The Giants had two walk-through workouts on Wednesday less than 48 removed from their last game so the injury report was mostly a projection and likely irrelevant in regard to Sunday availabilities, but TE Kyle Rudolph (ankle), WR Kadarius Toney (quad) and TE Kaden Smith (knee) were listed among the non-participants. WR Sterling Shepard (quad) who has missed the past two games was on the field for some drills but also listed as a non-participant. RB Saquon Barkley (ankle), CB Adoree’ Jackson (quad) and WR John Ross (quad) were limited.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

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.