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Sep 14, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson (3) warms up before the game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

NY Giants Seeing Red Over Red-zone Struggles

Originally posted on New York Giants on SI
By Patricia Traina | Last updated Sep 19, 2025 10:00 AM ET

When the New York Giants signed quarterback Russell Wilson as a free agent this spring, they were undoubtedly counting on him to fix several areas that were sorely lacking on the offense last season.

The first was the vertical game, where in 2024, the Giants tied for last in the league with the Patriots on passes of 20+ yards (34).

Wilson, through two games, has definitely managed to get the Giants back on the right track in that area, as the Giants’ 10 deep pass plays of 20+ yards rank third behind the Raiders (12) and Rams (11), respectively.

But where Wilson hasn’t been able to make an impact, at least not yet, is in fixing last year’s worst-ranked red zone offense.

The Giants, who finished the 2024 season having converted 43.18% of their red zone trips into touchdowns–32nd in the league–have, through two games, only converted 14.29% of their red zone trips into touchdowns, putting them just ahead of the Texans at the bottom of the league.

The Giants have also averaged a dismal 9.5 points per game when reaching the red zone, putting them just ahead of the Raiders and the Texans.

That kind of production–or lack of it–undoubtedly has the coaching staff seeing red.

“It really just comes down to execution, negative plays, penalties, things like that,” said receiver Wan’Dale Robinson when asked about the team’s red zone woes.

“Just got to clean those things up and be better down there in that red area.”

Execution is one thing, but so too is play calling. Of the 26 plays run in the red zone this season, 16 have been pass attempts and 10 have been rushing attempts.

The passing attempts have seen the quarterback average 2.94 seconds to throw and endure 10 pressures for a 55.6% pressure rate, per NFL Pro.

The rushing attempts, meanwhile, have seen the Giants attempt six up the middle, one of which went for a touchdown, and the remaining four run wide to either the left or right end.

In most cases, the slow-developing plays, combined with the Giants’ inability to win at the point of attack, have led to disappointment.

“There are a lot of things that we've got to do. We've been talking about it all this week, really. We've got to get that cleaned up. There are some execution things,” Giants assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Mike Kafka said when asked about the red-zone struggles.

“I think we have some solutions, and so we'll go work on them and get the answers for our players so that they can go out there and have a good game.”

Might rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, with his ability to threaten defenses by running the ball, be one of those solutions?

“Every week's going to be probably a little bit different in terms of how we want to use any player, whether it's Jaxson or another running back or another tight end,” Kafka said.

“We just got to go through that as a staff and figure out what fits, what doesn't fit. Based on the schemes we're going to see from (Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo), does this certain player scheme work here, does this personnel grouping work here? So, just vetting it and going through it, but I wouldn't put a number count or anything on it.”

This article first appeared on New York Giants on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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