Giants Used Two Running Backs on 51 Percent of Snaps in Week 1, Four Times the League Rate
Their two-tight-end rate was league average. ESPN's Jordan Raanan predicted in March that signing Isaiah Likely and Patrick Ricard out of Baltimore would make the Giants a two-tight-end team.
The Giants used two running backs on 51% of their offensive snaps in their 28-20 win over the Cowboys on Sept. 13, more than four times the league average of 12%, according to Sharp Football Analysis' personnel charting.
Their two-tight-end rate was 35%. The league average was 34%.
In March, after the Giants signed tight end Isaiah Likely, fullback Patrick Ricard, punter Jordan Stout and defensive back Ar'Darius Washington out of Baltimore, ESPN's Jordan Raanan wrote that Likely's addition "will make the Giants a two-TE, heavy-set team." Raanan cited the Ravens' 12-personnel rate of 35.9% in 2025, third in the league by his figures, and their use of at least two tight ends on more than half their offensive plays. He reported that team and league sources believed Likely and Theo Johnson would be on the field together with regularity.
The Giants ran 22 personnel, two backs and two tight ends, on 20% of their snaps against a league average of 3%. They ran 21 personnel, two backs and one tight end, on another 20% against a league average of 8%. They used 11 personnel, the league's base grouping, on 34% of snaps, 30th of 32 teams and well under the 57% league average. Sharp's two-back figure is broader than 21 and 22 personnel combined and includes two-back snaps in other groupings.
The same table puts the Giants at 1.1% in two-back personnel last season, 12 plays out of 1,074.
Ricard played 36 offensive snaps, 53% of the total, per RotoWire's charting. Johnson played 32, or 47%. Both appeared on the Giants' Week 1 injury report, Johnson with a shoulder and Ricard with a toe, and neither carried a game designation. Johnson practiced fully Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Ricard was not listed Wednesday or Thursday and appeared Friday as a full participant. Malik Nabers was the only Giant listed with a game status.
Asked about Ricard at his Monday news conference, John Harbaugh said: "There's a lot of things that Pat can do that nobody else can do. Nobody in the world can do some of the things that Pat Ricard can do. And that's good for us. That's unique for us. So, it helps us be who we are. It builds into our team persona, our team identity." Harbaugh was not asked about tight end usage.
Malachi Fields led the Giants' skill players in snaps and ran routes on half of them
Rookie wide receiver Malachi Fields played 49 snaps, a 72% share and the highest of any Giants skill player, per RotoWire. He ran routes on 18 of them, 50%. Big Blue View, reading PFF's charting, counted 29 run-blocking snaps for him. He was targeted four times and caught two passes for 25 yards.
How the Ravens used their tight ends in Week 1
The Ravens ran 12 personnel on 45% of their snaps in Week 1 and used two or more tight ends on 57%.
The limits of a one-game sample
Sharp charted 65 Giants plays. ESPN's play-by-play shows Jaxson Dart took three kneel-downs, which accounts for the gap between that figure and the 68 offensive plays RotoWire counted; Sharp excludes kneels, spikes and plays with incomplete personnel data.
The league averages themselves come from one week. Sharp's page notes that its efficiency metrics require at least 20 plays to display, and the Giants' 12-personnel snaps, eight of them, fall short of that. The figures measure usage only.
The snap and route figures are RotoWire's charting. Pro Football Reference had not posted its snap table for the game as of Tuesday, and lists its snap counts as unofficial when it does.
The Giants were also not the league's heaviest two-back team in Week 1. Las Vegas and San Francisco each used two backs on 52% of their snaps.
The Giants return to practice Wednesday. They play at the Rams on Monday, Sept. 21.