Golden Tate Returning to Big Blue

On Thursday night, it was revealed that Golden Tate would not be traveling with the Giants to their game against the Washington Football Team on Sunday. This was a disciplinary measure regarding his actions during loss against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers the week before.

After not playing in Sunday’s game against Washington, Tate’s future with the Giants was in question. However, recent statements by Joe Judge seem to suggest that Tate is back with the team and in (seemingly) good spirits

Flashback to the close loss against the Buccaneers. Late in the fourth quarter, Tate caught a 19 yard touchdown from Daniel Jones that gave the opportunity to tie the game with a two point conversion. After the catch, Tate looked into one of the television cameras broadcasting the game and promptly exclaimed “Throw me the ball!.” Tate’s wife, Elise later posted on social media to complain that her husband wasn’t being targeted enough. “He’s @showtimetate!! SO UNDER UTILIZED. AS HIS WIFE I CANNOT EVEN WATCH WITH ONE EYE OPEN!!!!” she wrote. “Same exact thing last game. One target in the first quarter — of course — an epic TD. HE NEEDS TO (BE) FED THE BALL. Period. Watch the film.”, Elise said. Golden also liked a tweet that suggested he should be cut and that he should sign with another team.

Many critics of Tate have claimed his skill is declining, and he is failing to separate from defenders on offensive plays, but during Monday’s game, he had clear separation from defenders on 13 plays.

All of these instances show that Golden was fed up by what he perceives as a lack of targeting and utilization in the giants offense, and a lack of appreciation from quarterback Daniel Jones and head coach Joe Judge. Tate has only been targeted 29 times this season, behind both Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton. Despite the lack of targets, he has made some big plays this season, such as the aforementioned touchdown against the Buccaneers, as well as a late game grab against the Eagles in week 7.

These comments prompted Joe Judge to have a long discussion with Tate which then prompted Judge to sit Tate for Sunday’s game against the Washington Football team. Obviously annoyed, Judge had this to say regarding the situation: “First off, it has to be team-first for everyone in this building,” Judge said Wednesday. “Every coach and every player. It has to be team-first. There are no exceptions for that. I’m not going to tolerate any kind of selfish behavior from anybody, a coach or a player. It’s not going to happen.”

Despite seemingly calling out Daniel Jones with his comments, Jones had positive things to say about Tate in an interview, “He’s made a lot of plays over these last couple of years, and I certainly have a lot of trust in him as a player,” I certainly value our relationship, respect him. My job is to distribute the ball to our playmakers and let them make plays. He’s a great player, and we’ll keep trying to get him the ball.”

After dealing with the matter internally, Coach Judge decided to lift the suspension, and allow Tate to play and practice with the team. “He’ll definitely be out there practicing with us,” Judge said. “Like all of our players, we’ll have plans for these guys within the game plan. I would anticipate Golden being active,” Judge said. “I have no reason to believe he wouldn’t be active at this point. We’ll go through this week and see how everything goes with everybody on the team, and see how everything lays out.”

As of right now, it looks like Golden Tate will be lacing up to join his teammates against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday November 15th, as fans wonder if this incident will change the Giants offense in any way.