Latimer: Giants' receiving group 'can be dominant'

The New York Giants' passing attack lost its key cog from the past five seasons when Odell Beckham Jr. was traded to the Cleveland Browns in March.

The Giants subsequently invested heavily in their receiving group, inking free agent Golden Tate to a big-money deal, extending slot weapon Sterling Shepard, and re-signing Cody Latimer.

With tight end Evan Engram also primed for a larger role following Beckham's exit, Latimer believes New York has the depth and ability to be an elite group rather than relying on a single, transcendent talent.

"Anybody can get the ball," Latimer said, according to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. "You're open, you don't get it, that means somebody else is getting it and you're hoping they make a play. We got an unselfish room in there. We don't really care or actually don't talk about it at all, who's getting the ball.

"It's a group effort. The group can be dominant, period."

Beckham led the Giants in receiving yards (1,052), touchdowns (six), and targets (124) last season despite only playing in 12 games; then-rookie running back Saquon Barkley was the team's receptions leader with 91 catches and had the second-most targets. Shepard's 872 yards and 66 catches were second and third on the team, respectively.

The Giants will probably depend the most on Shepard to fill the void left by Beckham.

The 2016 second-round pick has developed into one of the league's best slot receivers, but with Tate - who spent 69 percent of his 2018 snaps in the slot while playing for the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles, per Next Gen Stats - joining the team, one of the two wideouts will need to move outside.

Shepard appears likely to be the one on the move, but it remains to be seen if he's ready for defenses to view him as New York's No. 1 receiving threat.

In the four games Beckham missed at the end of the season, Shepard had an unremarkable 14 grabs for 234 yards and a touchdown on 31 targets for a catch rate of 45.2 percent. With Beckham on the field in 2018, Shepard caught 68.1 percent of the passes thrown his way.