New York Giants Week 16 Inactive Report & Lineup Notes

One game-day surprise for the Giants, and a couple of looming personnel changes that could be made given this week's opponent.

As expected, Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (hamstring/ankle) and inside linebacker Blake Martinez (ankle) are active for the Giants' Week 16 game at Baltimore.

Jones had been trending toward a return after missing last weekend's game against the Browns, but Martinez, who showed up on the team's injury report Friday, was a bit touch-and-go at first. Martinez, who earlier this month also nursed a back ailment, underwent intensive treatment and rest and should be good to go as far as carrying his usual workload.

Receiver Golden Tate (calf) is the only injury-related scratch this week. The Giants also declared fullback Eli Penny (illness) out of the game just minutes before the inactive list was announced. Penny's illness is not COVID-19 related, according to a team spokesperson.

With Penny, who is a core special teams player, out of today's game, linebacker T.J. Brunson is active and expected to fill Penny's role on special teams. Meanwhile, something to keep an eye on as far as the offense is concerned is offensive lineman Shane Lemieux taking on Penny's fullback snaps in the game, a role that Lemieux has dabbled with earlier this season.

The rest of the list includes offensive linemen Kyle Murphy and Jackson Barton, and defensive lineman R.J. McIntosh.

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The question though for the Giants is that with receiver Dante Pettis active, will he replace one or both of Jabrill Peppers on punt returns and Dion Lewis on kickoff returns?

Peppers, the team's primary punt returner, leads a unit that is averaging 10.8 yards per return, seventh in the league, so on that stat alone, there would be no glaring sense of urgency to make a change, especially since the punt returners haven't had ball security issues.

But an argument could be made that Peppers, who has made some questionable decisions regarding when to field balls and when to let them bounce and roll, has cost the Giants a bit of field position this year and illustrates a lack of "feel" for the position. 

So again, this is something to keep an eye on in this game as the Giants have, over the last several weeks, been losing the starting field position badly, which is not something an offense that's been struggling to score as is needs.

Kickoff returns is another story. The Giants are averaging 22.2 yards per return, 13th in the league but Lewis has had two fumbles in his last two games. 

Although Pettis has been primarily a punt returner in college and the NFL, kickoff returns are believed to be easier for a player to field as the ball doesn't take as weird of a spin when it's kicked off a tee as opposed to coming off a punter's foot.

Rookie cornerback Darnay Holmes (knee) is active this week after missing the last two games with his injury. Holmes probably won't see a full workload this afternoon as the Giants will likely turn more toward their big nickel package with rookie Xavier McKinney seeing a fair amount of snaps to counter the Ravens personnel groupings.

The Ravens have used 22-personnel (two running backs, two tight ends) on a league-leading 15% of their offensive snaps this season, and are also a heavy user of 21-personnel (two running backs, one tight end), which they've used on 15% of their offensive snaps this year.  

At the core of the Ravens' big personnel grouping is 6-foot-3, 284-pound fullback Patrick Ricard, a college defensive lineman turned fullback who has played in at least 30 of the Ravens offensive snaps in the last three games.

Speaking of the Ravens, their inactive list is headlined by cornerback Marcus Peters (calf), who had been listed as questionable on their injury report. He joins cornerback Jimmy Smith (ribs/shoulder who had been declared out Friday, receiver James Proche, running back Mark Ingram, outside linebacker Jaylon Ferguson, center Trystan Colon-Castillo and defensive tackle Broderick Washington.