Jim O’Connor — US Presswire
Martellus Bennett was signed last off-season to a one-year deal by the New York Giants. It was viewed as a little bit of a gamble. Bennett was a second round pick of the Dallas Cowboys, but was behind on the depth chart to Jason Witten, and wasn’t really given a chance to prove himself. There were also other questions surrounding him like his attitude. This turned out to be one of Jerry Reese‘s typical, sneaky, under-the-radar style signings. Bennett became a reliable red-zone target for Eli Manning. Now the question is will he be back in 2013? Before we get to that, let’s look at 2012.
2012 Stats: 55 receptions, 626 yards and 5 touchdowns
2012 Game Of The Year: Bennett’s peak was kind of early on. In the third game of the year against the Carolina Panthers, he had six catches for 73 yards and a touchdown.
Where 2012 went wrong: He had a three game stretch where he totaled five catches for just 41 yards and no touchdowns. Bennett was battling a knee injury. After that, you could count on him for around five catches every game
2013 Outlook: Bennett will be an unrestricted free agent. There is talk of him possibly taking a discount in order to stay on with the team. There’s also talk of him trying to bring his brother Michael, a defensive end who is also a free agent, into the fold for the Giants. I think it would be a good idea to keep Bennett so that Manning doesn’t have his fourth different tight end in four years, unless a team gives him a huge deal that the team can’t match.
