Golden Tate seemed to indicate he'd like more opportunities in the passing game when, after he caught the late touchdown pass from Daniel Jones on Monday night on just his third target of the game, he found the cameras during his celebration and yelled: "Throw me the ball!"
His wife was far less subtle.
Elise Tate, a social influencer with 55,000 followers, slammed the Giants and their use of her husband in an Instagram post.
"So underutilized," she wrote in all capitals, as part of her long complaint. "As his wife I cannot even watch with one eye open... He needs to be fed the ball. Period."
Elise Tate clearly understood what she was doing.
" years in the NFL I've never said something like this online, but it's excruciating to watch and killing his stats this year but you can't have yards on a few to no targets," she continued. "And he's gonna kill me for saying all this so I'll prob have to delete this soon so until he sees it ... but it's excruciating to follow around 15 on the screen and see him wide open all game."
Golden Tate has scored a touchdown in each of the past two games, but has been targeted just six times in the past three games and has been playing about half of the team's offensive snaps this season. On the season he has 22 receptions for 226 yards.
Joe Judge on Tuesday said he was vaguely aware of the kerfuffle with the Tates, but had been busy cleaning up the film from the Bucs loss, getting ready for Sunday's game against Washington, and maneuvering through the trade deadline to focus on it much.
Tate was one of the players whose future with the Giants was uncertain as that deadline approached. When it passed, he remained with the Giants.
"Obviously he's made some big catches for us in the last few games," Judge said. "Golden has battled through some injuries, he's a tough dude, he's come to work every day and he's worked. We can only ask a guy to make production when it's in a situation when the ball comes his way."
That clearly hasn't happened enough for Tate's liking.
Either of them.
Judge said he had not discussed the situation with his receiver, but made it clear what he expects from him moving forward.
"His role is the same as every player on our team," Judge said. "Show up, work hard, put the team first, and when you have the ball come your way make a play on it ... Put the team first in whatever you are asked to do. If you catch 10 balls, great. If you catch one ball, that's great too. On the other plays in the game do everything you can to help the team. That's everybody's role."
