Like most Giants; fans we’ve been struggling for weeks trying to make sense of the current state of the Giants. They are 6-8 with two weeks to go in the schedule and needing wins in both of their final two games, plus some help from other teams to have any chance at all of making the playoffs for the first time since 2011. They are a middling 12th in total offense and have worst defense in the NFL, at least in terms of the league’s statistical rankings. At the same time, though, the Giants are one of only 6 teams in the NFC to have actually scored more points than they allowed. And then there are all those crazy, gut-wrenching close losses; indeed, for those that have lost count, 5 of the Giants’ 8 losses came on the last play of the game and it is simply no lie to make the case almost 100 ways that this team should be no worse than 8-6 and with a play or two could already have 9-10. Mais, c’est la guerre!
So where exactly are the Giants? Who knows for sure, but they are probably just about where you would expect a team to be in the middle of a major overhaul. And make no mistake about it, the Giants are in the midst of a major overhaul. Indeed, the Giants had just 4 players in uniform when they played Carolina last Sunday – Eli, JPP, Prince and Mark Herzlich – left in the lineup from the 2011 Super Bowl team. Of course, there are several others including Victor, Beatty and Zak DeOssie on injured reserve, but even in the mobile of the NFL where almost all the personnel rules are geared to balancing talent out across the league, that’s a huge turnover.
And whether it was all necessarily done according to plan, the Giants appear to have a done a pretty good job rebuilding the offense. They extended Eli, found a primary playmaker in WR Odell Beckham and have three good young offensive linemen to anchor a rebuilt offensive line. They also have some useful complimentary players in 3-4 WR/KR Dwyane Harris, RBs Jennings and Vereen and maybe even emerging TE Will Tye. Which is hardly to say the offense is a finished product. The Giants will no doubt be tweaking the right side of the offensive line this off-season; they also may be in the market for a true stud #1 RB, as well as a more dynamic target at TE. Then of course there is the issue of the 2-3 receivers behind Odell. Bottom line, though, is that with a few minor changes, the Giants could return pretty much the same cast on offense in 2016 and they would have near-championship unit.
The defense, of course, is quite a different story. In fact, we assume that Part B of the Giants rebuilding process, beginning in a major way this off-season, will be to address the defense in general and the pass rush in particular. The good news for the Giants is that they will have the cap space to address most of the major issues of the defensive side of the ball in a hurry. The bad news part of the story, though, is that other than QB, arguably the hardest phase of the game to upgrade is the pass rush. The reason is quite simply that, unlike positions like MLB, DT and FS where one can get by with a solid journeyman veteran pro, in order to have a good pass rush, one needs good pass rushers and they just don’t go on trees. They certainly don’t become available very often in free agency.
Of course, the Giants are also likely to address the defense in general, and the pass rush in particular, at the 2016 draft, although again there is something of a good news, bad news aspect to the story. The good news it looks like there will be some real strength at DT and CB at the upcoming draft. On the other hand, it looks to be only a fair-to-middling year at DE and not very strong at all at LB and safety. However, there will be players at those positions, although much will depend on where the Giants actually end up pick, especially in the opening round.
Bottom line is that this coming off-season should be very interesting for the Giants. Let’s be very clear here: building a championship team in the NFL is hard, because in the end the most important vagary is luck. Indeed, ask fans in places like Buffalo, Miami, Cleveland, Tennessee, Houston, Jacksonville, San Diego, Oakland, Kansas City, Washington, Detroit, Minnesota, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, St. Louis and the Jets across the hall, how long it takes to build a championship team and they’ll answer that it feels like for effing forever. However, the Giants, the only franchise in the league to have multiple Super Bowl runs since the mid-1980s, have a real chance to put themselves back in the picture sooner rather than later. Stay tuned!
