The just concluded season can probably be best summed up in one word for the Giants: Yecch!! Maybe even Really, really double Yecch!
But we do what we always do after we get through our initial angst. We start looking ahead, because it is what it is and there are only two options out there. Wallow in one’s misery by casting about for villains to blame or keep looking for a way out of the mess. And we choose the latter because we’ve been here before and always found a way out.
That said, here are some of our thoughts on where we are right now starting with the current management, front office situation. Like we suspect the vast majority of Giants’ fans we are more than a little surprised – maybe even shocked – that ownership retained both GM Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll. However, in response to several readers who asked whether ‘doing the same thing over that isn’t working isn’t the definition of insanity?’ just maybe ownership asked itself whether in fact changing regimes every 2-3 years was working all that well. Recall, for example, that the Giants didn’t really emerge as a competitive force in the 1980s until George Young’s 6th year running the organization. And in fact, the Giants actually had a worse record (although not by much) during Young’s first 5 year, including an equally dismal 3-12-1 in his 5th year in New York, than they had the past three years. The reality is that most of the time NFL teams generally don’t fire their G.M.s or head coaches because of incompetence, but rather to placate the fans antsy about a losing record. And if you don’t believe me, just recall the wild swings in the emotions of Giants re their front office people over the past few years.
That said, we remain somewhat agnostic about Schoen as G.M. recognizing that he in fact doesn’t make the draft picks, doesn’t make the trades and doesn’t sign the free agents. On the other hand, we have rather vocal about our disappointment from what we saw from the coaching staff in general and Daboll in particular this fall. To repeat, it really did seem that their whole approach was geared to not losing rather than winning. The offensive game plan, for example, appeared to be oriented almost entirely to the concept of not turning the ball over, while the primary goal on the other side of the ball was not to give up the big play.
There were a couple of signature moments during the course of the season that we think totally encapsulates those two situations. In the first Dallas game, for example, rookie WR Malik Nabers caught 12 passes, but 6 of them – half for the mathematically challenged – were for 5 yards or less. That might have made some sense if Daniel Jones had been under undue pressure and was forced to just dump the ball off, but he wasn’t; those were just the routes that Nabers was being asked to run which made no sense at all for any receiver, much less a guy they had drafted with the 6th pick overall to give them a big play threat. Then, 0n the other side of the ball, in the second Washington game, the Giants had scored with just under 3 minutes to play to get to within 5 points. Get a stop and they would have a shot. In fact, they got the WashComs in a 3rd and 9 and even blitzed Jayden Daniels forcing him to backpeddle out of the pocket. However, at the last moment he was able to dump the ball off to a back who caught the ball 5 yards downfield who then ran for the first down and more before any Giant so much as showed up because the Giant safeties, who would have had the coverage, had been lined up 20 yards off the line of scrimmage, apparently protecting against a big play on a 3rd and 9 on which they just had to make a stop. (PS: The tendency has been to blame DC Shane Bowen, but we rewatched several games from the previous year and we challenge anyone to point out any difference between the schemes he was running compared to what Wink Martindale employed the previous season!)
Of course, if the Giants don’t do something at QB, it ain’t gonna matter what the schemes are going forward. This past year, the Giants had had the option to either take one of the second-tier QB options with the 6th pick or stick with Daniel Jones for another year, given that they were already paying him, in the hopes that given an improved OL and a deep threat at WR like Nabers, he’d bounce back and play more like he did in 2022 when he led the Giants to 10 wins and the playoffs. And if it didn’t work out, address the position at the 2025 draft in the expectation that the new guy would at least have a better chance to succeed with a better OL and a potential elite receiver like Nabers.
Needless to say, it didn’t work out. Indeed, its hard to imagine that what happened this past fall was even as bad as what the Giants figured would have been a worst case outcome given the above plan. At least, it looks like Nabers is the real deal, but finding a QB is going to be problematic at the upcoming draft. Picking 3rd the Giants are almost assuredly going to miss out on the top-two rated QBs in this year’s draft class – Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward of Miami – as the two teams picking ahead of them are just as QB-needy as the Giants. And if either or both QB prospects turn out to be not worth one of the top 2 picks, they aren’t going to be worth the 3rd pick overall if they happened to still be available.
That’s likely going to leave the Giants again looking at second-tier QBs. The good news there is a deep group of ‘other’ QBs in this year’s draft including the usual suspects such as Jalen Milroe of Alabama, Texas’ Quinn Ewers, Jaxson Dart of Mississippi, Will Howard of Ohio State, Indiana’s Kurtis Rourke, Kyle McCord of Syracuse and Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel. The bad news is that at least at this time, none of those guys is even remotely close to being considered a legitimate top 10 prospect. Of course, that could change as we go through the pre-draft testing process, but right now all those guys look like more like 2nd round type prospects and the Giants will certainly have a shot at one picking 34th overall in the second round. It also goes without saying that the Giants are in pretty good position to move up into the latter part of the opening round if the liked one of the 2nd tier QBs substantially more than the others. At the same time, fans have to realize that the probability that a QB selected late in the first or early 2nd rounds is going to be the answer going forward isn’t very good; indeed, it may not much more than 10-20% which aren’t great odds to hang their hat on. And even if that guy turns out to be a decent player, even the most successful QBs taken in that range usually need some time to develop. It also means that the Giants could very well back at QB well when the 2026 draft rolls around!
All this is to say if the Giants are going to upgrade at QB this year – and the bar isn’t all that high – is most likely going to come from signing a veteran free agent. The good news for the Giants is that it could actually be a pretty good year to be needing a veteran at the position as it is likely that QBs like Sam Darnold, Justin Fields and even Aaron Rodgers could be available. And while none may necessarily be the final long-term solution at the position, they are also significantly better candidates than the usual bridge type guys like Jacoby Brisset and Jameis Winston.
Indeed, when the Giants dropped out of the #1 pick after beating Indianapolis last month, we suggested at the time that their best option at the position could be to go all-in on Darnold if he did in fact hit the open market. His value has obviously gone down somewhat the past couple of weeks and we suspect that Darnold, given his druthers, would probably prefer to go to a contender like Pittsburgh who surely will also be interested as might even San Francisco. And that might make Fields the most intriguing candidate for the Giants, especially given his athleticism. And yes, if this all feels a bit like the QB merry-go-round that the Giants went thru in the 1990s before the arrival of Eli its because it is. Buckle up!
Meanwhile, for those not all that happy about the possibility of waiting until 2026 for the Giants earliest real shot at a QB prospect, we caution that there are in fact two complimentary paths to building a Super Bowl contender. One, obviously is getting a QB, but the other is continuing to build up the rest of the team around whoever you have throwing the ball. We also believe that if a team doesn’t have an elite QB they want to be building up a unit, or units, that can win games for them rather than just filling holes across the roster. And the one unit that can win games other the passing game is a dominant defensive line with a disruptive pass rush. Certainly, that should be almost second nature to Giants fans as we have never had a championship quality team without one.
And this is a pretty good year to be in that mode as both DE/ER and DT are two of the deepest positions in the 2025 draft field. With the 3rd pick, for example, the Giants will likely have a shot at both Penn State DE Abdul Carter and Michigan DT Mason Graham if they decide to pass on Travis Hunter of Colorado, the Heisman Trophy winner who is arguably the best player in the draft after making All-America teams at both WR and CB. Carter is a wee bit under-sized, but no one is going to care if he can get after the QB. Same for Graham who has never necessarily been an elite pass rusher, but is a super strong dude with a great motor who would give the Giants a truly rugged interior DL lined up beside Dex Lawrence. And whatever they don’t get at #3 there will be solid ER and DT prospects right thru the second day and into the early 3rd day.
And to make the unit even more effective we’d really like to see a whole lot more creativity from the pass rush going forward. It was never clearer to us than the second Dallas game this year. Both teams were playing back-up QBs, but when the Giants were in 3rd and long the Cowboys routinely brought 7-8 men to the line of scrimmage. They didn’t necessarily bring all of them, but until the ball was snapped the Giants didn’t know which of the 7-8 were actually coming and from where as there was also a lot of stunting and looping. In contrast, when the Giants got the Cowboys in 3rd and long, they lined up their usual 4 along the front, with the 2 LBs 5-6 off the LOS and the coverage people at 10 yards off.
Of course, the defensive line is not the only unit that needs work. In fact, right now the secondary, which doesn’t have any corners that they can really trust, needs a major rework. However, because we aren’t big fans of trying to address ‘needs’ with the draft – its just not a very efficient way to fix holes that just have to be fixed – we’d rather see the Giants try and upgrade the secondary primarily thru free agency. Same for the offensive line which looks to be improved if they can get everyone healthy, but could really do with the addition of 2-3 free agents, particularly a solid veteran C whoif nothing else can compete with JM Schmitz. We’d also like to see the Giants go out and get another quality receiver to pair with Nabers, especially if they are finally going to commit to actually throwing the ball downfield.