This week, all week long, we're taking a negative look at each of the teams in the NFC East, in detail. On Monday we roasted the Dallas Cowboys. Today we'll poke fun at the New York Giants.
To note, we will not be talking about the positives of any of the Eagles' NFC East rivals, because, well, that's no fun. This will be 100 percent vitriolic. And yes, we'll get to the Eagles as well at the end of the series.
1) How the hell did Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen keep their jobs? 🤡🤡
On the Monday after a Week 18 loss to the Eagles' backups, owner John Mara announced that he was running it back with head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen in 2025.
"We felt it necessary to make this statement," lol.
Daboll and Schoen were both hired during the 2022 offseason, and there were immediate results, as the Giants finished with a 9-7-1 record, and a trip to the playoffs. It's been a steep downhill trajectory since. In 2023, they finished 6-11 with a -141 point differential, before a disastrous 2024 season during which they finished 3-14 with a -142 point differential. Their three-year tenure has resulted in a cumulative record of 18-32-1 (0.370).
Schoen took over for Dave Gettleman, a dinosaur GM who did not seem to understand modern NFL trends or analytics. Gettleman ran the Giants' front office from 2018 to 2021, a four-year span that produced a 19-46 record, and four double-digit loss seasons. An uninspired Pat Shurmur began the Gettleman era as the Giants' head coach, and gave way to Joe Judge, who was in over his head. The bar for improvement was extraordinarily low, but Daboll and Judge have largely put a product on the field that has been just as bad.
Schoen's biggest mistake was his 2023 re-signing of Daniel Jones, who dinked-and-dunked his way to an improbable playoff berth, while Saquon Barkley did most of the heavy lifting.
They signed Jones to a four-year deal worth $160 million, tying him (at the time) for seventh among NFL quarterbacks at an average annual value of $40 million per season. They franchise-tagged an unhappy Barkley.
During the 2024 offseason, Barkley signed with the NFC East rival Eagles in free agency.
Later that offseason, when the Giants were on the clock at pick No. 6 in the 2024 draft, there were three quarterbacks available who ultimately got drafted within the first 12 picks. They were Michael Penix (8th overall to Atlanta), J.J. McCarthy (10th overall to Minnesota), and Bo Nix (12th overall to Denver). The Giants obviously didn't think enough of Penix, McCarthy, or Nix to make any of them their new franchise quarterback.
They appeared on the first-ever front office version of HBO's Hard Knocks, and it was revealed that they had interest in North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye. They had discussions with the Patriots about moving up for Maye — and the Patriots seemed willing to deal — but Schoen never made a reasonable offer. The Giants' decision to pass on those quarterbacks was likely at least partly guided by Jones' albatross contract.
Led by Jones, the Giants' 2024 season always felt like it was over before it ever began, and sure enough, Jones went 2-8 before getting benched in favor of Tommy DeVito 🤣. Meanwhile, in Philly, Barkley had a dream season, setting a record for the most rushing yards ever in a single season (regular season + playoffs) and, you know, winning a Super Bowl. But beyond the bad Jones contract and letting the team's most popular player in Barkley sign with a division rival, Schoen had made a habit of letting the team's rare good players walk.
• S Xavier McKinney: Like Barkley, McKinney was a first-team All-Pro last year. He is only 26 years old and could have been a homegrown foundational piece.
• S Julian Love: Love has become one of the best safeties in the NFL for the Seahawks.
• S Jabrill Peppers: Peppers became a really good player in New England.
• CB James Bradberry: This maybe looks like a bad example at the moment given the bad season Bradberry had in 2023 and because he didn't play at all in 2024, but he was an All-Pro in 2022 who helped the Eagles get to the Super Bowl.
• TE Evan Engram: Engram had 187 catches for 1,729 yards and eight TDs in two seasons after leaving the Giants to play for the Jaguars.
Schoen's free agent signings have been atrocious. In 2022, he added the following outside veteran players:
QB Tyrod Taylor
OG Mark Glowinski
iOL Jon Feliciano
TE Ricky Seals-Jones
RB Matt Breida
DT Justin Ellis
DE Jihad Ward
OG Jamil Douglas
OT Matt Gono
WR Robert Foster
None of those guys are still with the team.• In 2023, Schoen added the following outside veteran players:
TE Darren Waller (via trade)
LB Bobby Okereke
DT Rakeem Nuñez-Roches
CB Amani Oruwariye
S Bobby McCain
WR Parris Campbell
WR Jamison Crowder
WR Jeff Smith
Only Okereke and Nuñez-Roches are still with the team. He gave up a third-round pick for Waller, who retired after one irrelevant season.• In 2024, he signed this group of players:
EDGE Brian Burns (via trade)
OL Jon Runyan
OL Jermaine Eluemunor
OL Aaron Stinnie
RB Devin Singletary
QB Drew Lock
WR Isaiah McKenzie
DB Jalen Mills
TE Jack Stoll
TE Chris Manhertz
OL Austin Schlottmann
OT Matt Nelson
The trade for Burns was widely heralded for some weird reason, even with the Giants giving him a five-year contract worth $141 million in addition to the 39th overall pick and some added draft capital that went to Carolina to seal the deal. Burns had single-digit sacks (8.5) in 2024.
Schoen is batting like 0.037.
062424JoeSchoen
The Giants' 2022 and 2023 drafts were awful. The 2024 draft class was productive last season, headlined by WR Malik Nabers, but many of the drafted rookies had to play out of necessity because the team was so stripped of talent otherwise. And, you know, they didn't land a quarterback.
But beyond the team's record and the good players lost and crappy players gained, the Giants just looked embarrassing for the entirety of the Hard Knocks series that featured them last summer. The biggest "HOLY SHIT!" moment for me in a series full of them had to be when Schoen was asking Daboll ON THE MORNING OF THE FIRST DAY OF FREE AGENCY what he thought the team's biggest needs were. Watch the following two videos. I mean... 🤯🤯🤯
Like what were you doing the last few months that you woke up on the first day of free agency and thought, "Hey maybe we should discuss team needs?!?"
Clown show.
Mara made clear shortly after the decision to retain Daboll and Schoen that he will not have much patience for further failure (via @SNYGiants):
As such, you could be nearly certain that Schoen and Daboll were going to draft a quarterback with a high pick and hope that that guy could show promise as a rookie, which could help them survive even longer. And, of course, they did, trading up for Jaxson Dart in the first round.
If Daboll and/or Schoen are canned and there's a new HC and/or GM in 2026, there's a decent chance that new guy/girl won't be a Dart fan.
The Giants' original pick in the draft (before any trades) has been in the top six in six of the last eight drafts:
• 2025: 3
• 2024: 6
• 2023: 25
• 2022: 5
• 2021: 11
• 2020: 4
• 2019: 6
• 2018: 2
And yet somehow, despite all of those chances to add elite talent, they have the worst record in the NFL since 2017.
Rank Team Record
23 Commanders 55-76-1 (0.420)
24 Bears 54-78 (0.409)
25 Browns 58-73-1 (0.405)
T-26 Raiders 53-79 (0.402)
T-26 Broncos 53-79 (0.402)
28 Cardinals 51-80-1 (0.390)
T-29 Jaguars 47-85 (0.356)
T-29 Panthers 47-85 (0.356)
31 Jets 41-91 (0.311)
32 Giants 40-91-1 (0.307)
Spoiler: Even though the head coach and general manager ran this offseason in a "win as many games as possible right now to save our jobs" sort of way, they're still going to be bad again in 2025.
2) Most of their 14 losses in 2024 weren't even close
Eight of the Giants' losses in 2024 were by "one score," as in, eight or fewer points. But the reality is that they really only lost three close games. Here's a look at ESPN's "win probability" graphs in each of the Giants' 14 losses.
062325GiantsLosses
The Giants had a close game in their first matchup with the Commanders, they went to OT with the Panthers, and their game against the Saints went down to the wire. Otherwise, they either got blown out or their opponent was in control of the game throughout the second half.
You know how some fans will say, "If we had gotten a break here or a break there, we would have made the playoffs?" Well, Giants fans can reasonably say, "If we got a break here or a break there, we could've been 6-11."
3) They still don't have a quarterback they can feel great about
The Giants started their offseason by going after Matthew Stafford, who took substantially less money to stay in L.A. with the Rams than come to New Jersey. They then moved on to Plan B, which sadly, was a 41-year-old washed, insufferable Aaron Rodgers, who ended up signing with the Steelers for a little over $14 million.
After it became clear that Rodgers didn't want to play for the Giants, the first quarterback they added was Jameis Winston on a two-year deal worth $8 million, plus incentives. He has a 36-51 career record as a starter, and a reputation for his hyper-aggressive style of play and willingness to take chances with the football, leading to sometimes gaudy yardage stats. But he also has the dubious distinction of leading all active quarterbacks in INT percentage, as he has been picked off on 3.5% of his career pass attempts (min. 1,000 attempts):
Jameis Winston: 3.5%
Blaine Gabbert: 3.2%
Sam Darnold: 2.9%
Mac Jones: 2.8%
Justin Fields: 2.8%
To put that in perspective, if Daniel Jones' next 32 passes all get picked off, Jones would still have a lower career interception percentage than Winston.
Over the last three seasons, Winston's INT percentage is 4.4%, so it's actually getting worse. He threw 12 INTs in seven starts last season, shown here (video via @awthentik):
And yet, if Winston were the sole answer to the Giants' need for a veteran quarterback, I would applaud it. He stinks, but who cares? The Giants aren't going anywhere in 2025, and Winston is cheap and fun. He would at least bring some entertainment value to what is going to be another losing season.
But, nope. The Giants then also signed Russell Wilson, who is now 36 (!) years old, and will be entering his 14th NFL season. He played his first 10 with the Seahawks, where he had a 104-53-1 record, following by two bad years with the Broncos (11-19), and one underwhelming season with the Steelers (6-5). In 2024, Wilson completed 214 of 336 passes (63.7%) for 2,482 yards (7.4 YPA), 16 TDs, and five INTs. He also had his worst season as a rusher, averaging 14.1 rushing yards per game and 3.6 yards per carry. He finished 21st in EPA per play.
Wilson was a star quarterback early in his career, but there's an argument to be made that he is now only marginally better than Winston, and certainly the Giants are not close to Super Bowl contention, much less the playoffs. What's he going to do? Win maybe one more game than Winston would have? Like, they'll go 5-12 instead of 4-13? I guess if you're a Giants fan, the silver lining is... At least he's not Rodgers?
And finally, they traded up into the back half of the first round of a very weak quarterback draft and selected Dart. As noted above, the Giants decision-makers were going to draft a quarterback come hell or high water, to help their chances of surviving beyond 2025.
Maybe Dart will pan out. I dunno. We'll see. But the smarter play would have been to wait until the 2026 draft to select a quarterback with a high pick, since it is shaping up to be a much better quarterback class than the one in 2025. The following quarterbacks have a chance to be first-round picks, if we're to believe the early big boards:
Arch Manning, Texas
Drew Allar, Penn State
Garrett Nussmeier, LSU
LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina
Cade Klubnik, Clemson
Nico Iamaleava, UCLA
Carson Beck, Miami
Sam Leavitt, Arizona State
In other words, the Giants spent a lot of draft capital to land a quarterback in the 2025 draft, when they might've gotten a better prospect in 2026 at a better value.
A smart owner might've stepped in and said, "Nah, dude, you're not managing this team in a way that favors your survival over doing what makes the most sense for the team." But again, Mara doesn't know what he's doing.
Oh, and on a side note, as long as we're talking about Giants free agent quarterback signings... Remember when they signed Drew Lock last year. Well, he canceled out the comp pick the Giants would have gotten for losing Saquon Barkley in free agency. Via OverTheCap:
062125GiantsOTC
Side note 2: Jones will still count for $22.2 million on the Giants' cap in 2025.
4) The offensive line is still bad
The Giants' offensive line looks like this:
LT LG C RG RT
Andrew Thomas Jon Runyan John Michael Schmitz Greg Van Roten Jermaine Eluemunor
After being named second-team All-Pro in 2022, Thomas signed a five-year contract worth $117.5 million. He has missed 18 games the last two seasons. There's a common sentiment that Thomas is still a great player when healthy, but PFF has him down for eight sacks allowed in the 16 games he has played over the last two seasons. He has had some ugly games. For example:
Still, Thomas is the Giants' best offensive lineman, by far. The rest are basically JAGs. Schmitz has been a disappointing second-round pick, Van Roten is 35, and neither Runyan nor Eluemunor have lived up to the contracts they signed in free agency last offseason.
5) They're running it back with the same skill position guys? 🤷♂️
The Giants' skill position players, last year vs. this year:
Position 2024 2025
RB1 Tyrone Tracy Tyrone Tracy
RB2 Devin Singletary Devin Singletary
RB3 Eric Gray Cam Skattebo
WR1 Malik Nabers Malik Nabers
WR2 Darius Slayton Darius Slayton
WR3 Wan'Dale Robinson Wan'Dale Robinson
WR4 Jalin Hyatt Jalin Hyatt
TE1 Daniel Bellinger Daniel Bellinger
TE2 Theo Johnson Theo Johnson
TE3 Chris Manhertz Chris Manhertz
The Giants had the 28th ranked offense last season by DVOA (27th passing, 23rd rushing). Over the last two seasons, they have scored just 539 points. By comparison, the Lions scored 564 points just in 2024.
The only thing that's different on the skill position front for the Giants from 2024 to 2025 is that they drafted Cam Skattebo. It's also the same starting five along the offensive line as last year.
The only player they switched out was a crappy youngish quarterback in Jones for a washed older quarterback in Wilson.
The funniest Giants signing this offseason was Darius Slayton, who got the same exact deal that the Giants wouldn't give Saquon Barkley the previous year:
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6) This offense never produces big plays
You know what one of the fun things about football is? When your offense makes a big pass play. Giants fans don't get to see many of those:
Year 20+ yard pass plays NFL rank
2020 36 31
2021 31 Dead last
2022 28 Dead last
2023 44 T-25 🎉
2024 34 T - Dead last
That just sucks. #Analysis.
7) Their run defense still stinks
The Giants' run defense stinks every year, and every year they don't fix it.
Year Rush yards allowed NFL rank
2021 129.0 25
2022 146.3 28
2023 132.4 29
2024 136.2 26
During Hard Knocks, we got to see Brian Daboll say he wanted to hire Shane Bowen to be the Giants' defensive coordinator because of Bowen's past success against the run:
Daboll says, "I mean, can you get our run defense to look like this, please?"
Unfortunately, stopping the run requires more than just a new defensive coordinator. You need players, too, and overall the Giants don't have good run stoppers.
In 2024, the Giants gave up 4.6 yards per carry, they allowed the second-most runs of 20+ yards (19), and they tied for the most runs of 40+ yards (5). To add insult to injury, Barkley had 17 carries for 176 yards and a TD in his return to MetLife.
What was their biggest move in free agency to stop the bleeding? They signed iDL Roy Robertson-Harris, who turns 32 in July, and the Giants gave him a two-year deal worth $10 million. He logged 20 tackles, 2 sacks in 2024. The Giants give decent money to a mid defensive lineman or two every offseason, and they never have any impact, even though they get to play next to Dexter Lawrence. This is another one of those signings.
8) The pass defense was arguably even worse than their run defense last season
The Giants didn't give up a lot of passing yards per game, mainly because they were trailing in almost every game and opponents pounded the run. But their pass defense efficiency stats were bad, and they didn't make any plays:
Giants pass D Stat NFL rank
Opposing QB rating 103.0 30
Opposing completion percentage 69.4 31
Yards per pass attempt 7.7 29
INTs 5 31
The Giants recognized this, so they overpaid a couple of defensive backs and an edge rusher in free agency:
• CB Paulsen Adebo: The Giants signed Adebo to a three-year deal worth $54 million. He's a good press corner, but he also broke his right femur last October, ending his season. He'll be their new CB1, alongside a couple of young corners in the promising Andru Phillips and the disappointing Deonte Banks.
• S Jevon Holland: Holland signed a three-year deal worth $45 million. Over his four seasons in Miami, Holland is averaging roughly 75 tackles, one sack, six pass breakups, a forced fumble, and an INT per season.
Holland is not a game-changing player. But you know who is? Xavier McKinney, who, again, was a first-team All-Pro in 2024 in Green Bay. McKinney is only making $1.75 million more per season than Holland, and he had three more INTs in 2024 than Holland has had in his entire career.
• EDGE Chauncey Golston: Golston has nine career sacks in four seasons. Three years, $19.5 million. Rotational guy.
You know what's a fun game to play? Viewing any Giants signing in terms of how many Saquon Barkleys they cost. The Giants did not want to give Barkley — arguably the best player in the NFL last season — a three-year deal worth $36 million, as noted above. They also chose not to franchise tag him at $12 million last offseason. So, one Saquon Barkley = $12 million.
Adebo cost $18 million per season. That's 1.5 Barkleys.
Holland cost $15 million per season. That's 1.25 Barkleys.
Golston cost $5.5 million per season. That's just under a half Barkley.
Add up those three players and you get something like 3.2 Barkleys.
0623253.2Barkleys
9) They have the hardest schedule in the NFL
The Giants went 3-14 in 2024, didn't even get a top-2 pick, and now also have the hardest schedule in the NFL in 2025. Their schedule, with their opponents' 2024 records and point differentials:
Week Opponent Record Point differential
1 Commanders 12-5 +94
2 Cowboys 7-10 -118
3 Chiefs 15-2 +59
4 Chargers 11-6 +101
5 Saints 5-12 -60
6 Eagles 14-3 +160
7 Broncos 10-7 +114
8 Eagles 14-3 +160
9 49ers 6-11 -47
10 Bears 5-12 -60
11 Packers 11-6 +122
12 Lions 15-2 +222
13 Patriots 4-13 -128
14 BYE
15 Commanders 12-5 +94
16 Vikings 14-3 +100
17 Raiders 4-13 -125
18 Cowboys 7-10 -118
TOTAL 166-123 (0.574) +570
Or if you prefer your strength of schedule projections to based on 2025 Super Bowl odds, there's this chart from Deniz Selmon:
The Giants went 0-8 in games against playoff opponents in 2024. They'll have 10 games against teams that made the playoffs last year.
But worse, their first eight games are brutal. The second-easiest game during that stretch, at least on paper, is against the Cowboys, a team that has swept them each of the last four seasons.
They're going to be done by Halloween.
10) The owner is a weasel
I wanted to come back to the video posted in the first bullet point above.
"It better not take too long, because I've just about run out of patience," Mara said, when asked how long it would take for the Giants to improve.
What are you talking about? YOU'RE THE OWNER, lol. You hired Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge and Dave Gettleman, and the two bozos presently running the team. Where's your accountability?
062325MaraWeasel
If you've "just about run out of patience," AKA you think Daboll and Schoen have done a poor job — and oh yes they have most certainly done a poor job — then fire them and bring in people who can do a good job.
Why keep them? Because you're paying them anyway so you may as well get your money's worth? If you're not going to throw your full support behind the two most important leadership figureheads in the organization (besides yourself), all you're doing is undermining their ability to lead the team.
Daboll and Schoen stink. But they've been there only three years. They are not the constant during this near decade's worth of horrendous Giants football. Mara is, and he's a weasel for shifting blame anywhere other than on himself.