If the New York Giants were trying to confuse fans, they’ve done a great job. According to Gridiron Grading’s prospect model, Big Blue ranks ninth among all teams from 2020 to 2025 in draft prospect performance. That’s top-10 territory over a span that’s mostly been defined by bad football, worse records, and tons of regret.
The model isn’t grading how players have performed in the NFL — it’s grading how good those players were projected to be at the time they were drafted. Which means the G-Men, on paper, were making some good decisions. They were drafting the right types of prospects. And they were spending premium capital to do it, with the third-most draft capital used over that stretch.
So why has it all looked so dysfunctional on Sundays? The answer isn’t just bad luck or tough injury breaks. The truth is deeper than that. For a team that consistently had high picks and decent talent in the pipeline, the returns have been wildly underwhelming — and the biggest gaps have shown up where the good teams build depth and find underrated value: Day 2 and Day 3.
Giants’ highly graded draft picks still aren’t translating to wins
Over the last 11 seasons, the Giants have logged double-digit losses an astounding nine times. Their winning percentage since 2020 is 33.9% — 29th out of 32 teams. And yet, when looking at their draft classes through the lens of pre-draft talent, they’ve supposedly been ahead of the curve.
Gridiron Grading liked their first-round picks, save for Evan Neal and Kadarius Toney, and suggested the team consistently picked good players. But the rest of the roster hasn’t backed that up. Here are the Giants' top seven players per Gridiron Grading:
Player Draft Year Prospect Grade
Malik Nabers, WR 2024 95.7
Abdul Carter, Edge 2025 91.3
Evan Neal, OT 2022 87.6
Kayvon Thibodeaux, Edge 2022 87.4
Jaxson Dart, QB 2025 85.3
Azeez Ojulari, Edge 2021 84.0
Kadarius Toney, WR 2021 83.7
Andrew Thomas has developed into a cornerstone left tackle. Kayvon Thibodeaux has shown signs of being an elite pass rusher, but he's still inconsistent. Malik Nabers might just be the league's next-best wide receiver. And Abdul Carter and Jaxson Dart might turn the whole thing around. But what about the layers underneath?
Players like Xavier McKinney and Azeez Ojulari flashed promise, but they’re gone now. Others like Matt Peart, Elerson Smith, and Josh Ezeudu have dealt with injuries or role uncertainty. The 2020 class alone featured ten picks. Only Thomas is still a building block. The others never did much of anything to push the team forward.
There’s also a trend of Day 3 picks failing to develop into regular contributors. That has kept the roster thin, forcing expensive free-agent fix attempts or elevated roles for players who aren’t ready. It’s hard to win when only your first-rounders hit — and even harder when half of those don’t.
So yes, it’s a bit ironic. The data suggests the Giants have been drafting well and selecting the right guys. But until those evaluations translate into wins — and until more than just the first round produces consistent starters — the disconnect will remain. Being a top-10 drafting team doesn’t mean much if your win percentage is scraping the bottom.
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