‘Things I think’: Woeful Giants have offered themselves with a possibility

The New York Giants are formally the worst crew within the NFL.

That may find yourself being the saving grace of this wretched, embarrassing season for a as soon as proud franchise that has clearly misplaced its approach.

The Giants’ one-sided, pathetically performed 34-7 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, mixed with the Las Vegas Raiders’ 19-14 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars leaves the Giants as the one two-win crew within the NFL by way of 16 weeks of the 18-week season.

Meaning, in fact, that the Giants at present have the No. 1 total decide within the 2025 NFL draft. That’s one thing nobody can take away from them, until they handle to win one among their closing two video games and maybe find yourself taking it away from themselves.

Hitting that all-time low for the primary time since 1965, 50 years in the past, may find yourself being the factor that lastly supplies the Giants a ticket to — doubtlessly — finish the disastrous path they’ve been on since they gained the 2011 Tremendous Bowl.

After all, the Giants must do higher with that No. 1 decide — in the event that they handle to maintain it — than they did 50 years in the past. That 12 months, the Giants chosen operating again Tucker Fredrickson with the primary decide. Eventual Corridor of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus and operating again Gale Sayers went to the Chicago Bears with the third and fourth picks, respectively.

Fredrickson, with a profession interrupted by a serious knee harm, averaged 3.4 yards per carry over six middling NFL seasons. The Giants had just one successful season throughout his profession.

The Giants are careening towards the chance to have their selection of quarterbacks to construct round within the 2025 NFL Draft. They could have the ability to get the participant they need with out the No. 1 decide, however having it might assure they get the participant they want most.

I nonetheless don’t consider the Giants are deliberately tanking. If that was the case, why would Malik Nabers and Brian Burns, the most effective two gamers left on an injury-ravaged roster, be persevering with to tug themselves to the sector regardless of every coping with plenty of accidents? This crew is solely unhealthy. It merely isn’t able to far more than what we see on a weekly foundation.

The arguments that rage across the Giants media and the fan base are two-fold:

Which quarterback is the proper one? Is it Shedeur Sanders of Colorado? Cam Ward of Miami? Jalen Milroe of Alabama?
Ought to Joe Schoen be the GM who will get to make the choice, and will Brian Daboll be the top coach who will get to try to make it work?

I don’t know what co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch will finally resolve to do. They’ve three selections:

Maintain Schoen and Daboll. That’s a selection that in all probability means the duo will get to complete everything of their five-year contracts. The Giants can’t do what they Chicago Bears did to Caleb Williams and the Carolina Panthers to Bryce Younger, drafting them No. 1 total after which firing the coach (and in Carolina’s case the GM, too) earlier than the quarterback’s rookie 12 months was accomplished. They’ll’t do what they did to Daniel Jones, making him cope with a number of coaches, GMs and offensive coordinators.

Maintain Schoen, hearth Daboll. That is the choice that was floating round final week as being into consideration. I don’t know whether it is or not. I do know that once I give it some thought, I believe that’s the worst of the three choices. Try this and the Giants are organising a compelled marriage with GM and coach on completely different timelines — and maybe not working in unison. That was what the Giants had with Dave Gettleman and Joe Decide.

Hearth each and begin over. That is what many followers need, together with some going to the intense of enjoying planes over MetLife Stadium. It will be simple for Giants possession to decide on this path. They might a minimum of then promote the concept that they did one thing, and followers will really feel like they received their pound of flesh.

This path would make sense because the Giants have embarrassed themselves in a 12 months they have been hoping to have fun the historical past of one of many league’s unique franchises and to revive a number of the luster.

As a substitute of the one hundredth anniversary being a celebration, it has been a nightmare. ‘Hard Knocks’ is taken into account by most to have been an ill-advised misstep. The one hundredth 12 months throwback uniforms have been broadly panned, and unlikely to ever be seen once more. The product has been traditionally unhealthy, with the longest single-season dropping streak in franchise historical past and with an opportunity to be the primary NFL crew to go 0-9 at house.

What is going to the Giants do?

The exhausting path can be preserving Schoen and Daboll, letting them draft the quarterback they suppose may help them flip the franchise round, and giving them the 2 years remaining on their contracts to try to get it proper.

You could possibly argue that whoever the Giants herald subsequent, primarily based on current historical past, would have roughly a two-year window to get it proper and would find yourself strolling the plank themselves in the event that they didn’t. Wherein case, staying with what they’ve could be the factor to do.

You could possibly argue that blowing it up is the proper factor to do. Letting the brand new quarterback begin and not using a GM and coach who’ve a cloud hanging over them could be the sensible play.

I argued approach again when the Giants let Tom Coughlin go that the sensible transfer then would have been to brush out GM Jerry Reese and quarterback Eli Manning and rebuild. The Giants didn’t. That full clear slate method is one thing the Giants haven’t performed.

There was fixed change over the past decade, however by no means the three most essential items on the identical time. Bringing in Schoen and Daboll was shut, however they have been nonetheless handed (saddled with?) Daniel Jones.

The dearth of self-discipline the Giants play with — they dedicated 10 extra penalties, a lot of them pre-snap, on Sunday — the ineptitude of the offense, the lack to discipline a crew that really does something properly are all damning for Daboll.

The rash of poor personnel selections, the combined bag of draft and free company outcomes, the excellent play in new properties of Saquon Barkley and others the GM didn’t convey again to the Giants are all damning for Schoen.

But, 2022 did occur. Schoen and Daboll took a rag-tag crew that had gone 4-13 the 12 months earlier than to the playoffs and gained a playoff recreation. That looks as if a lifetime in the past, and sinking to the place the Giants are actually appeared unfathomable on the time.

If you wish to have a look at the brilliant facet, and it’s two days earlier than Christmas so let’s do this, the Giants now might have a possibility they haven’t had in 50 years. Sure, it’s a ‘reward’ for a job poorly performed, however it’s nonetheless a possibility.

Let’s see what they do with it.