When it comes to the hierarchy of the NFC East, the Philadelphia Eagles are No. 1, the Commanders are No. 2, the Cowboys are No. 3, and the Giants are X+1. They’re a really bad franchise, with a really bad roster, with really bad coaches, with a really hard schedule.
What makes it all great is that they’re trying to compete. The head coach and general manager, Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen, respectively, are at ‘my key probably won’t work tomorrow’ levels of job security. They swung for the fences this offseason, but it came off as a bunt.
The Giants went out of their way not to improve their offense
The Eagles are playing the Giants on Thursday night in Week 6 and then again in Week 8. It would’ve been nice to get them in Week 17 or 18 for a little bit of reprieve before the postseason, but… ehh, whatever.
The best thing the Giants could have done this offseason is fire Daboll and Schoen so they could start clean with a new HC and GM with the third overall pick in the draft. They didn’t do that, and now they’re going to continue to spiral.
The Giants have been in quarterback hell since March 7, 2023, when they decided to pay Daniel Jones $40 million per year. Things clearly didn’t work out for him, and it very quickly made that team dive headfirst into chaos.
This offseason, they signed Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston, and then followed that up by drafting Jaxson Dart. That’s a quarterback room filled with warm bodies and soon-to-be dead dreams.
The best part about all of this is that they’re going to start the season 0-4 (Commanders, Cowboys, Chiefs, Chargers). That means Daboll and Schoen are going to have to smash the panic button and play Dart before he is remotely ready. That’ll go poorly, and they’ll end up just drafting another quarterback next year when the two doofuses in charge are gone.
As far as offensive weapons go, the only real-ish addition the Giants made was when they drafted Cam Skattebo. Maybe he’ll be good, but probably not because they’re not changing their offensive line at all.
It’s looking like it’ll be Andrew Thomas, Jon Runyan, John Michael Schmitz Jr., Greg Van Roten, and Jermaine Eluemunor again. They drafted guard Marcus Mbow in the fifth round, but even if he ends up being good or great, they’ll still have three other weak links on that line. Choosing to largely ignore the worst part of your team in the offseason is an audacious (read: boneheaded) move.
When they played the Eagles in Week 7 last season, Vic Fangio’s defense had eight sacks, 11 quarterback hits, a pressure rate of 35 percent while only blitzing once. That defense also only allowed 119 total yards and just three points. The Giants did nothing to try to avoid that from happening again in 2025.
They did make some moves on defense this offseason. They picked edge rusher Abdul Carter third overall in the draft. He’s going to be really good, and it stinks that he’s going to be on that team for a long time. With him playing next to Dexter Lawrence and opposite of Brian Burns, that defensive line has a whole lot of potential.
It’s hard to argue that drafting Carter was a move that was made specifically to stop the Eagles; he was clearly the best player available and one of the few elite draft prospects. If they didn’t draft him, it would’ve been criminal.
They also signed cornerback Paulson Adebo and safety Javon Holland in free agency. Adebo’s good, but he's coming off a broken femur. If he's healthy, he'll be an upgrade over last year's Adoree' Jackson. Holland is a good player, and signing him was a good move… even though it makes their decision to let Xavier McKinney walk after 2023 even more mind-boggling.
The Eagles’ offense decimated the Giants' defense on the ground in Week 7 and through the air in Week 18. In Week 7, the Eagles rushed for 269 yards, which was their second highest of the season. In Week 18, Tanner McKee and the reserve offense threw for 252 yards. Any way that they wanted to move the ball, they did it.
So yes, the Giants did make some additions that will make their defense better next season, but it's not nearly enough to stop the Bully Ball that the Eagles play.
All this being said, the Giants are years away from being competitive. A good defensive line is going to be helpful in the long run, but that’s not going to do anything towards their hopes of stopping the Eagles from sweeping them in 2025.
The Giants are going to have an abysmal year that gets headlined by a sure-to-be lackluster interim head coach who has to lead a broken team through the most difficult schedule of any team in the NFL. You almost have to think about feeling bad for them, but then you just think of something different… like remember when Saquon Barkley ran through Dane Belton’s soul on the fourth play of the game?
Saquon Barkley my goodness. #Eagles pic.twitter.com/4zek3cFZI9
— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) October 20, 2024
That was awesome. Let’s do more of that.