The New York Giants finished the 2023 season with a 6-11 record and missed the playoffs for the 6th time in 7 years. It was a truly difficult season for the Giants and while their season wasn’t going good before the 30-6 loss in Las Vegas – Daniel Jones tearing his ACL was the icing on eh cake for the type of year it was for this franchise. The Giants started the year with a 40-0 loss to the Cowboys in week 1, and at a point were down 20-0 in week 2 against the Cardinals before rallying from down 21 points in the second half to win with a score of 31-28. They would go on to lose the next 4 games to drop them to 1-5 and the worst loss in here without a doubt was 24-3 loss to the Seahawks on Monday night in which Daniel Jones threw a red zone pick 6 and Brian Daboll absolutely erupted after the play. There was also a point in here where right tackle Evan Neal questioned fans and asked if they flipped burgers and it was a nightmare of a first half of a season. But things got better down the stretch – and there was a fun few game span with Tommy Devito as the teams starting quarterback but lost within the final 7 games of the year – in a span where New York went 3-4 – was how solid their defense was – and the fact they forced 21 turnovers during those final 7 games. They didn’t loo like Super Bowl champions by any means, but they looked a lot better than what we saw at times earlier in the year. And that brings us to the title of today’s video – the New York Giants are a solid team – but have one big problem. And we’re going to break everything down in today’s video. Now let’s begin
And we are starting today’s video by breaking down who the Giants brought in in free agency and who they lost in free agency – and in this teams case – a trade. But from last year to this year – this team lost a few big players in free agency and they were Safety Xavier McKinney, running back Saquon Barkley, and defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson. Xavier was a sizable loss because of how good of a player he is – combined with his relative youth of most free agents. McKinney was 20 years old when he was drafted back in 2020 – and he turned before the season started – but the paint is – is he’s only 6 months older than Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix. So losing a 25 year old safety coming off of the year McKinney had was big. He had over 100 tackle for the Giants last year and had 3 interceptions and was a really good player for them on the back end. The loss of Saquon Barkley was loud – but I don’t think it was that big in the grand scheme of things. Saquon ran for 962 yards last year and has a singular 1,000 yard rushing Eason in the last 4 years. And not only that – but the Giants were 31st in EPA per rushing play so it was a lot of fitting a square peg in a round hole. Now the Saquon loss from an emotional standpoint – and from him going to play for the division rival Eagles is an entirely different conversation. But from the player he was last year – and again outside of one good season in the last 4 – it’s really not that big of a loss. Because the reality is – this team wasn’t a top 2 or 3 rushing team with him. So whether the back is Motor Singletary, or Saquon – and the public opinion between those two players is vastly different – the big question is – does it matter when you finished second to last in the NFL in EPA per rushing play last year? No. Xavier McKinney signed a 4 year $67 million dollar contract with the Packers and Saquon of course went to the Eagles – but they had one other player sign a deal with an average annual value of $7.5 million dollars and that was A’Shawn Robinson signing with the Panthers. A’Shawn is a type of player I like a lot – and he’s a mountain of a man at 6’4 320 – but with where this defense is going – it’s not the end of the world in losing A’Shawn Robinson to the Panthers. He’s a solid veteran defensive tackle – and sure his production will be missed – but he’s not irreplaceable and the Giants will be fine without him. This is also worth noting – but the Giants also lost Tyrod Taylor as he signed with the Jets to back up Aaron Rodgers. And honestly – Tyrod didn’t play bad for the Giants last year – but again – he’s a backup quarterback and let’s just call this what it is – the Giants – nor any team – is going to win a Super Bowl with Tyrod coming in in relief. Now the Giants brought in a few guys in free agency who will start right away. They brought in guard Jon Runyan from the Packers, running back Devin Singletary from the Texans, and right tackle Jermaine Eleumunor from the Raiders. And also yes, they brought in Drew Lock to replace Tyrod Taylor.
They of course traded for star pass rusher Brian Burns and I loved this move for several reasons. The first of course is – he’s a very good player and he is most definitely a guy who can be the premier edge rusher for this team for the next half decade. He’s only 26 years old and I cannot emphasize enough how much I love the trio of Burns, Dexter Lawrence, and Kayvon Thibodeaux. And I know there’s always a crowd that will mention that you have to pay a guy once you trade for him – but so what? The Giants gave up a second round pick for Brian Burns and gave up their second round pick to do so. Fortunately for the Giants – they had traded Leonard Williams during the middle of the 2023 season to the Seahawks and had two second round picks. So to me – the trade off of dealing Leonard Williams and receiving Brian Burns for moving back 8 spots was 1000% worth it. They got younger with Burns and obviously they play different positions – but I would rather have Brian Burns 100 out of 100 times than Leonard Williams moving forward. And quietly – this team has very good foundational pieces moving forward. Obviously – everyone knows about Dexter Lawrence and the impact he has on every game cannot be understated. He is a truly dominant player from the interior and teams have to gameplay around him. And when you add in Brian Burns – along with a former top 5 pick in Kayvon Thibodeaux – I mean as long as the secondary isn’t outright awful – which it’s not – then you should be alright in the long run – and I think the Giants will be. Now there were a few games last year where the Giants looked awful defensively. Giving up 640 yards to Dallas in week 10 is a losing recipe every single time.
But there were some positives down the stretch of the season and to be completely honest – I think this team has a good amount of talent defensively. Linebacker Bobby Okerekee was one of my favorite signings from the 2023 free agent cycle and he played really good football throughout the 2023 season. And sure there were times where Deonte Banks got beat during his rookie year and that’s going to happen. One of the reasons why I liked the Burns move so much was because of what this is going to mean for the rest of the Giants defense. Dexter Lawrence was really the only guy who could consistently get home last year and I know Kayvon Thibodeaux had 11.5 sacks last year – but he wasn’t consistently getting home. Despite the uptick in sacks from year one to year two – he only had 3 more pressures in 2023 than he did in 2022 – despite logging 111 more pass rushing snaps – and this is per PFF by the way.
Kavyon had a pass rush win rate of just 6.4% and was not a typical 11.5 sack player by any means. Now the reason why I like the Burns trade so much is because of what it represents for the rest of the defense. He is such a good pass rusher that he’s going to free up Kayvon and give him one on one opportunities and I think in a lot of ways – this is a make or break year for him. Make or break in the sense of – are you going to step up and be a guy who can be a 50+ pressure guy consistently – or be a guy who gets clean up sacks and occasionally gets after the quarterback. I love the situation Kayvon is in – obviously – but this year is going to set the tone for the next 4 or 5 years of his career. I also really like the idea of having Azeez Ojulari as a 4th rusher and this team should be able to get to the quarterback with relative ease in 2024.
While the 2023 Giants defense certainly wasn’t good at times – most notably during the Dolphins game and the Cowboys game – I personally refuse to believe they’re going to be a bad unit in 2024 – unless they are set up to fail countless times like they were last year. I mean this team put up 20 or more points just once in the first 10 games of the year which was against the Cardinals and ultimately a team that had the number 4 pick in the 2024 draft. Now they did put up 24 or more points in 4 of their final 5 games of the season – and technically in 5 of their last 7 games – but there’s a reason we talk about complimentary football on the channel a lot. And when people say football is the ultimate team game – this is what they mean.
The Giants offense didn’t do the defense any favors and there were so many games where they would get down and opposing teams could pin their ears back and rush the quarterback and when Evan Neal is one of your tackles – who battled through some injuries last year – along with a not great offensive line outside of Andrew Thomas – and former right guard Mark Glowinski was especially terrible – you’re not going to set your defense up to succeed. And while I don’t expect the Giants offense to finish in the top 8 or 10 in points per game this year – I don’t think it can get worse. And the reason we bring this up is because the Giants finished 29th in average time of possession last year and as we mentioned earlier – they really couldn’t run the ball as well as you’d think – and it was setting the entire team up to fail. And this offense finished 30th in points per game las year. And do you really think Brian Daboll is the 30th best offensive mind in the league? No. And if they can get back to being serviceable – along with the improvements made – the Giants defense will be fine. But that’s the big question – is – how will the Giants offense play this year?
