The New York Giants finished the 2024 season with a 3-14 record and missed the playoffs for the 7th time in the last 8 years. They started the year off with a 28-6 loss to the Vikings and that was a good indication of how their year would eventually play out. They had a really surprising road win in Seattle in week 5 to improve to 2-3 at the time – before losing 11 of their last 12 games with the lone win in this stretch coming in week 17 with a 45-33 win over the Indianapolis Colts. Saying it’s been a difficult couple of years for the Giants wouldn’t do it justice as over the last two years they have a combined record of 9-25 and have been embarrassed countless times in the process. And just when it looked like they were going to get the number one overall pick – they won a game in week 17 against another non playoff team which bumped them down to third in the 2025 draft order. And after the season the Giants opted to keep both General Manager Joe Schoen – and head coach Brian Daboll for another year. And to be completely honest I think this puts the Giants in a near impossible situation. And in today’s video we’re going to breakdown how we got here, what they can realistically do moving forward, what their plans should be this offseason and a whole lot more. And there is a lot to breakdown in today’s video and without further ado – let’s begin
And we are starting today’s video by discussing how the Giants got here as a franchise and going back a couple of years really to the start of the Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll era. The 2021 Giants finished the year 4-13 and all things considered – this wasn’t a bad situation to enter for Schoen and Daboll. What was unfortunate for the Giants fan base was former GM Dave Gettleman all but announced to everyone that he wanted Alabama wide receiver Devonta Smith in the 2021 draft and because everyone knew that – the Eagles had the 12th pick at the time and traded up one spot directly in front of the Giants to draft Devonta for themselves. And while that was unfortunate for the Giants fan base – this was fortunate for GM Joe Schoen because Dave Gettleman immediately traded back in the draft with the Bears and inherited their 2022 first round pick. The Giants job at the time was pretty attractive as they had two top 7 picks and this was a roster that had guys like Andrew Thomas, Saquon Barkley, Dexter Lawrence, Leonard Williams, and Xavier McKinney to name a few guys. And the first two picks of the Joe Schoen era were used in the trenches as they selected Kayvon Thibodeaux with the 5th overall pick, and Evan Neal with the 7th overall pick.
Now unfortunately the Evan Neal pick specifically didn’t work out in a big way and we know that 3 years later – but I will argue to this day – that the way they went about the two first round picks in Thibodeaux and Evan Neal – was the right process of how to go about it. If you would have said that Evan Neal would have been borderline unplayable and that he would be benched and he would be an absolute whiff of a draft pick – nobody would have believed it at the time. It truly was not unreasonable to think the Jags could have taken him number one overall and for Neal to protect Trevor Lawrence’s blindside for the next several years of his career. Neal played both – left and right tackle during his time at Alabama and played both at a really high level. For reference – over the last two years of his collegiate career – he logged 801 pass blocking snaps and allowed just 16 pressures. And I know these comparisons aren’t apples to apples – but Penei Sewell – who was a better prospect than Evan Neal – actually allowed pressures at a higher rater during his time at Oregon than Neal did at Alabama. Again Penei was a better prospect than Evan Neal and nobody is arguing that – but the point is – the Giants have had an unfortunate series of events take place since the start of the Daboll and Schoen era and I think Evan Neal is a good representation of that.
Then you throw in the part about Neal asking if his critics flip burgers and it’s really the cherry on top for the New York Giants over the last 3 years. I’ve never been the biggest Kayvon Thibodeaux fan – and I thought he was the epitome of a player you hope works out as he gets older – but unfortunately he didn’t. He’s not a bad player, but the 11.5 sack season he had in 2023 came from a lot of clean up sacks and there’s a reason he’s never had more than 45 pressures in a year. Evan Neal was clearly a miss and I wouldn’t exactly call Kayvon Thibodeaux a hit either. The 2023 draft was pretty unfortunate for the Giants as they selected Deonte Banks with their first round pick and he’s been a complete disaster. It also looks a lot worse when you factor in that the Giants needed a receiver and 4 receivers were drafted consecutively right before them in Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Quentin Johnston, Zay Flowers, and Jordan Addison.
Their second round pick was used on interior offensive lineman John Michael Schmitz who has not been good along the interior offensive line and they traded up for receiver Jalin Hyatt in the 3rd round who has 435 receiving yards in 2 years and still has 0 career touchdowns. Then you factor in the losses of guys like Saquon Barkley, and Xavier McKinney in free agency – and it only gets worse for how this team arrived to where they are today.
And another reason why I think this franchise is in a borderline impossible situation moving forward is to simply take a look across the division. The Eagles are defending Super Bowl champions and not only are they champions – but the Giants also get to hear about the offseason hard knocks episode when Giants owner John Mara said “ill have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to Philadelphia” and in his first season there – he breaks the all time single season rushing record for both regular season and postseason games and played the best football of his career. Obviously since these teams are in the same division they place twice a year but the Eagles backups played against the Giants in week 18 so we really only got to see these teams play once in 2024 with both starting units out there and the Eagles won 28-3. In that game – Philly ran for 269 yards as a team and Saquon had 176 rushing yards – and the Giants as a team had 119 total yards of offense.
The reason we bring this up isn’t to embarrass the Giants or to read a bunch of numbers about how much the eventual Super Bowl champions beat them by – but rather to say – they’re not going anywhere and this is a team that if the Giants ever want to make any noise – they’re going to have to go through them. This also isn’t a division that’s ran by one team and that this is the 2000’s Patriots either where it’s Belichick and Brady and good luck to everyone else. I think the Eagles are a really talented team of course, but the Commanders just went to the NFC championship game and their future looks extremely bright too. I would imagine most of us saw the hard knocks regarding the Giants last offseason – not just regarding the John Mara and Saquon part – but also the Giants wanting to trade up part. And if you didn’t see the Giants offseason hard knocks – the Giants wanted to trade up to go get either Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye – but there was no way into the top 3 for any team last year. Caleb Williams was always going number one overall and everyone knew that, and neither the Commanders nor Patriots wanted to trade out of who they believed their franchise quarterback was going to be. And a year later the Commanders were absolutely right to stand by that decision and I think the Patriots are right too – it’s just a matter of time until we see Drake Maye play at the level he is truly capable of.
That is genuinely unfortunate luck that the Giants couldn’t go up and get who they believed was going to be the future of their franchise. I’m not going to get into any revisionist history of well they could have drafted Bo Nix who had 34 total touchdowns or Michael Penix or even JJ McCarthy at number 6 overall when they drafted Malik Nabers – who looks to be a future superstar – and honestly I’d be fine if you called him a superstar now. The Giants weren’t the only team in that situation, but if teams want their quarterbacks – there’s not a lot you can do. And that’s only two of the three other teams in the division. I know everyone gets their jokes in about the Dallas Cowboys and how they haven’t been to the NFC championship game since 1995 – but what I also think needs to be acknowledged – is – this is not a bad team when healthy. No I don’t think the Cowboys are going to the NFC Championship game in 2025 – but when Dak Prescott is playing at his best – he can elevate the Cowboys to a 7 to 9 win team – even despite how bad the rest of the team can be at times. I mean – this is a player who finished 2nd in MVP voting in 2023 and a guy who threw 36 touchdowns to 9 interceptions. And sure you can get your jokes in about the Cowboys in the playoffs – but the Giants usually aren’t good enough to get to the playoffs to where they would be able to play them at that point anyway. And I do think at this point – the Giants are pretty clearly the 4th best team in the division before the 2025 offseason begins.
We break down what the Giants can realistically do this offseason and a whole lot more within the video below. I really think their best option is go with a veteran quarterback rather than a rookie due to how high the veterans presumable floor is. I think there is a much higher chance the quarterback they would take at number 3 overall (which we can assume would be Cam Ward, or Shedeur Sanders at this point) would be a draft bust – rather than have the type of year Jayden Daniels just had. I don’t think either quarterback is destined to be a draft bust by any means, but the type of year Jayden Daniels or even Bo Nix just had for that matter – are exceptions rather than the standard. I truly think their best approach is to sign a veteran QB, then go with the best player available at number 3 overall. I hope you enjoyed today’s article and hope you have a great rest of your day!
