Power Rankings: Giants Begin Season With Little Respect
David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
Throughout the season the major sports sites across the nation will feature their expert power rankings of each team week-by-week.
With the first game of the season kicking off this Thursday the first set of rankings have been released. From a quick glance it seems as though the New York Giants are not getting a ton of respect being only one full season removed from winning the Super Bowl.
Below I will detail where the Giants were placed on three different sites and pick the one team that has no business ranking ahead of the Giants.
ESPN.com rank: 12th
The ESPN.com power rankings are formed by five NFL staff writers. The twelfth ranking is actually the highest ranking the Giants will receive among the three sites. This might be the most accurate preseason rank of the Giants considering they were not a playoff team last season. Injuries during the preseason played a significant role in their ranking and their isn’t a lot to disagree with here.
What were they thinking: The Indianapolis Colts are ranked one spot ahead of the Giants at 11. If there is one team I expect to take a big step back this season it is the Colts. Everything went their way a season ago, including having a last place schedule. That isn’t the case this season and teams won’t underestimate them. I’m surprised the “experts” don’t see this and adjust accordingly but they may be awarding them for making the playoffs a season ago.
Foxsports.com rank: 15th
Foxsports.com has former NFL coach Brian Billick do their rankings for them. His rank of the Giants is not only insulting, his reasoning fails to make any sense. He details that the Giants don’t take risks in the draft and only target high-character players resulting in only singles and doubles. Is he calling JPP only a single or double? Is he calling Damontre Moore a high-character player? It’s one thing to rank the Giants this low, it’s another thing to do so while making no sense.
What were they thinking: There were so many to choose from including the Colts and Vikings, but the most appalling one of them all was the rank of the St. Louis Rams at 14. The Rams only mustered seven wins last season with a last place schedule. The Rams have not won more than seven games since 2006. During that same stretch the Giants have won at least eight games every season.
CBSSports.com rank: 16th
NFL Insider Pat Kirwan handles the rankings over at CBSSports.com and entering the season he certainly has his doubts on the Giants.
His rank is the lowest I’ve seen and his pointing at the injuries as his biggest reason. What I don’t understand is that the Giants always seem to have a ton of injuries yet they turn out winning seasons year-after-year. As long as the injured player isn’t Eli Manning the Giants are better than more than half the teams in the league.
What were they thinking: Mr. Kirwan is clearly drinking the Cowboy Kool-Aid as he is the first expert to move the Dallas Cowboys ahead of the Giants to begin the season. Maybe its the three straight seasons of trailing the Giants or the fact that they are yet to win a home against the Giants that he likes so much. Nothing has changed in Jerry Land so unless he expects different results from the same performers there is no reason to place the Cowboys ahead of the Giants until they finish ahead of the Giants.