NY Giants 3 keys to beating the Bears in week 17

The NY Giants enter week 17 facing a Chicago Bears team who has a record of 5-11, but will be without quarterback Justin Fields.

Coming into this week, the Giants face a bit of a sticky situation, as they own both their own first round pick, alongside the Bears first round pick. This poses the question of if it is better to win or lose, either way one of the NY Giants picks will drop in the draft order.

While in my personal opinion, it is better for the NY Giants to lose this week to attempt to avoid missing out on generational prospect Evan Neal, it is unlikely that the NY Giants share this mindset.

With that being said, here are 3 keys for the NY Giants to beat the Chicago Bears in their week 17 matchup:

Player health:

This weeks injury report was a doozy to say the least.

As of Thursday, the NY Giants have over 16 players listed on the injury report, with some being listed as a COVID19 ramp up, and others suffering from real injuries.

Here is the full injury report for the NY Giants as of 12/31/21:

Collin Johnson (Hamstring) OUT

John Ross (Knee/COVID Ramp Up) OUT

Kadarius Toney (Shoulder) OUT

Billy Price (Personal) Doubtful

Adoree’ Jackson (Quad/COVID Ramp Up) Questionable

Austin Johnson (Foot) Questionable

Chris Myarick (Hip) Questionable

Nate Solder (COVID Ramp Up) Questionable

An area that will suffer the most due to this is the NY Giants receiving core, after losing Sterling Shepard to an achilles injury during their week 15 loss to the Cowboys, Darius Slayton was added to the COVID list on Thursday, they will now be without Kadarius Toney, John Ross, and Collin Johnson, leaving them with a receiving core of Kenny Golladay, Pharoh Cooper, David Sills, Alex Bachman, and Travis Toivonen.

The NY Giants offense has been borderline unwatchable for most of the year, and now, due to injuries, it will likely just get worse.

What is possibly the only good part of this injury report is that there is a decent chance that Adoree’ Jackson returns from injury this week. Jackson went out with a Quad injury after the NY Giants week 12 victory to the Eagles and has yet to play since, if he is able to return it will be a huge boost to the defense.

However, with the addition of Adoree’ Jackson, comes the loss of Dexter Lawrence, who was added to the COVID list this week.

The NY Giants have been dealing with injuries all season, ranking 1st in the NFL in most games missed by players, with 301, so it is not surprising that the injury issues are continuing to be a factor in the NY Giants poor play.