The New York Giants find themselves in an interesting position heading into the 2025 season. On one hand, the G-Men are expected to be significantly better after trudging through arguably the worst season in franchise history. On the other hand, expectations have to be level-set a bit due to their overwhelmingly difficult upcoming schedule.
It’s not ideal, but it’s just where the Giants are. The team has undergone significant position group changes, most of them bringing upgrades. In fact, there isn't a single group that got worse from last season. The quarterback, pass-rushing, and secondary groups all improved drastically on paper. Yet, critics aren't ready to buy the perceived upgrades just yet.
In a recent article for USA Today, Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz examined each of last season's divisional bottom-dwellers and ranked them one through eight on the likelihood of them going from worst-to-first in 2025. Needless to say, Big Blue didn't exactly place well on his list.
Giants not expected to make much noise in crowded NFC East
In Middlehurst-Schwartz's analysis, the G-Men come in seventh place, just ahead of the lowly Cleveland Browns. He pointed to a slew of problems standing in the way of New York's recovery in a meaningful way. He cited quarterback play, Brian Daboll's hot seat, the offensive line, and their schedule as just a portion of the reasons to keep the Giants in the basement:
"If the Giants fall in an early hole – which seems likely given that the first month brings matchups with the Commanders, Cowboys, Chiefs and Chargers – how long will Brian Daboll keep Dart on the shelf? A shoddy offensive line looks ill-equipped to support either option and could spoil any visions of a more prolific passing game," he wrote to the disgust of Big Blue Nation. "Then there's the matter of the NFC East. Between the Eagles and Commanders being entrenched as established contenders and the Cowboys possibly in line for a bounce back, the climb out of the basement appears steep."
It's not that his analysis is wrong. It truly isn't. It just reeks of low-hanging fruit. Yes, the past two years have not been kind to this organization, but this team is just a couple seasons removed from shocking the world with a 9-7-1, playoff-bound season. Who's to say we should just rule them out entirely because that's the way it's been recently?
Listen, if Wilson struggles, the team gets off to a slow start, the offensive line disappears, and the upgrades don't upgrade, then yes. This team is capital D, doomed. But general manager Joe Schoen put on his thinking cap this offseason and addressed almost every weakness that haunted 2024's 3-14 team. By all accounts, this is a much better team.
What makes the Las Vegas Raiders' (sixth), New Orleans Saints' (fifth), and New England Patriots' (fourth) situations that much better than Big Blue's? The Raiders are in the toughest division in football — Pete Carroll and Ashton Jeanty won't magically make them better than three 2024 playoff teams that also improved. The Saints have the worst QB situation in the league. The Patriots are in the same division as the Buffalo Bills and made similar upgrades to those of the Giants. Hmm...
So, we'll revisit the low-hanging fruit. It's easy to bash this team. They are expected to do very poorly this year. However, even during their Super Bowl runs in 2007 and 2011, those teams weren't world-beaters. They were overachievers.
I'm not saying this is a Super Bowl-caliber team by any stretch of the imagination. But chalking them up as a nobody because that's the way it's been is a good way to miss when things start to change. Fans have every right to be cautiously hopeful for 2025, and bringing them down now just stings.