When the 2025 NFL schedule dropped, New York Giants fans did what most fans of a 3-14 team would do: sigh, then immediately brace for another rough year.
Based on 2024 records, New York unfairly drew the league’s toughest slate. Three of their first four games are against playoff teams, and nine matchups overall come against clubs that made the postseason. No need to be a numbers expert to know this kind of math stinks.
But schedules don’t always age the way they’re forecasted in the offseason. Jordan Dajani of CBS Sports recently outlined the five teams he believes had the worst offseasons in the NFL — and the Giants will face three of them in 2025. It doesn’t mean the road is easy, but it might not be the insurmountable climb it once felt like.
For a Giants team desperately searching for any edge in a season where Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen are fighting for their futures, even a few cracks in the armor of would-be contenders could make all the difference.
Giants’ daunting 2025 schedule could be softer than expected
Among those five teams, Dajani called out the San Fransisco 49ers, Detroit Lions, and New Orleans Saints for what he described as — to put it in casual terms — absolutely miserable offseasons.
On the 49ers he wrote: “No team lost more talent, as safety Talanoa Hufanga, linebacker Dre Greenlaw, offensive guard Aaron Banks, cornerback Charvarius Ward, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, offensive tackle Jaylon Moore, pass rusher Leonard Floyd, defensive tackle Maliek Collins and running back Elijah Mitchell are now playing for new franchises.”
He added the team’s $264 million free-agent spending deficit “was the largest in NFL HISTORY,” and raised questions about whether Brock Purdy can keep things afloat without the “big five” around him.
The Lions, one of the NFL’s best teams over the last two years, took body blows to both their coaching staff and offensive line. Dajani wrote: “Detroit lost both its offensive and defensive coordinator this offseason, and both leaders were incredibly important when it comes to the team’s recent rise,” Dajani wrote. “Goff did lose two important offensive linemen in right guard Kevin Zeitler and center Frank Ragnow… One of the best offensive lines got a bit weaker.”
The Giants head to Detroit in Week 12 with one of the most-feared pass-rushing units in the league... so something to keep an eye out for, for sure.
And then there’s New Orleans. The Saints haven’t made the playoffs since 2020, and things don’t look any better heading into 2025. Derek Carr’s unexpected retirement caught them off guard, and their answer — drafting 25-year-old Tyler Shough — didn’t exactly move the needle. As Dajani put it, “Even if the Saints wanted to add another quarterback, who would that be at this point?”
The Saints enter 2025 with the worst odds in the NFC South and are tied with Cleveland for the best odds to finish with the fewest wins in football. The Giants will see them in Week 5.
That’s three teams — two with recent playoff success and one in steady decline — entering the season with instability. It doesn’t all of a sudden mean the G-Men have a free pass to the postseason, but when the schedule was first announced, games against the 49ers and Lions looked like guaranteed losses. Now? Not so much.
New York still has to deal with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, two matchups against the Eagles and Commanders, and a potentially nasty trip to Dallas in Week 2. But with a league built on parity, opportunity can come from anywhere at any time. For Big Blue, it might come from three teams who already look shakier than advertised.