Heading into the 2025 season, the expectations for the New York Giants aren’t very high. It happens when you were a three-win football team last season and then just a six-win squad the year before; thus, expectations for the year ahead aren’t too great.
However, this could play to the Giants' advantage, as they were a six-win team in 2020 and then a four-win team in 2021 before making their improbable run to the postseason in 2022 during Brian Daboll’s first season as the Giants' head coach. A lot has changed since that first season for Daboll and the Giants, but the projections heading into 2025 seem similar to the ones in 2022: very low.
And yet, people have a bit of a different feeling around the Giants heading into 2025, and it isn’t the typical doom and gloom that a lot of the fan base has in their mind. In fact, one NFC executive told veteran NFL reporter Matt Lombardo to “keep an eye out for the Giants” in 2025.
"I'd watch out for the Giants," a rival NFC Executive told me recently, when asked to identify the team he believes could surprise to the upside this fall. "Because of their additions at quarterback, and upgrades along the offensive line. Besides, they can't really be worse than they were last year."
The anonymous NFC executive isn’t the only one to share this feeling, as former Giants running back Rashad Jennings gave the fan base a reason to “be bullish” regarding the team heading into next season.
The optimism is real for the @Giants 😤@RashadJennings pic.twitter.com/2YEInD1jUM
— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) June 23, 2025
The offseason hype for the Giants 2025 season is unexpected, but exciting for longtime fans
It appears that there are two primary reasons for the potential optimism heading into next season. The first is the upgrades and changes made to the defense. Last season, the Giants had the best pass rush and led the league in sacks for most of the season before injuries sidelined key players like Dexter Lawrence and Kayvon Thibodeaux. Even with players missing, the Giants still finished ninth overall in total sacks.
The Giants used two of their first three draft picks to improve the defense and to add to the pass rush, especially with their third overall pick in Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter, who is already generating buzz with his play early in minicamps. Add in veteran cornerback Paulson Adebo and top veteran safety Jevon Holland, and the Giants defense might have a chance to be one of the better ones in the league with a legit pass rush that could do some serious damage.
Another reason for the optimism surrounding the Giants is the revamped quarterback room, which has undergone significant changes from last season to this one. The Giants are going from Daniel Jones, Drew Lock, Tommy DeVito, and Tim Boyle to Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston, Jaxson Dart, and DeVito.
Wilson and Winston alone statistically had better seasons in 2024 than the four quarterbacks of the Giants combined. They are both seen as short-term solutions since Dart was the first-round pick for the Giants, but he’ll likely be sitting and learning from his veteran counterparts in 2025. Even if Dart does come into play at some point in 2025, fans will be excited to see a rookie take over the offense and hopefully have the same kind of luck and success in the NFL that he had at Ole Miss.
Even if Dart doesn’t see the field much, if at all, in 2025 and it’s Wilson who has the same kind of success in 2025 like he did with the Steelers in 2024; a season that featured him leading Pittsburgh to the playoffs, that would be a plus for the Giants, as the successful seasons resulting in postseason trips for them have been few and far between since they last won Super Bowl 46 back in February of 2012.
Last season, it was another NFC East team, the Washington Commanders, who came in with low expectations and shocked the entire football world by reaching the NFC Championship Game. Perhaps this season, with expectations being as low as they are, it’s the Giants' turn to shock the football world and have a special kind of season, just like they did back in 2022.