At 4-2-1, the New York Giants sit alone at the top of the NFC East. Heading into Week 8, they're third in the NFC. They've gone toe-to-toe with each of their opponents, outside of a loss to the Los Angeles Rams, in which they lost their starting quarterback. Under John Harbaugh, this team is positioned to make a serious playoff push.
And nobody seems to care.
The rest of the NFL still doesn't take the G-Men seriously. During an appearance on the "Evan and Tiki" podcast, insider Connor Hughes said that he has checked in with nine NFL teams on how they feel about the Giants. Hughes said, "None of those teams that I talked to around the league thought the Giants were a real threat."
For an extra twist of the knife, Hughes added that four of those nine teams still see the Dallas Cowboys as the best team in the division.
The Giants are being ignored in the landscape of the NFC, and they should want it that way.
Giants don't have to be contenders to be a threat in the NFC
Are the Giants going to make a Super Bowl run this season? No, probably not. We can't rule it out completely, of course. Neither of the Eli Manning Super Bowl teams was taken all that seriously before their playoff runs. But it's fair to say that Big Blue doesn't stack up with the top teams in the conference, especially after the aggressive trades made by some of their competitors.
New York doesn't have to be a title contender to be a threat to the rest of the conference, though. With as put-together as Harbaugh's team has been through the first two months of the season, it's capable of taking anyone on.
We've seen Giants teams take out top opponents in the playoffs before without being legitimate contenders. In 2022, the 9-7-1 G-Men took down the 13-win Minnesota Vikings. That team was never going to do much beyond that, but they could spoil someone else's hopes.
These things happen almost every year in the NFL. It's the nature of a single-elimination playoff format. The old adage of "any given Sunday" applies to the postseason, too. Who's to say that New York couldn't take down a San Francisco, a Seattle, or a Chicago in one game?
The Giants still have plenty of opportunities before the playoffs to earn the respect of their NFC foes. Upcoming games against the 49ers, Seahawks, and Lions will show how Big Blue stacks up against teams widely considered to be contenders.
For now, Harbaugh's squad should be just fine with flying under the radar. The rest of the NFC can underestimate the Giants at their own risk. Harbaugh won't mind making them pay for it in January.
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