5 people to blame for the NY Giants current, awful state

It's been a horrendous football season in New York, especially for the Giants. Through five games, Big Blue is 1-4 and very lucky not to be 0-5. The Giants' offense has been a disaster. The Giants' defense has been a disaster.

Offensively, Mike Kafka's playcalling (and potentially Brian Daboll's) has been non-innovative, Daniel Jones has seemingly regressed, and worst of all, the offensive line looks worse than ever, which is saying something considering what we've seen over the last decade.

New York has the NFL's worst offense in total yards, second worst in passing yards, second worst in points, and 10th worst in rushing yards per game. The Giants offense hasn't scored a touchdown in the last 145 minutes of game time. That is nearly 2.5 games. The defense has been terribly inconsistent too. All in all, things have been a nightmare and there's plenty of blame to go around:

5. GM Joe Schoen

Joe Schoen received plenty of praise for his work during his first offseason and then plenty of people were singing his praises over the summer. The second-year general manager appeared to make some big-time moves to potentially get this team back to the postseason for the second consecutive campaign.

Five games into the season, though, and plenty of people out there are blasting Schoen for some of the questionable decisions he made leading up to Week 1. For starters, the depth on the offensive line is a joke. Schoen ignored the swing tackle spot and we're seeing the negative consequences for that with All-Pro LT Andrew Thomas injured. Joshua Ezeudu has been forced to fill in and he's been quite terrible in that role.

Let's not forget about Schoen not adding any pass-rush depth behind Kayvon Thibodeaux and Azeez Ojulari. Yes, he brought back Jihad Ward, but depth is still an issue there. Also, Ojulari, who has missed time with a hamstring issue, also suffered an ankle injury against Miami. Who knows if he'll play against Buffalo on Sunday night.

We've got to give Schoen plenty of credit for helping the Giants reach the postseason in 2022 for the first time in six years. However, this group is looking like one of the worst teams in the NFL right now and Schoen is a big reason for that.

4. OL coach Bobby Johnson

I could have put any of the Giants 11 offensive linemen on this list, but since they all have played dreadfully, the blame needs to reside with the offensive line coach, Bobby Johnson. Unsurprisingly, PFF has the Giants graded as the least efficient run-blocking offensive line. New York has given up 96 pressures (most in the league), 70 hurries (most in the NFL), 10 hits (14th most), and 16 sacks (most). Daniel Jones has been running for his life far too many times this season.

Big Blue has been trailing in every game in 2023, which has forced them to have a pass-heavy offense, which has obviously not helped this O-line. The Giants were able to cover up O-line woes last season by getting early leads, which allowed them to rely on the ground attack.

The Giants have drafted five offensive linemen in the first three rounds of the draft since 2020, the most in the league. Johnson's been tasked with developing those premium assets but has failed. Two of those picks happened in 2022 with Josh Ezeudu and Evan Neal, who are not improving each week but are getting worse. Andrew Thomas is the only Giants offensive lineman who would start for other NFL teams and might be the only one who would ever play, which is a major problem.

3. DB Xavier McKinney

The New York Giants have 10 captains this season, which is obviously excessive. Of the 10, McKinney has been the worst on and off the field. On the field, McKinney has missed multiple tackles this season and seemingly given poor tackling effort. As a captain, you must always show max effort, which he has not done.

The minimum threshold to be considered a starting caliber player by PFF's standard is a 70, and McKinney's overall defensive grade for 2023 is currently 69.7. His run defense, tackling, and pass rush grades are also all below 70, and his coverage grade (72.6) is just above.

This offseason, many wondered if Schoen would extend McKinney, A free agent this offseason. The Alabama product had a productive first two seasons in the NFL, including a six-pick 2021 campaign, but struggled last year and suffered a serious hand injury in an ATV accident during the Giants bye week, which was a terrible look. His slow start to 2023 has many wondering if New York will even offer him an extension this offseason, which would have been a wild thought to ponder after 2021 when he was looked at as a franchise safety.

After Sunday's game, McKinney torched FOX NFL Analyst Johnathan Vilma for criticizing him. He also told reporters to stop blaming the defense, which deserves a lot of blame for playing poorly but not all the blame. Regardless, leaders don't talk like that. Talkin' Giants Bobby Skinner sounded off on McKinney on Twitter for that.

2. QB Daniel Jones

Yes, the Giants offensive line is terrible. I fully get that. Much of Jones' 2023 struggles can be traced to poor offensive line play. Two things can be true: Jones and the offensive line have been bad this season.

The Giants handed Jones a four-year, $160 million extension this offseason to be the Giants franchise quarterback and serve as the face of the mighty New York Football Giants. He has absolutely not lived up to that billing.

Through five games, Jones has the league's 28th best QBR and 33rd best passer rating. Yes, that's right, all of the NFL starting quarterbacks have a best passer rating this season than Jones, as does Colts backup Gardner Minshew. That is just awful.

Jones has three touchdowns, two through the air, six interceptions, and a lost fumble through five weeks. In the Week 4 loss to Seattle, Jones fumbled and threw two interceptions, both of which were his fault. The quarterback threw a pick-six to rookie Devon Weatherspoon, which cost the Giants a chance to get back in the game. On that play, Jones stared down Parris Campbell Jr., making it obvious where he was throwing the ball.

It is Year 5 for Jones. Regardless of how bad the offensive line is, Jones cannot stare down receivers, process slowly, and play ultra-conservative. Those were his rookie-year tendencies, and they have re-manifested.

1. HC Brian Daboll

The buck stops with the head coach. Brian Daboll was the Coach of the Year in 2022, but is probably one of the bottom 10 coaches in 2023. His offense is bad, his defense is bad, and his special teams unit is bad.

Worst of all, his team looks unprepared, undisciplined, soft, and lacks effort. In 2022, those four traits were the exact opposite and the calling card of the Giants playoff victory over the Vikings. So why have things changed?

That's unknown; maybe they got complacent. Daboll himself, has been bad with game management. In Sunday's game against the historic Miami Dolphins offense, Daboll punted on two of the Giants first three drives, on 4th-and-2 and 4th-and-3 from close to midfield. The Dolphins scored touchdowns on both ensuing possession. It was bizarre for Daboll to play so conservatively, knowing his defense is not very good and the Miami offense is excellent.

In the season opener last year, Daboll went for two, Saquon Barkley got it, and the Giants beat the Titans 21-20, a game that changed the culture and feel of New York. Daboll needs to get back to that aggressiveness. Daboll is still a great coach, even if he isn't coaching like it right now. Nothing is going right, and New York needs Daboll to make changes, which he's shown a willingness to do, to save the 2023 season.