It hasn't always been misery and sadness surrounding the New York Giants. While it's true they've never been a perennial, juggernaut-esque 10-plus win team, they've had some amazing moments. However, it's hard to remember those highlights due to their recent play.
Over the past decade, Giants fans have unfortunately grown accustomed to being force-fed some of the worst football they've ever had to watch. Over the last 10 seasons, the team has staggered to an overall record of 55-109-1 -- with only one season, back in 2016, finishing with a positive point differential. It's just awful. Not to mention, they've gone 13-38 over the last three years while being outscored by a "there's no way I'm reading this right" 241 points.
It's been a truly lousy time to be a proud member of Big Blue Nation. But what if I told you that their most recent struggles all date back to one of the most confusing seasons in recent memory?
Big Blue's 2022 season will go down as the ultimate "what the hell happened" moment of the past decade. Their unexpected 9-7-1 record, followed by a surprising playoff run, should have been the beginning of something special. Instead, it became a fluky mirage -- the unofficial beacon for some of the worst football this team has ever played.
Let's dive into how one deceptive season set the franchise up for failure.
Inside the 2022 optical allusion that forced a total Giants rebuild
Brian Daboll left Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills behind to become Big Blue's next head coach. The hope was he'd bring his quarterback-whispering guru-ness to East Rutherford to help out Daniel Jones, who looked less like a franchise quarterback by the week.
But then 2022 happened, and all was seemingly forgotten. Jones had a strong first season under Daboll. The then-25-year-old threw for 3,205 yards and 15 touchdowns, with only five interceptions. He added 708 yards and seven scores with his legs.
Helping Daniel Jones succeed was a healthy Saquon Barkley, who put a disastrous, injury-filled 2021 campaign behind him. Barkley fueled the offense with a Pro Bowl performance, finishing third in Comeback Player of the Year voting. He racked up 1,312 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns, while adding another 338 yards through the air.
It seemed like the team was on the come-up, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Behind the wins and losses, it was obvious that this team had horrifically overperformed. The signs were everywhere -- the team still had a negative point differential and went 8-4-1 in one-score games.
And that misplaced sense of confidence took them down a path that they're just starting to work their way out of now. The following offseason became the moment the front office fell completely into the commitment trap.
Convincing themselves they were just a piece or two away from true contention, management panicked and handed Jones a massive four-year, $160 million extension. To make the money work, they slapped the franchise tag on Barkley, essentially fracturing their relationship with the team’s most dynamic playmaker and setting the stage for his eventual departure to the Philadelphia Eagles a year later.
They even traded a premium draft pick for oft-injured tight end Darren Waller. It was a win-now gamble that yielded zero long-term return, cementing itself as one of the worst trades in franchise history.
But football is won in the trenches, and while the G-Men were busy handing out blank checks based on an accidental 9-7-1 campaign, the offensive line was ignored. The bill came due immediately in 2023.
Opposing defenses figured out the smoke and mirrors, and without a functional line, Giants quarterbacks were sacked an astronomical 85 times. The good feelings went poof, resulting in a collapse of epic proportions over the next two years that cost Dabs his job and forced the front office to blow up the roster.
The franchise is finally picking up the pieces of said wreckage. With John Harbaugh at the helm, a franchise-hopeful quarterback in Jaxson Dart under center, and a hard pivot toward getting back to playing gritty football, the Giants are finally accepting the reality they should have faced years ago.
It has been a painful, agonizing overhaul, but it was the only way out of a hole they dug themselves.
Looking back, that magical 2022 playoff run was a beautiful lie. It gave fans a brief moment of joy. It simultaneously blinded the front office to the deep structural flaws of the roster. Mistaking a handful of lucky bounces for a lasting winning culture doomed the Giants to years of misery.
Ultimately, it proved that the worst thing to happen to a rebuilding team is winning before they are actually ready. Let's hope that if and when the G-Men take the leap this year, it's actually legit.
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