CBS Sports Drops Very Early Forecasts for Giants' Playoff Chances

There's a long way to go before NFL rosters are finalized, let alone games officially getting underway. But that hasn't stopped some from filing their 2023 season predictions despite these significantly unknown variables.

The good news for New York Giants fans is that CBS Sports' Will Brinson's very early playoff predictions has Big Blue among those NFC teams who will be in the postseason.

The bad news is that Brinson doesn't appear to think the Giants made enough progress with their roster to challenge for the NFC East title, whereas the Dallas Cowboys have to the point where they should be able to unseat the defending division champion Philadelphia Eagles.

Notes Brinson of his very early forecast:

Eagles fans are also very steamed up about this projection. Don't blame me! The Brinson Model™️ is an unbiased, proprietary projection system designed to mathematically simulate an NFL season as accurately as robotically possible. Also, Philly went from having the easiest schedule in the NFL in 2022 to having the hardest. I actually want to pick the Giants to win the division, and the model giving them nine wins in Brian Daboll's second season gives me good reason to do just that. For now, I'm rolling with the Cowboys, who might actually be improved on offense with a little balance from Mike McCarthy's playcalling, something I'm sure I won't regret later. I'm higher on Sam Howell than most, but this is just how Washington's schedule fell.

There are a few headscratchers in this assessment, starting with the reliance on the strength of schedule, which is about as useful in trying to forecast a team's record as throwing darts blindfolded to come up with a win total.

But let's indulge in the argument for a moment that strength of schedule is a good forecaster to predict a team's success. In that case, it needs to be noted that the entire NFC East ranked at the bottom of the league in terms of having the "easiest" schedules.

Start with the Giants, who ranked 29th against opponents with a combined .465 record from the prior year. They were followed by the Eagles (30th), whose opponents had a .464 winning percentage.

And bringing up the rear were the Cowboys and Commanders, tied for having the creamiest of "cream puff" schedules, their respective opponents combining for a .462 won-loss percentage.

If we go based on the strength of schedule, shouldn't the Commanders or Cowboys have had the best record in the division last year, and the Giants the worst?

I didn't think so. But I digress.

Every team has done work on its roster to improve. Arguably, some have done more than others, but at this point, no one will know how all those improvements take until the games begin.

And I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to seeing how much Giants general manager Joe Schoen closed the team's talent gap with the Cowboys and Eagles.

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