Is It Safe to Mention the “P” Word for the Giants?

The New York Giants are starting to make believers out of their staunchest critics. But don’t expect the Giants to join the early playoff chatter.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Oct 25, 2022 11:41 AM EDT

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New York Giants

A 6-1 start to the 2022 New York Giants season wasn’t supposed to happen.

No, the Giants were supposed to be in a rebuilding year in which general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll, both hired in January, spent their first season together getting to know what they had and trying to navigate through an ugly salary cap situation,

Yet somehow, Schoen and Daboll have succeeded in getting the Giants to be competitive while rebuilding a franchise that since 2017 held a 22-59 record in what is arguably a Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year type of performance for each man.

Schoen, to his credit, worried about what he could control, which was the draft. While it’s not his fault that injuries have savagely ripped into the 11-member class, the Giants have gotten solid contributions from nearly every member who started the season on the 53-man roster.

Schoen has also held steady with managing a very delicate salary cap, often having to make sacrifices along the way. Two weeks ago, the Giants had a 51-man roster yet still managed to win their game against the Ravens. He’s also been reluctant to restructure the contracts of players who don't have long-term futures with the team, only doing so when necessary.

But Schoen’s biggest kudos are reserved for the job he and his staff have done to find guys off other teams’ scrap heaps to step in as solid contributors.

Daboll? Call him King Midas without the attitude because, thus far, everything he’s touched with this team has turned to gold. From putting together an all-star coaching staff that has gotten its players ready for battle (see defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson and offensive line coaches Bobby Johnson and Tony Sparano Jr for two immediate examples) to keeping the team focused and bought in on the program and the present day, Daboll has looked like anything but a rookie head coach.

“For us, we’re just trying to get better each week, day by day,” said cornerback Adoree’ Jackson, echoing the message Daboll has pounded into every nook and cranny of the team’s East Rutherford headquarters.

“Even though we do win, there are a lot of corrections that need to be made. For us, we understand that it’s a long season, and we’re just trying to be 1-0.”

Okay, so what about the “P” word (playoffs)?

After countless talking heads questioned the validity of the Giants being a winning team, suddenly, those loud rumblings about the Giants being a fluke have all but died down to where now people are mentioning “Giants” and “playoffs” in the same sentence.

FiveThirtyEight, for instance, gives the Giants an 86 percent chance of making the postseason, the sixth-best projection rate in the league, despite the Giants having the sixth most difficult remaining strength of schedule of opponents left this year.

Daboll has never taken anything for granted, which is why he continues to pound the same message on autorepeat to his players.

“Focus on the process. Again, I know I sound like a broken record, but this league humbles you very quickly,” Daboll said. “As soon as you’re done with this game and as soon as Mondays are over, you put it to bed, and you get focused on your next opponent.

“Every game is hard. You’re going to get everybody’s best each week regardless of what your record is. You continue to prepare the way you know how to prepare to try to put yourself in the best position you can. That’s all it is.”

In case anyone in the locker room doubts Daboll’s message—and one would be hard-pressed to find such an individual—they need only go talk with defensive lineman Justin Ellis, who was part of a Baltimore Ravens team that got off to an 8-3 start only to have their hearts broken when it came time to earn a postseason berth.

“To have that in perspective and understand that it doesn’t matter how you start; it’s really about how you finish,” Jackson said.