3 Biggest Regrets of NY Giants' in Lost 2025 Season

The New York Giants should have been so much better in 2025, and who knows? Maybe if they could redo these three clear regrets, they might have been.

New York Giants tight end Theo Johnson's frustrated expression after a loss to the Detroit Lions pretty much sums up the mood in East Rutherford. | Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

Although the New York Giants have four more games remaining before their 2025 season is officially over, it’s never too early to reflect on what could have been done differently to salvage a disappointing season.

In a year full of football regret, there are three specific situations that the Giants should have handled differently in an effort to get off to a faster and more productive start.

Whether these would have made a difference is debatable, but given how badly the Giants' season has deteriorated under the now-failed regime of head coach Brian Daboll, perhaps a few different decisions might have made for a less embarrassing campaign. 

Here are three decisions the Giants might consider accepting a mulligan on if offered.

Not Starting QB Jaxson Dart in Week 1 

New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart didn't get a start until Week 4 of the season. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

When the Giants signed Russell Wilson to a free-agent contract in March 2025, Wilson was automatically named the starter, case closed by a head coach who liked to claim a penchant for competition at every position.

While the Giants’ intention was good–the plan was to have veteran signal callers on offense to carry the load if the team failed to land a young franchise quarterback or if they did, to let the kid sit for the season, the whole plan started to fall apart thanks to the talent and ability Dart showed during the preseason.

Jaxson Dart, the young quarterback the Giants were able to trade up to grab, looked like a man among boys in the preseason, developing rapidly and making it just a matter of time before he would be handed the offense’s controls. 

That time should have come in Week 1, giving the young man a full slate of talent that would later have been lost due to injury (Malik Nabers, Cam Skattebo).

Since turning to Dart, through eight starts, is second amongst rookies in passing yards (1556) and completion percentage (63.6), and ranks first in touchdown passes (11). 

Dart has also rushed for 33 yards and seven scores as well, despite missing consecutive weeks with a concussion. 

Giants fans can only imagine the individual and team success the team could have achieved if Dart had played since the season opener. 

Not Firing Shane Bowen after the Denver Disaster 

Former New York Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen was never able to replicate what success he had in Tennessee with the Giants. | Patricia Traina | New York Giants on SI

In reality, defensive coordinator Shane Bowen should have probably been fired after last season’s poor showing. But the Giants, in wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt and more talent to work with, gave him a mulligan.

Unfortunately, despite getting back Dexter Lawrence and some help on the defensive line like Roy Robertson-Harris, two veterans for the defensive secondary (Paulson Adebo and Jevon Holland), and a young pass rusher in Abdul Carter, the Giants' defense was even worse than last season under Bowen’s watch.

The clinching moment in which he should have been relieved of his duties came when, in the fourth quarter of the team’s Week 7 loss to the Denver Broncos, the defense completely fell apart between execution and, more importantly, Bowen’s play calling. 

His eventual, long-overdue termination didn’t come until two weeks after Daboll was fired.  

While maybe it wouldn’t have changed anything, the fact that Bowen, armed with much better talent than he had the year prior, couldn’t get the unit out of the bottom third of the league rankings in most of the major statistical categories was very telling of the need for a change to have been made sooner.

Sticking with Graham Gano at Kicker

New York Giants place kicker Graham Gano landed on IR twice this season. | John Jones-Imagn Images

The logic behind sticking with kicker Graham Gano was a clear case of going with the devil you know. And while injuries aren’t the fault of the players, when a guy develops a consistent pattern of injuries in recent years, it’s beyond comprehension not to have a viable Plan B in one’s back pocket.

Sure enough, the Giants’ decision to hang their hat on Gano, who has now missed 28 games in the last three seasons, came back to bite them hard yet again. 

This season, Gano landed on IR twice, the first time for a groin injury suffered in Week 3 during pregame warmups and then the second time after Week 9, when he suffered a neck injury for which he needed season-ending surgery.

Injuries aside, Gano’s scoring percentage, which one routinely topped the 90% mark in field goal attempts, dipped to 64.7% in 20023, 81.8% in 2024, and 90% this year.

Combine that with the fact that he carried the third-highest cap hit among kickers in the league and that the Giants only carried Jude McAtamney, who wasn’t any more reliable in terms of performance. You have the makings of yet another major blunder that the team has had to live with. 

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