Assessing NY Giants' Chances of Winning NFC East

Nearly every season in the National Football League, it often becomes one of the biggest storylines when a once struggling franchise that wallowed near the basement of the sport the year before suddenly flips the script to become one of the best teams that dominate their division and vies for a shot at the Lombardi Trophy come early January.

In the NFC East division, that exact scenario hasn't played out since the 2016-17 seasons when the Philadelphia Eagles went from the forsaken team of the group with a 7-9 record to holding the division crown in the latter campaign after going 13-3 and soon after winning their very first Super Bowl championship that season against the New England Patriots.

Last season, no team in the NFL accomplished such a feat, marking only the third time in the last 22 years that a "worst to first" has not occurred. Still, another member of the same division came quite close in the Washington Commanders, who finished fourth in consecutive years before just missing the pedestal at 12-5 as the Eagles took the throne for the third time since 2019.

So, now everyone is wondering whether it's time for the New York Giants to pull off the unthinkable and get their long-awaited taste of supremacy in the NFC East again, something that the franchise hasn't owned since the 2011 season when they went 9-7 overall and charged their way straight to their fourth Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl XLVI.

With their attempt to do so in the 2025 season still a few months away, it doesn't seem like the team is receiving that much of a chance to stun the football world and make it back to the postseason dance.

In a new ranking by FOX Sports involving the eight last-place finishing teams from 2024, the Giants were placed seventh in terms of their likelihood of achieving the mission of going from worst to first in their division next season.

"It was a toss-up for last place between the Browns and the Giants, but I ultimately decided that I feel better about New York’s quarterback situation than Cleveland’s," NFL reporter Carmen Vitali said in the analysis.

"The Giants also have an excellent defensive line and some fun offensive pieces that could help them win some games they’re not supposed to. That being said, they have the worst schedule in the league, having to play in the NFC East and against the NFC North and AFC West. They’ll be lucky to win a game in their division, much less contend for the division title."

Brian Daboll, head coach of the NY Giants, is shown during a practice at Quest Diagnostics Training Center, East Rutherford, NJ, May 28, 2025. | Anne-Marie Caruso/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Looking at how the rest of Vitali's rankings unfolded, it's surprising to see certain teams like the New Orleans Saints (No. 6), New England Patriots (No. 4), and Tennessee Titans (No.2) get positioned above New York, whose collection of talent figures on both sides figures to be more impressive on paper than any of those three organizations.

Still, it appears her judgment of the Giants' fate simply comes down to situational factors more than the quality of their roster assets.

The Giants are expected to play in one of the most competitive groupings in the league this season, especially when all four teams in the East are at full strength, as they will be when the year opens. Their track record against those rivals speaks for itself with the 0-6 standing they earned as part of a 3-14 overall record.

Outside of the division, the remainder of their opponents feature six of last year's postseason participants and another one of the final four teams in the Kansas City Chiefs, who fell one game short of their goal to three=peat after a grueling loss in Super Bowl LIX at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles and will want likely come in steaming to avenge that humiliating defeat.

Many people expect the Giants' defense to be among the most improved units in the NFL, and this variable will help them remain more competitive than they were last season. Their offense has been a constant work in progress that has been derailed by the lack of a true answer under center.

As a result, general manager Joe Schoen has made it an emphasis to be a heavy spender along the interior and in the secondary, two of their biggest weaknesses over that span.

Schoen's efforts brought in two excellent defensive line prospects in edge rusher Abdul Carter and defensive tackle Darius Alexander, both of whom will create new problems for the opposing backfield and give Shane Bowen a nice Rolodex of pass rushers to play with in different packages.

They followed up with solid additions to the deep field, including veterans like Paulson Adebo and Jevon Holland, who will make it tougher for the Giants to get torched in coverage.

Even with the added advantages to the defense, it will be pivotal for the Giants' offense to show strides if they desire any semblance of an opportunity to surprise their critics and find some success within their division and the league at large.

They now have a proven veteran in Russell Wilson, slated to lead the huddle, and are returning a group of young weapons whose full potential has yet to be tapped.

The passing attack was carried a lot by the miracle work of Malik Nabers, who managed to build a historic rookie stat line, including 109 receptions for 1,204 receiving yards, seven touchdowns, and an average of 80.3 yards per contest, which placed him in the top three among novices in his position group in 2024.

The rest of the depth chart had just two players push over 550 yards and two scores (Wan'Dale Robinson and Darius Slayton), and a few names have seemingly been completely ignored in the system.

Between having a solid offensive front that keeps Wilson upright and getting all hands on deck to move the football downfield, it's setting up to be a huge season for head coach Brian Daboll, who is hovering over the edge of his seat in New York if his offense doesn't show signs of growth and his signal caller decisions don't look promising for the long term future.

Suppose Wilson and the company stumble through the first half of the campaign. In that case, he will likely need to throw his young prodigy, Jaxson Dart, into the fire to showcase his early development and ability to lead an NFL-level offense, thereby enticing ownership to stick with the script for more than one year.

Daboll hopes it doesn't reach that point, and the good news is that he, along with the Giants, is still riding a clean slate as they go through spring football activities and get a feel for how their entire roster is going to shape out.

They won't get too far ahead, but it's going to be a challenging road for any large aspirations, even for a regime that managed to achieve them just three seasons earlier with a much less talented locker room than the franchise has now.

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