Giants Sit Near Bottom of New Non-Playoff Team Rankings

The Giants have a few foundational pieces to build around, but they are still viewed as a ways off from contending in 2025.

President of the New York Giants, John Mara (left) and New York Giants General Manager, Joe Schoen, speak with New York Giants Head Coach, Brian Daboll, at MetLife Stadium before their team hosts the New England Patriots, Sunday, November 26, 2023. | Kevin R. Wexler / USA TODAY NETWORK

As disappointing as the New York Giants’ recent season was, with a historically bad 3-14 record, there is a slight solace in the fact that 24 other NFL franchises are right there with them, catching the rest of the playoffs from the sidelines. 

With nearly three-fourths of the league finished from the 2024 season, including the Giants, there is the advantage of having the extra time to reflect and assess what steps need to be taken in the next several months to become a better contender when the new season rolls around next fall. 

The difficult part is that some teams are much closer to that goal than others, which is the case for the Giants as they enter a pivotal offseason for the current regime, which is operating on borrowed time from co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch.

So thinks The Athletic’s Mike Jones, who had New York slated as the second least likely non-playoff team to rebound and become a contending franchise again in 2025 in his special new rankings.

“Malik Nabers is a star, so teaming him up with the right quarterback could help the Giants improve. But is the No. 3 pick too late for Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll to have a shot at a legit franchise savior? The quarterback pickings in free agency are also slim,” Jones said in his piece.

The only opposing team that the Giants managed to outrank was the Cleveland Browns, who have a completely messy quarterback situation of their own. The Giants beat them 21- 15 in Week 3 of the season in a defensive thriller that featured a season-high of eight sacks on Deshaun Watson. 

There were also a few surprising teams that were positioned interestingly higher than the Giants, such as the Tennessee Titans (15), who were in shambles behind a rookie coach and own the first pick in April’s draft, and the New England Patriots (11), who also have  a young quarterback and a very bare cupboard at numerous positions throughout the roster. 

Some of the glaring needs that the rankings mentioned other teams needed are ones with which the Giants have a better advantage, such as a core on the defensive line, edge rushers, and a more abundant cap space to operate with in free agency.

In all of those respects, to paint the Giants as one of the farthest-off franchises from sniffing the postseason again seems unfair. Their true placement belongs outside the top 10 non-playoff organizations, given they played in a season where many of their contests were close calls despite unfortunate losses. 

Even with their lack of quality quarterback play and injuries that wrecked the roster as the season wore on, the Giants were rarely a unit that looked like they rolled over and quit on their coaching staff. Outside of a few blowouts that showed the severity of the campaign at large, nine of their 14 losses came within 10 points or less, and three were within under a field goal. 

Before all the injuries started to take effect, the Giants were also performing well in terms of offensive protection and producing pressures on the defensive end. 

It may not have resulted in many wins, which is the equalizing statistic. Still, it was hard to ignore when they held one of the most improved and top-10 offensive lines in pass block win rate and racked up 36 sacks in the first half of the season behind their beefed-up pass rush, which finished in the same range with 45 overall.

The Giants had a much more successful draft in 2024 and now possess a rookie core that can continue developing into valuable pieces on both sides of the ball. They had Malik Nabers and Tyrone Tracy, who led the team in both receiving and rushing production en route to respective 1,000+ yards from scrimmage campaigns. On defense, they found some quality ballhawks in Dru Phillips and Tyler Nubin. 

But most of all, according to Pro Football Reference, a handful of the three—to five-win teams placed ahead of the Giants finished with similar, if not worse, production in select important categories than New York did throughout the regular season. 

Some of these teams may continue to struggle as the wrath of leadership changes and roster upheaval takes hold over the offseason if they haven’t already. By boasting a small yet meaningful core of both rookies and veterans who can shine with the right conditions, health being the most important, the Giants could very much fare better than the miserable 3-14 season they had and then some of the franchises that Jones placed them under. 

Undoubtedly, the product assembled this past season was unacceptable and needs improvements, so there will not be a massive upheaval in the next offseason. The Giants are holding onto the consistency part for dear life, and the competition half doesn’t feel as far away as many outsiders opine it to be. 

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Giants 2024 Position Unit Reviews

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