Ranking Giants Chances to Win Division Title in 2025

The New York Giants 2024 regular season was nothing short of a brutal one, and if it exposed anything, it was just how far of a massive crater they’ve dug themselves from the rest of their division.

For more than twenty years, the NFC East has been dubbed the division with the most parody across the NFL. With each passing season, the torch never fails to pass onto a different team that made the right adjustments during the offseason.

That was proved once again when the Philadelphia Eagles reclaimed the throne from the Dallas Cowboys, who won it in 2023.

The Eagles have certainly taken a stronghold on the division with their immense display of talent on both sides of the ball. This led them straight to a 14-win season and a rout in Super Bowl LIX against the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs.

Not far behind them were the Washington Commanders, who went from a similarly miserable playing field as the Giants to an instantly revamped team that knocked on the door of the big game thanks to an explosive rookie arm in Jayden Daniels, a slew of veteran additions and an impactful head coaching hire in Dan Quinn.

And while they’ve been prone to competing for the division title with the Eagles nearly every season, the Dallas Cowboys had more of an off-year despite all the promising players in their ranks. Still, they have had the number of their rivals up in East Rutherford and are in a better position with leadership on both sides.

The Giants, who just finished one of the worst years in franchise history and garnered a 3-14 record this past fall, can’t relate to much of that. They have been exposed at several critical positions on the roster, notably the quarterback's room, which is empty ahead of free agency and the draft. They also lack the real sources of leadership that direct and maintain a positive culture within the locker room.

Even with their many faults, not everyone is willing to write New York off for the upcoming 2025 campaign simply.

There is hope, but only if the right moves get made.

Zoltan Buday of Pro Football Focus believes the Giants have two secret weapons to their advantage, one already been mentioned as a factor, and ranked them as the sixth most likely team that ended the season in last place to surprise the league and capture their division crown next year.

“The NFC East has not had a back-to-back winner since 2004, which certainly can work in the Giants' favor despite the Philadelphia Eagles having just won the Super Bowl, the Commanders making the NFC Championship game, and the Cowboys having a lot of talent on both sides of the ball,” Buday said.

“However, head coach Brian Daboll showed three years ago in his first season with the Giants that he can get the most out of a team, even one lacking talent. The first step must be finding a quarterback to maximize what second-year wide receiver Malik Nabers brings. Nabers' 86.7 PFF overall grade as a rookie ranked eighth in the NFL.”

Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll have very little room for error this year as they look to rebuild the struggling Giants franchise. | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

The only teams that finished below the Giants were the Cleveland Browns and the Las Vegas Raiders, two teams that are also searching for their next answer at the helm of the offense but have a lot more going against them in terms of talent and the competition they play against in their divisions.

The Giants experienced a fast turnaround when Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll arrived from Buffalo three seasons ago. Their 2022 roster didn’t feature an insane amount of talent outside of running back Saquon Barkley, yet Daboll took the pieces at his disposal and, with a creative offensive system, rode them to nine wins and a playoff berth for the first time in six seasons.

However, that early success was often deemed the worst thing for the Giants' rebuild, as they felt closer to contending than they were with the current ensemble. It made them go all in on paying Daniel Jones a lucrative four-year deal worth $160 million, bypassing handing Barkley a new agreement and instead a franchise tag with extra pieces around them, but it would send everything downhill from there.

The following season, the Giants were marred by mediocre pass blocking up front and injuries to several key players, including Jones, who only played in six games before missing the rest of the year with an ACL tear. The Giants found a way to win three more games behind Tommy DeVito, but they ended up with the 30th-ranked scoring offense in the league and a poor rushing defense.

Schoen and the front office spent the 2024 offseason trying to stock up the offensive line and Jones’ weapons out wide after losing Barkley to free agency. They succeeded in that goal with Malik Nabers, who became a rookie sensation with 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns to power the huddle that still ranked dead last in points per game when it was all said and done on the humiliating season.

A lot more went into the constant losing than just the product on the field, and it is very hard to win in the NFL as a player or coach when deficiencies are present both on and off the gridiron. The months ahead will give the Giants time to take a big look in the mirror to decide what changes must be made and what areas must be retooled the most to succeed in 2025.

They must ultimately do that next season if they want to please the desires of ownership and the irritated fanbase. It’s a very delicate balance of making the immediate impact and building the right way for the organization's longevity, but either way, it feels like the Giants have a ways to go before anything close to a division title is a guarantee.

John Mara said he's running out of patience as he waits for the Giants to be once again competitive. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Key decisions need to be made to bolster areas that lack

The Giants hope to follow the path of their neighbors in the nation’s capital and add a few culture-shifting veterans to infuse talent into their ranks. They certainly can use an increased $43 million in cap space and some flashy young players to market to their advantage.

Still, the youth factor is key, and many of those players didn’t perform very well in the immediate starting roles this past season. Nabers and Tyrone Tracy were bright spots in their respective jobs, producing 1,000+ yard stat lines, but pieces in the offensive line and secondary were often chewed up amid a lack of inexperience.

It will take many more reps and confidence to steer the ship in the right direction, and the challenge of the NFC East's newfound competitiveness isn’t going anywhere.

While the Eagles are a bit more cap-strapped than the Giants, they are loaded with big-time players on both sides of the football and are mostly returning for their title defense. The Commanders have found their winning formula behind Daniels and will only make their team stronger with an excess of $79.5 million at their disposal. The Cowboys have some big financial decisions coming their way soon.

The league did not bless the Giants with an amazing schedule next season, including visits from the Chiefs, 49ers, and Chargers. Closing the talent gap may solve some of the problems, but a lot more goes into winning football games, like execution and decision-making, which hasn’t been the Giants' strong suit.

If anything, the Giants should avoid getting caught up in the historic nature of their division and the prospects of shocking the world next season. The best thing is to take this offseason in stride, make the right adjustments, and see if there can be any signs of growth, whether it’s behind a veteran gunslinger or a highly touted rookie prospect.

The pressure from up top may weigh down on each play, but any semblance of positive efforts can change the attitudes of the Giants’ brass. The NFL is a crazy league sometimes, and maybe focusing on one game at a time will light some sort of spark that was seen three seasons prior in an expected Giants’ bunch with a first-time head coach.

Nothing will matter if they don’t have the right pieces on the roster this time. As the team heads into free agency and the draft next month, that is the first test to knowing how things will go when the Giants hit the field for a hopefully improved campaign.

Schoen and Daboll will be at the forefront of proving themselves, and at this moment, doing so via a touted NFC East dominance seems like a long time away until it really happens.

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