What Would a Successful Giants Season Look Like?

An 8-8 record? A playoff berth? A draft pick that's not in the top 10, as has been the case in four out of the last five drafts?

These are among the criteria some have listed as what would make for a successful Giants season under first-year head coach Joe Judge.

Though these objectives all sound like feasible goals, we need to remember that this is a team that has been torn apart and rebuilt from the bottom up. As such, in setting expectations, one must be realistic to avoid disappointment.

With the Giants having hit rock bottom--winning nine games out of their last two seasons and posting a 3-9 record against their division opponents, there is nowhere to go but up.

That might not necessarily mean duplicating the 49ers' reversal of its record from 2018 (3-13) to a 13-3 mark and a Super Bowl berth last season. Still, there are some benchmarks we can look for from the Giants this year that, if met, will indicate progress.

Handling Adversity

This is the top sign Giants fans should be looking for when it comes to growth and improvement made by the team. Whether it's injury, an off-field incident, a bad loss, or something else that's unexpected, the Giants, since 2017, haven't handled adversity very well.

Some examples include the 2017 season, when the Giants lost most of their receivers to injury early in the year, including Odell Beckham Jr.

While that was an occurrence no one planned for, the Giants struggled to overcome that issue and were exposed on offense thanks to their running game, which finished 26th in the league that year.

One can also point to the off-field antics of Beckham, including his explosive interview with ESPN in October 2018.

If you're looking for a more recent example, look no further than the first major fire of the Joe Judge era in which second-year cornerback DeAndre Baker has been accused of armed robbery and aggravated assault.

Between the magnitude of the charges and the player in question--a player for whom the Giants traded up to get in the bottom of the first round last year--there is bound to be questions asked not only of Judge and general manager Dave Gettleman but also of Baker's teammates.

As the Giants have shown in the past--see the infamous Miami party boat incident before the playoffs--when the focus isn't squarely on football, not much good ensues on the field.

Part of handling adversity has to do with one's maturity and poise in handling a constant stream of questions regarding what is perceived as the bigger story. While most players can handle it, it's fair to wonder if the Giants as a team have been as successful.

The good news is that although it's early enough in Judge's tenure, he's shown that he's every bit as poised considering he's a first-time head coach as some of the league's oldest veterans.

At the same time, the timing of the Baker incident has made it so that Judge and his players haven't had to face questions daily, which is why it's difficult to know for sure at this juncture if the Giants have turned the corner in handling major adversity.

The Overall Won-Loss Record

A popular question that gets asked when it comes to gauging the Giants' success is what must their year-end record be to "save jobs"?

The easy answer would be any record that's better than the 4-12 they recorded last year or the 3-13 they logged under Ben McAdoo in 2018.

Actual record aside, a good litmus test for whether the Giants are indeed on the right track would be their week to week progress.

Going back to the 2018 season, a big reason why Pat Shurmur was retained as head coach was because the Giants, who started the first half of the season 1-7, went on to finish the second half 4-4.

It might not look like it, but that was progress, and it was enough progress to think that if the team could build on that, things would soon be right again in East Rutherford.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case as the Giants, in 2019, went backward. And not only did the record regress but the team, in many phases of the ball, continued to look as disjointed as it had in Week 17 of the season as it did on Day 1 of the 2019 off-season workouts.

With the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to grip the world, there is no guarantee there will be an NFL season.

But how nice would it be if the season does start as scheduled, the Giants, by Week 5 when five out of their six games on their schedule are against the NFC East teams, have a winning record during that stretch?

Player Improvement

Before we can talk about improvement to the team's record, everything starts with the individual players and the coaching staff.

One of the arguments one can make about the last few years is that the Giants' coaching staff, for whatever the reason, didn't get the most out of the talent it had.

Whether that was due to a rigid set of expectations governing what they wanted to run versus letting the talent dictate what they could run is certainly up for debate, but what's not up for debate is the Giants as a team, didn't show much progress from Week 1 to Week 17.

The most glaring example was the defensive secondary. While the youth was a factor in how that group performed, there were also continued breakdowns in coverage occurring late in the season that should not have been happening at that juncture.

Was that because there was legitimate confusion over what to do stemming from he classroom and practice sessions? Or was that because the schemes didn't play into the players' strengths?

The safest answer is that it was probably a combination of both, mixed in with perhaps some frustration setting in with the players.

But there were other red flags. For one, running back Wayne Gallman seemed to disappear from the landscape toward the end of the season. Was that a result of him not applying himself or not properly being coached up?

And what about the offensive line, which in 2018 gave up 47 sacks, four more than the 43 they allowed last season with a supposedly upgraded line?

These are just a few examples of failure by various units on the team to make significant strides from one year to the next.

Judge and his staff will get a fresh start, as will all the players. That fresh start will allow everyone involved with the team to establish a new baseline for "success" that each year the Giants will look to improve.

This is why the minimal stock should be placed in the team's final record. After all, the Giants didn't deteriorate throughout one season, so to expect them to turn it around after one season just because they have a new head coach is probably an unrealistic expectation.

Out of the question? No. But if the Giants can show progress and growth in the areas they've recently struggled, that would be the most significant sign that the franchise is headed in the right direction.

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