What is the Giants’ path to a quick turnaround?
Can a team go from three victories, which was the New York Giants’ total in 2024, to Super Bowl champions the next season. Theoretically, of course, it is possible. Oddsmakers, though, think a Super Bowl LX championship for the Giants is the unlikeliest outcome of the 2025 NFL season.
With the Philadelphia Eagles still celebrating their Super Bowl 59 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, FanDuel Sportsbook has released its odds for the Super Bowl 60 winner. The Giants are one of three teams with odds of +15000. The others are the New Orleans Saints and Tennessee Titans.
FanDuel lists the Chiefs as Super Bowl LX favorites at +650. The Eagles, Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens are +700.
How can the Giants turn things around?
Fast turnarounds are possible in the NFL, though not commonplace. The 2024 Washington Commanders proved that, going from 4-13 in 2023 to 12-5 and reaching the NFC Championship Game in 2024.
The Commanders, of course, landed a transformational quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft as Jayden Daniels won AP Offensive Rookie of the Year.
The Giants find themselves hoping they can land a transformational quarterback of their own in the 2025 NFL Draft. If not, they are at least aiming to find a veteran quarterback who can improve the quality of play they have gotten from the position the past two seasons.
The championship the Eagles just won, though, shows clearly that the path to improvement for the Giants has to run through the trenches.
Ex-Giant Saquon Barkley just set the single-season rushing record (regular and postseason combined) with 2,504 yards. He did so not just because of his own considerable talent, but because one of the best offensive lines in football consistently delivered him untouched to the second level of opposing defenses. Once he gets there, Barkley is still magical.
Giants’ GM Joe Schoen signed three solid veteran starting offensive linemen in free agency last offseason, but his efforts to upgrade the offensive line in the draft have been a failure.
Schoen has selected four offensive linemen in his three drafts. Only John Michael Schmitz has been even moderately successful as an NFL player, and in his two seasons has only been a bottom-tier starting center. Schoen did not select a single lineman in the 2024 draft.
The Eagles’ defense was dominant Sunday evening against the Chiefs, led by a defensive line that sacked Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes six times and hit him 11 more times. Per Pro Football Focus, Mahomes was pressured on 53.3% of his drop backs. The only time in his career he has been pressured more often was in a Super Bowl 55 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when he was pressured 59.5% of the time.
Philadelphia made the league’s best quarterback fidgety and uncomfortable, forcing two interceptions and a fumble from Mahomes.
The Eagles did all of that despite not blitzing a single time.
Yes, the Eagles have quality edge defenders. A bigger reason for Philadelphia’s dominance at the line of scrimmage, though, is that they have waves of quality interior defensive linemen. Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis are first-round picks. Milton Williams is a third-round pick. All since 2021.
Since becoming GM, the highest draft capital Schoen has allotted on the defensive line was a 2022 fifth-round pick on D.J. Davidson. After trading Leonard Williams in 2023 and then losing A’Shawn Robinson in free agency, Schoen added only undrafted free agent Elijah Chatman to the defensive line.
If the Giants are going to climb from the bottom tier of NFL teams, the right quarterback is essential. So, too, is paying proper attention to and doing a better job evaluating talent in the trenches.
