Expectations are being ratcheted up another notch
The New York Giants will have to deal with an unfamiliar foe in 2025: Raising expectations.
The Giants have only been saddled with expectations a couple times in recent memory, most notably following their upset playoff victory over the Minnesota Vikings in the 2022-2023 playoffs. Prior to that, it was following their playoff appearance in 2016-2017.
As we head into 2025, expectations are reaching a fever pitch, at least on the defensive side of the ball. Just how high are those expectations rising? Pro Football Focus has the Giants’ defensive front third in their pre-season rankings.
No, that wasn’t a typo. Third in the whole National Football League.
3. New York Giants
Arguably no team has done more in the NFL to strengthen its defensive line and pass rush over the past couple of seasons than the Giants. They drafted Kayvon Thibodeaux and Abdul Carter with top-five picks in 2022 and 2025, respectively, and also traded for former first-rounder Brian Burns.
The team’s edge defender trio is complemented by perhaps the best nose tackle in the league, Dexter Lawrence. Although Lawrence’s 2024 season was cut short due to an injury, his 89.9 PFF overall grade still ranked third among interior defenders.
The fact that the Giants are facing rising expectations following a 3-14 disaster of a season is, honestly, impressive.
Thanks to Dexter Lawrence and Brian Burns are returning to health, as well as the additions of Abdul Carter and Darius Alexander, heightened expectations on the defensive side of the ball are warranted. But still, third in the NFL behind only the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles?
That’s rarified air.
It isn’t that outrageous to think that the Giants have reached a critical mass of talent for their defense to, in the words of Mina Kimes, “go nuclear.”
After all, there’s a very good argument that Dexter Lawrence is the best defensive tackle in the NFL, and Brian Burns is coming off an injury plagued season in which he was still 4th in Pass Rush Win Rate among edge defenders (tied with Micah Parsons with a 23 percent win rate). Kayvon Thibodeaux had the highest pressure rate of his career last year and was a couple seconds (total) shy of posting his second double-digit sack total in two years despite missing five games.
That isn’t to mention the additions of Chauncey Golston and Roy Robertson-Harris to improve the Giants overall depth. Keeping their plethora of first round QB hunters fresh will be key late in games and late in the season. The Giants may even be deeper than the media at large is expecting if the experience of being forced into being every-down players helped accelerate the development of Elijah Chatman and Jordon Riley.
The bigger question is two-fold.
The first part is how Shane Bowen will get all of his talented players on the field. Rotating the three edge defenders and keeping Lawrence healthy and fresh is the first objective, but Bowen will also need to figure out how to incorporate linebacker Micah McFadden in those rotations. Likewise, he’ll need to figure out how to incorporate Dane Belton into a secondary that is young, deep, and talented.
The second part comes down to the offense.
There have been a lot of indications that the Giants want to be aggressive and explosive on offense, and that could be the missing ingredient. Their offense has been bland over the last several years, allowing opposing offenses to play without the pressure of having to score to keep up. An offense that can score from anywhere on the field could be the spice that brings the defensive sauce together.
The Giants have been on the other side of that equation for years now, having to pass to keep pace while the other team unleashes their pass rush. Having an offense that sets the pace would allow the Giants’ own defenders to pin their ears back and do what they were drafted to do.
Maybe we’ll find out that a Top 10 defense, with a Top 5 defensive line, isn’t so farfetched.
