The Giants want to exercise patience, but reasons for doing that are getting harder to find
The New York Giants did not play well in Thursday’s 27-20 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. But, they played with effort. Enthusiasm even.
That should be enough for head coach Brian Daboll to keep his job. For now.
What happens five games from now when this unexpectedly miserable Giants season mercifully comes to a close is anybody’s guess.
The Giants are now 2-10. They have lost seven straight games. They have lost three straight games to teams with losing records of their own. They have sent their quarterback packing and it’s pretty apparent they don’t have a better one on the current roster. They have lost their best offensive and defensive lineman to injury from units that were adequate, at best, with them healthy.
John Mara wants to have patience. He knows that to achieve real success, to make the Giants into a legitimate NFL team instead of the sad sacks they currently are, there has to be stability. Since the Giants ushered Tom Coughlin out the door after the 2015 season, Mara and Steve Tisch have not been able to find a regime that could provide it.
They have tried installing up-and-coming head coaches. They have tried a retread. They have tried turning to an old friend to fix their broken organization. When that didn’t work, they — finally — went outside the organization in an effort to find the answer.
Right now, it is clear that isn’t working.
The Giants shockingly started the Daboll-Joe Schoen era 7-2. They stumbled the rest of the way, but managed to win a playoff game. Mara proclaimed “we’re back” after that playoff victory. Daboll won Coach of the Year. The Giants acted like they were back. Daniel Jones got paid. Schoen traded draft capital for an injury-plagued, past-his-prime tight end.
Since then, nothing has gone right.
The Giants are 10-26-1. The product is getting worse rather than better.
They did not embarrass themselves on Thursday in front of a national audience the way they had on Sunday in front of their home fans. They at least played with some resolve. They lost to a Dallas team, though, without Dak Prescott, Zack Martin, DeMarcus Lawrence and Trevon Diggs. A Dallas team that saw star wide receiver CeeDee Lamb drop three passes and take much of the second half off as he deals with injuries of his own. A Dallas team that had been 0-5 at home.
I think Mara wants to believe what long-time NFL executive T.J. McCreight believes — that Daboll and Schoen can pick the right quarterback and eventually fix the mess the Giants are in. Here is what McCreight told the ‘Valentine’s Views’ podcast:
“I think they’re good football people and I would tell Giants fans this — I have been around a lot of GM’s, a lot of scouts a lot of people. I would trust Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll to pick my next quarterback for the New York Football Giants and I wouldn’t think twice,” said T.J. McCreight, who spent five years in player personnel for the Philadelphia Eagles, five as director of college scouting for the Indianapolis Colts, and three as director of pro personnel for the Arizona Cardinals. “So I hope that ownership gives them a chance and does have patience and allows them to see it through, allows them to trust the process, the draft process, and pick the right players and particular the right quarterback.
“So, yeah, I would definitely put my stamp on them and I hope the Mara family gives them the time to do so.”
I still believe Mara, who preached patience just a few weeks ago, is searching under every rock to find reasons to exercise it with Daboll and Schoen. What Tisch, an absentee owner without the patience or day-to-day personal connection Mara has with Daboll, Schoen and most of the team’s employees, believes I have no idea.
Tisch is often the driving force behind changes with the Giants. He has not been heard from all season.
Daboll needs things to get better over the final five games. He needs to find some way to make them better.
Daboll’s flat, lifeless voice in his post-game press conference seemed to bely the fact that he understands just how high the tide has risen around him.
He said “no” when asked if he is worried about his security.
“I don’t like the results. Nobody likes the results,” Daboll said. “But again, I have confidence in the people. We’ve just got to do better.”
“I don’t like the results. Nobody likes the results. But I have confidence with the people, just gotta do better”
Brian Daboll says he isn’t worried about his job security with the Giants pic.twitter.com/g1p0fidaHI
— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) November 29, 2024
Only, it is hard to imagine how the Giants are going to “do better” the rest of the way.
The Giants keep shedding talent to injury (Andrew Thomas, Dexter Lawrence, Azeez Ojulari) and roster management/salary cap decisions (Jones/Nick McCloud).
The Giants don’t have, and did not have with Jones, a quarterback who can make them better, who can overcome the inadequacies of those around him and lift the players around him.
They don’t have a quarterback or, at this point, an offensive line that can allow them to take advantage of the playmakers they do have. Like Malik Nabers, Tyrone Tracy, Darius Slayton and developing rookie tight end Theo Johnson.
With an offensive-minded head coach calling the plays, they are the worst offense in the NFL.
They don’t have a defense that does anything well.
The Giants are the league’s worst run defense. The loss of Lawrence, for several weeks if not the season, with a dislocated elbow isn’t going to make that better. In-game injuries to Lawrence, D.J. Davidson and Rakeem Nunez-Roches left the Giants with only two healthy defensive tackles — Jordon Riley and Elijah Chatman — for much of Thursday’s second half.
The pass rush, once at the top of the league in sacks, is non-existent. The Giants have one sack in four weeks.
The Giants have set an NFL record for pass coverage futility by not intercepting a pass over the last 11 games.
The franchise is getting embarrassed by star players it chose not to keep in Saquon Barkley and Xavier McKinney.
The Giants played with effort but no discipline on Thursday. There were 13 accepted penalties, many of them costly, and at least two that were declined. There were two turnovers and could have been a third when Eric Gray fumbled a kickoff. There were dropped passes and far too many missed tackles.
A 2-15 season with 12 straight losses to finish it and the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft for the first time since 1965 are not hard to see on the horizon for the Giants.
Could ownership still exercise patience if that is where this ends up? Maybe. It is, though, becoming harder and harder to see where the Giants will find a path to that patience.
