This Sunday is where the rubber meets the road for the New York Giants.
After all the speculation of the off-season will come to the end when the Giants take on the Washington Commanders. The line has tightened as of this writing, and where the Giants were 6.5-point underdogs to start the week, FanDuel now has the Giants as 5.5-point underdogs.
Are the Giants better than we thought they were after getting healthy, moving to Russell Wilson at QB, and adding talent on defense? Are the Commanders primed to regress after winning 9 one-score games and 5 wins of three points or less. Or will the Giants continue to be unable to get out of their own way, while Washington continues to take steps forward?
We’ll find out Sunday.
We asked the Big Blue View community whether you think the Giants will win for our first Reacts survey of the regular season. And perhaps we’re still in the afterglow of an encouraging off-season, but fans are optimistic heading into the first game.
A full 81 percent of fans are expecting a close game, defining “close” as being a win or loss by a field goal.
It’s notable that the majority of fans are expecting a win to start the season. Part of that is doubtless due to lingering optimism from the off-season, but the Giants’ defense should still match up relatively well against the Commanders’ offense.
Only 7 percent of respondents are expecting a blowout loss, likely due to confidence in the Giants’ defense. There’s good reason for confidence, with Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Bobby Okereke all getting healthy after dealing with injury in 2024, not to mention the additions of Paulson Adebo, Jevon Holland, and Abdul Carter.
The bigger question is whether the offense can take a step forward. Andrew Thomas’ status is still unknown as of this writing, which could mean that we’ll get to see how effective Joe Schoen’s efforts to improve the Giants’ offensive line depth have been. The obvious hope is that Russell Wilson will allow the Giants various skill position players — Malik Nabers, Darius Slayton, Wan’Dale Robinson, Theo Johnson, Daniel Bellinger, Tyrone Tracy — to play up to their potential.
Again, we’ll see on Sunday.
For now, anyway, fans are very confident that their team is headed in the right direction.
Fan confidence was surprisingly durable last year and even (briefly) returned to preseason levels after the Giants’ 29-20 win over the Seattle Seahawks.
But that high was 78 percent, no where near the 92 percent of fans who are confident that the team is headed in the right direction. And as things stand now, fans have ample reason to be confident. The 2024 draft class appears to be an excellent one with a star in Malik Nabers and contributors in every round. The 2025 class might have yielded a potential star in Abdul Carter and a Franchise Quarterback in Jaxson Dart. It’s possible that Cam Skattebo, Marcus Mbow, and Thomas Fidone II could all be gems as well.
But again, this is where the rubber meets the road.
We might not see the teams’ development immediately reflected in wins, but if the Giants have added as much talent as it appears, we should definitely see a rise in their quality and competitiveness sooner rather than later.
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