The New York Giants season is over and now comes the time for us to unpack what the heck we witnessed this year.
There were a few disappointments this year and quite a number of surprises.
Here’s a look at seven of those surprises.
The culture change
After years of losing and an embarrassingly high level of dysfunction, the air at 1925 Giants Drive has a cleaner, crisper feel to it. The first year of the new regime — featuring general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll — completely reversed the bad mojo that had engulfed the franchise.
“There’s tremendous energy in the building right now, a really good culture,” Schoen said in his year-end presser on Monday. “Dabs had a very good plan in terms of the offseason, the OTAs, to bring the players together and start to develop that culture and camaraderie amongst the team. I thought that carried over to our fast start early in the season.”
Fish or cut bait
Players Schoen did not draft that did not fit in — or buy in — to the new way of doing things were quickly identified and sent packing.
Some of those decisions were obvious ones, such as the case of former first-round draft pick Kadarius Toney — a player who couldn’t stay on the field and was traded to Kansas City for a package of draft picks in-season.
It was no secret Toney wasn’t long for the Giants but Schoen played the market and finally was able to get decent compensation (a third- and a sixth-round draft pick) in a trade.
Other departures weren’t as clean such as the release of Pro Bowl cornerback James Bradberry and former Mr. Irrelevant Tae Crowder.
Bradberry’s departure was especially painful as it was a result of years of salary cap mismanagement. The fact that Bradberry was then picked up by Philadelphia just turned the knife in the gut of Giant fans.
Crowder had overcome long odds to become a starter at inside linebacker. But his performance fell off a cliff this season and was released in December.
Daniel Jones
The Giants decided to roll the dice on Jones last offseason and decline his fifth-year option, making him eligible for free agency at the end of this season. Many experts said it was the right move as Jones wasn’t “franchise” quarterback timber.
The strategy backfired (kind of) as Jones had a solid season and displayed exemplary leadership abilities and finally, a knack to win games. They will now have to pay up to keep him, but they apparently are fine with that.
“We’re happy Daniel’s going to be here,” Schoen said. “We’re happy he’s going to be here. Hopefully, we can get something done with his representatives. That would be the goal — to build a team around him where he can lead us to win a Super Bowl.”
“I’ve said it all year, he’s done everything that we’ve asked him to do as an offensive staff,” Daboll said. “He’s done a really good job of operating and executing our offense. I think he’s made strides in a lot of different areas. Certainly, we can all make strides in more, but he’s been a good leader for us, played the quarterback position well for us. I’m happy we had him.”
Isaiah Hodgins
The Giants’ wide receiver room began the season with Toney and veterans Kenny Golladay, Sterling Shepard, and Darius Slayton. They were confident they could get it done with that group and second-round draft pick, Wan’dale Robinson.
It didn’t happen. You know Toney’s story, Shepard tore his ACL early on and Golladay and Slayton simply did not take off in Daboll’s system. Then, Robinson was lost midway through the season with a knee injury.
This put the Giants in the market for some new faces. With little resources to do so, they turned to returner Richie James Jr. and Isaiah Hodgins, who they claimed off of waivers on November 1.
Hodgins, a 6-foot-4 former sixth-round pick out of Oregon State, came right in and became a ‘go-to’ receiver for Jones, starting he final five games. He caught 33 passes for 351 yards and four touchdowns and then recorded 105 receiving yards and a touchdown on eight receptions in the Giants’ 31-24 Super Wild Card victory over Minnesota.
The free agent adds on defense
The Giants began the season with Adoree’ Jackson, Aaron Robinson, and Darnay Holmes as their top corners and Julian Love and Xavier McKinney as their primary safeties.
Injuries blew up that plan early. Robinson played in only two games. MicKinney missed eight games and Jackson missed seven. The Giants had to turn to rookies and free agents to fill the gaps.
The Giants turned to players such as Nick McCloud, Fabian Moreau, and Jason Pinnock as well as rookies Cor’Dale Flott and Dane Belton. The group played well enough to hold the Giants’ defense together during their run to the playoffs.
The Giants had issues at linebacker as well. They replaced Crowder with rookie Micah McFadden and then had to backfill injuries to Azeez Ojulari, Darrian Beavers, and Elerson Smith with Jaylon Smith, Jarrad Davis, and get this — Landon Collins.
The injury train kept on a'rollin
The new regime did a ton of good things but failed to solve the primary culprit for the Giants’ failure over the past decade — injuries.
The Giants had a legion of injured players again and were near the top of the league in a stat called “man games lost,” which measures the amount of games teams play without key injured players.
To list all the injuries would be a tiresome exercise but they were significant enough to make a huge impact. Every unit took a big hit.
The players continued to point to the turf at MetLife as a key contributor, but some studies claim to have debunked that. In fact, the Giants announced they would be changing the turf this coming offseason, but not to natural grass.
Gettleman as the good guy?
Giant fans were frustrated that former general manager Dave Gettleman was able to ‘retire’ with dignity and not face the public on his way out the door.
After all, he took a listing ship and basically sunk it. His poor drafts and mismanagement of draft capital and the salary cap left the Giants in dire straits.
But, as it turns out, Gettleman’s tenure wasn’t all bad. There was a foundation for Schoen to build on.
Gettleman did draft Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley, Dexter Lawrence, Andrew Thomas, Julian Love, Xavier McKinney, Azeez Ojulari, Shane Lemieux, Darnay Holmes, Gary Brightwell, and Darius Slayton.
He traded for, and re-signed Leonard Williams and also signed Adoree’ Jackson and Graham Gano.
In retrospect, Gettleman left the Giants with something to work with after all.
