The weekly Blame Game is growing as stale as a seven-day old bagel.
This is not from the inside. The Giants are losing with a decent amount of decorum. Oh, there are a few comments that raise an eyebrow and are up for interpretation but, for the most part, the level of frustration and professionalism and move-on-to-the-next-one mindset is not bad for a team that is 2-7 and in the midst of a four-game losing skid.
This is from the outside, the insatiable desire to figure out who is most responsible for yet another desultory season. Here is a hint: Round up the usual suspects. It is almost always the general manager, the head coach and the starting quarterback. That is just the way it is. Either the talent is lacking, the way the talent is being taught and deployed is lacking or it is the guy who runs the offense on the field that is lacking.
Sometimes, it is all three.
With these Giants, Brian Daboll did not get stupid in 2024 after he was named the NFL Coach of the Year in 2022. He did not ease up or take shortcuts. His aggressive-by-nature approach was lauded as the Giants in his rookie year as a head coach produced the first playoff appearance since 2016 and the first playoff victory since 2011.
Daboll last season figured out a way to win three games with Tommy DeVito, an undrafted rookie quarterback, a year after he turned Daniel Jones into an effective game manager that did more to win than lose most games. As it turns out, that appears to be the high-water mark for Jones.
This year’s rookie class brought in by general manager Joe Schoen is impressive and might produce four starters, including future star receiver Malik Nabers. The drafts of 2022 and 2023, however, leave plenty to be desired. Out of 18 players selected, none of them is on a path toward greatness, five of them can be considered capable starters and only two of them — Kayvon Thibodeaux and Wan’Dale Robinson — are players that probably need to be re-signed.
Yes, we know by now a team needs a high-quality quarterback to accomplish anything of significance and this is why the Giants ᴀssuredly will move on from Jones after this season. And, if the losing carries over to the next game, against the Panthers in Munich, Germany, there could be a change during the bye week to Drew Lock or even DeVito, just for the sake of trying something different and also because of Jones’ injury guarantee of $23 million.
Let us move Jones to the side, as he is not part of the long-term solution. There are pieces to work with but that does not qualify this as being a roster on the rise. What we saw in the latest loss, 27-22 to the Commanders, was an offense with one player (Nabers) that puts fear into opponents and a defense that needs help in the interior up front and certainly on the back end, where more talent at cornerback and safety is required.
There is nothing the Giants do well on a consistent basis on offense. The one area to highlight on defense — NFL-leading 35 sacks heading into Week 9 — is not sustainable. The Commanders dealt with Dexter Lawrence and Brian Burns with chip blocks on virtually every pᴀss rush opportunity, mitigating the pressure and still managing to exploit weaknesses in the secondary.
There is culpability to be ᴀssigned almost everywhere. That Evan Neal this past Sunday got on the field for one snap — he reported in as a tackle eligible on the 2-yard touchdown pᴀss from Jones to Chris Manhertz — is further indictment of how bad of a miss Neal was by this regime as the No. 7 overall pick in 2022. That receiver Jalin Hyatt (four snaps) and тιԍнт end Daniel Bellinger (14 snaps) barely got on the field is, to a lesser extent, also a bad look for the scouting and development process. And that cornerback Deonte Banks, the 2023 first-round pick, was out there for all 62 snaps on defense and allowed two touchdown receptions to Terry McLaurin is more troubling data on a 23-year old who was benched last week because of lackadaisical play.
The quarterback is the convenient fall guy for all this losing, but Jones — with a pᴀsser rating of 119.7 and three touchdowns (two pᴀssing, one rushing) — was not the reason the Giants lost this time around.
