On Thursday, the 2020 NFL regular season schedule was released. And although the New York Giants’ opponents have been decided for quite some time, we had all been anxiously awaiting news on when they would play each of those teams.
Of course, divisional games always have a little more intrigue surrounding them, but the Giants certainly have some other interesting games on their schedule this year.
Let’s take a look at the most intriguing games on Big Blue’s 2020 schedule:
Week 12 at Cincinnati Bengals
This is one of two games on the Giants’ schedule where two of the top five picks in this year’s draft will face off. The Giants will travel to Cincinnati to play top overall pick Joe Burrow.
Burrow and the Bengals will be going up against the Giants and Daniel Jones in his second season in the league. And with Eli Manning now retired, this is Daniel Jones team to run.
The Burrow/Jones matchup will be a battle of two of the young and talented quarterbacks in the league. Fourth overall pick Andrew Thomas will be protecting Daniel Jones as he tries to improve in his sophomore season.
Week 5 at Dallas Cowboys
One of the more overlooked parts of the Giants’ offseason is the addition of former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett as the team’s offensive coordinator.
Eli Manning recently gave his praise of Garrett in his new role with the Giants.
There will be a little extra motivation for Garrett in his first game against the Cowboys, especially when he returns to AT&T Stadium. The Giants-Cowboys are always a great matchup and the Garrett factor certainly adds to this one.
Week 8 vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Even though he is no longer with the New England Patriots and Eli Manning has hung up the pads, Tom Brady has still likely eyed up this matchup against the Giants in his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Giants have given Brady trouble during the course of his career, including defeating the Brady-led Patriots in Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI.
Any game where Brady and Rob Gronkowski come to town is always an attractive matchup and tickets to this one will certainly be highly coveted. The Buccaneers have taken huge strides this offseason in improving their roster and this is certainly going to be a tall task for Big Blue.
Oh, and this game will come on Monday night.
Week 6 vs. Washington Redskins
The Giants were linked to pass rusher Chase Young for a large part of the 2019 season and offseason. Unfortunately for Big Blue, the stars did not align for them to land the Ohio State product and they will now have to face off against him twice every year.
However, the Giants filled a position of need with the selection of offensive tackle Andrew Thomas, who could possibly line up to block Young in the team’s first matchup against the Redskins.
How the two perform in throughout their rookie seasons, let alone in their first matchup, won’t determine who is ultimately the better draft pick between the division rivals, but the first matchup will certainly be one the fans remember.
Week 15 vs. Cleveland Browns
After a disappoint first season with the Cleveland Browns, Odell Beckham Jr. returns to play his former team for the first since the trade that netted the Giants former first-round pick Jabrill Peppers and two picks who turned out to be defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence and pass-rushing linebacker Oshane Ximines.
The debate will continue for years over which team won the trade, but you can bet that Beckham will have some extra motivation coming back to MetLife Stadium to play the Giants, where he spent the first five years of his career.
The Giants will also welcome back Olivier Vernon, who was part of their big free agent spending spree in 2016. And let’s not forget that Kevin Zeitler and Peppers will be facing off against their former team as well.
Beckham is expecting this coming season to be a big rebound season after a disappointing campaign last year. As if his production from his 2019 season isn’t motivation enough, he certainly marked his calendar for the first game against his former team.
