It’s very fair to argue that life would be a bit easier for the New York Giants if elite players like running back Saquon Barkley and left tackle Andrew Thomas were on the field right now.
Indeed, injuries to Barkley and Thomas, two of the most important players on the Giants’ roster, have seriously hampered New York after an upstart 2022 season gave way to plenty of hopes for what this team could do in 2023.
After beating the Minnesota Vikings on the road this past January in the NFC Wild Card round, it looked like the Giants were well-coached, balanced with good talent on both sides of the ball and had quarterback Daniel Jones working as the kind of efficient, winning game manager that could occasionally surprise with his legs.
Four games into 2023, New York looks like it’s completely lost any and all momentum sustained during head coach Brian Daboll’s first season on the sideline. Jones looks like a liability on the field without Barkley and Thomas, and Wink Martindale’s defense is severely underperforming outside of a few bright spots (keep it up, Kayvon Thibodeaux).
The Giants’ 40-0 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1 wasn’t just a mirage. Without a dramatic comeback to the 1-3 Arizona Cardinals in Week 2, the team could be winless right now. Even with injuries to Thomas and Barkley, that feels downright inexcusable for a Giants team that was just trending upward this past winter.
Daboll and company are going to have to take a long, hard look in the mirror after this Monday’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks and see what is wrong with this franchise. Getting Barkley and Thomas back will be good steps in the right direction, but that can’t help a defense that’s giving up an average of 30.5 points a game this season. That can’t fully solve whatever is wrong with Jones and the rest of this porous offensive line right now.
The Giants entered this fall with legitimate playoff aspirations. Right now, the team’s only win this season came against the lowly Cardinals, and it took a major comeback for that to happen. Think about that; the Giants could barely beat a team many pegged as the favorite for the first-overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
After Jones signed a major extension this offseason, he’s probably going to be New York’s quarterback through at least 2024. If he can’t get back to where he was last year, the Giants will probably cut him fast in 2025 and just swallow more than $22 million in dead money. Unless the team tricks someone into a trade next spring, his contract is virtually untouchable in 2024 sans a senseless restructure. That’s not good; Jones has to be better.
The Giants are only four games into 2023, so there is still a good bit of time for this team to figure out whatever on Earth is going on with both sides of the ball. Daboll and company have their work cut out for them, and maybe they’ll right the ship in the end. However, all of that positive momentum from 2022 is out the window for the moment.
The Giants are one of the worst teams in the NFL right now after perhaps the most disappointing start of 2023 for anyone in the league. Considering how the promise of last season has been squandered in four measly games, New York fans have a right to be livid at what’s going on in the Big Apple.
