Big Blue View
New York Giants headlines for Friday
Good morning, New York Giants fans!
The Giants' transformation at the game's most important position emanated from a high-level plan that GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll presented to owner John Mara in the waining days of the 2024 season.
Per a source with knowledge of the conversation, they outlined all the potential quarterback options: from the top of the draft with Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders and Jaxson Dart; to potential free agents such as Justin Fields and Russell Wilson; to potential trade and cut casualties including Matthew Stafford, Kirk Cousins and Aaron Rodgers. They talked about the possibility of adding a veteran (or veterans) in addition to landing a quarterback in the draft. At least one of each was preferred.
How much rope does Brian Daboll have? Those first nine games are beyond difficult for the Giants. It would be a challenge for a contending team, let alone one like the Giants, who are still rebuilding. Daboll’s seat was scorching hot at points last year. A terrible start will only match, if not exceed, those nuclear temperatures. Will John Mara make a change if the Giants sit 0-4? Or 0-5? What about 1-6 or 1-7?
Muddying the waters even more is what the Giants invested in Dart. It became clear, from the team’s in-house documentary chronicling the draft process, that he is Daboll’s guy. That might buy him more time or lead to a dysfunctional situation with an in-season coaching change.
New York Giants: 5.4 wins. Trying to win at Washington (in Week 1) and hosting Kansas City (on Sunday Night Football in Week 3) in the first three weeks of the season is tough in itself. That becomes a much tougher ask if rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart ends up being the team's starter. The Giants' schedule is punishing overall and especially so midway through the campaign, with back-to-back road games in Denver (Week 7) and Philadelphia (Week 8) and home games against San Francisco (Week 9) and Green Bay (Week 11) sandwiched around a trip to Chicago. The difficult sequence finally ends in Detroit in Week 12.
The good news is the Giants should be a better team than last year. The bad news? They’ve got the toughest strength-of-schedule...
