Big Blue View
Their roster has been constructed with the long-term future in mind
It’s easy to be optimistic at this time of year, when the New York Giants’ record is 0-0, there are three new quarterbacks on the team, including the hoped-for QB of the future, the pass rush could be ferocious, and the secondary may have plugged a couple of holes. There are legitimate questions about the futures of Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen if the team doesn’t have some success in 2025.
Realistically, though, it would be a surprise if the Giants contended this season. Never say never - the Washington Commanders showed that last season. Washington’s schedule was pretty similar in difficulty to that of the Giants. Their only real advantage was getting to play the Giants twice, which of course the Giants didn’t get to do (though the Giants did often beat themselves last season - see the first Washington, Cincinnati, first Dallas, Carolina, and New Orleans games).
The big thing in the Commanders’ favor was that No. 2 draft pick, which became Jayden Daniels. Washington GM Adam Peters said just before the 2024 season began that the Commanders weren’t in a rebuild; they were looking to win now. And he and head coach Dan Quinn delivered on that. I don’t know whether he already knew enough about Daniels that he was sure he’d be an instant success before he even got to training camp, or whether it was camp that gave him that conviction. But Peters built that team as if he expected it to be a contender, signing a bunch of prominent veterans who were on the downside of their careers but still had something left to 1-year contracts (e.g., Bobby Wagner, Zach Ertz, Cornelius Lucas, Dante Fowler) and signing or trading for others in mid-career (e.g., Frankie Luvu, Marshon Lattimore, Dorance Armstrong, Jeremy Chinn).
The Giants under Joe Schoen have mostly not operated that way, with two notable exceptions: The $40M annual average value (AAV) Daniel Jones contract (though Jones was never what you’d call prominent) and the brief $17M AAV Darren Waller fever dream. Neither worked out, to put it mildly. Joe Schoen seems to have learned his lesson from that and has otherwise mostly eschewed high-profile free agents or trades. Furthermore, other than the Jones debacle, he has avoided giving large contracts to the Giants’ own drafted players.
Here is where the most highly paid Giant at each position ranks among his peers. We use the AAV of the contract, which is more indicative than the current year’s cap hit, as the latter is manipulated by GMs in a given season depending on when they need to create cap space. First, the offense:
