Big Blue View
NFL football is (sort of) back! There is considerable anticipation for the New York Giants’ 2025 season, whether it be a sense that the talent level of the roster is finally approaching what is needed to compete in the NFL, or that it is the last stand for a coaching and front office regime that has not produced a competitive product on the field since its first season.
For both reasons, the first pre-season game matters. Realistically, though, the results mean little when it comes to specific players. In my article last year following the Giants’ first pre-season game, the players whose performances I highlighted were: Joshua Ezeudu, Eric Gray, Tyrone Tracy, Dante Miller, Tommy DeVito, Darrian Beavers, Darius Muasau, Dyontae Johnson, Tre Hawkins II, David Long, Gervarrius Owens, Ovie Oghoufo, Boogie Basham, Benton Whitley, and Elijah Chatman. Most of those didn’t even make the 53-man roster, and some of those who did are gone now. Only Tracy, Chatman, and Muasau played significant roles during the regular season.
In past years Brian Daboll has mostly sat his starters or played them very little in the first pre-season game. This season is different. The Giants got their clocks cleaned in their opening regular season game each of the past two seasons, suggesting that they weren’t ready. Also, unlike 2023 and 2024, when the Giants held some fairly heated scrimmages with the Detroit Lions, they enter Game 1 this year without having lined up against another team. The third reason is that with three new quarterbacks, it’s vital to get all of them onto the field in “real” game action before the actual games begin.
So what did we – and didn’t we – learn from the Giants’ 34-25 win over the Buffalo Bills?
Not just Andrew Thomas, who is still recovering from his lisfranc injury, Malik Nabers, nursing a toe, Dexter Lawrence and Cam Skattebo. But there were unexpected absences such as Darius Slayton, Jalin Hyatt and Evan Neal as well. That’s unfortunate, because Hyatt’s and Neal’s Giants’ careers are hanging in the balance. They have both done some good things in camp, but doing it against live competition matters.
I don’t want to bury the lede. So although Russell Wilson started the game, looked good going 6 of 7 and driving the Giants 30 yards for an opening drive field goal, and will surely be the starter in Game 1, let’s talk about the quarterback of the future. Dart looked a bit tentative at the start, and he was almost intercepted on a tipped ball. He came back from that, though, with a perfectly placed 29-yard touchdown pass down the left side to Lil’Jordan Humphrey, the first prototypical X-receiver the Giants have had since Daboll forgot he had Isaiah Hodgins on the roster in 2024. Dart showed nice anticipation on the pass, releasing the ball when Humphrey was just pulling even with his defender, and he hit...
