Where did the 2024 season go wrong for the New York Giants?

Before the season began there was a day media members were sitting in the press room surveying each other on how many games each thought the New York Giants would win during the 2024 season. I predicted seven, as did several others in the room.

That did not seem unreasonable. The 2024 Giants were never going to be great. But, they shouldn’t be franchise-record setting horrible, which is where they are headed. They shouldn’t be No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft horrible, which is a strong possibility.

The over/under commonly assigned by oddsmakers was 6.5 victories. Predicting seven victories did not seem outlandish.

The Giants had an offseason plan. Re-prioritize their spending priorities. Solidify the offensive line with competent veterans. Add to the pass rush. Look for a quarterback of the future, but don’t force it. Build the play-making arsenal around Daniel Jones if they couldn’t get that quarterback of the future. Try to get Jones to play at — at least — the 2022 level that convinced the organization to give him a four-year, $160 million contract with $81 million guaranteed.

“It’s all gambles. They’re all bets,” GM Joe Schoen told Peter Schrager of NFL Network. “You’re betting that this plan is going to play out, and you’ve got to have a lot of luck as well that you’re going to stay healthy, and the ball’s going to bounce your way.”

Obviously, the plan didn’t play out the way Schoen intended. On top of which, the luck, health and bounces have pretty much all gone the wrong way.

In predicting that the Giants could be better in 2024 than many believed, I wrote in July that several things had to happen. They were:

• They need Malik Nabers, the wide receiver they drafted No. 6, to be the game-changing force they drafted him to be.
• They need their offensive line revamp to work. That doesn’t mean the line has to be a top-10 unit in the NFL, but competent play will be better than they have had most of the last decade.
• They showed in 2022 that there is a path to playing winning football with Jones at quarterback. They need to find that path again, and Jones needs to play as well — and probably better — than he did in that playoff season.
• They need to get enough production from their running game that there isn’t constant chatter about letting Barkley go having been a mistake.
• They need Dexter Lawrence, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Brian Burns, and Bobby Okereke to be dominant enough up front to take pressure off an inexperienced secondary.
• Speaking of that secondary, Schoen has spent a lot of high draft capital on it in his three drafts. The Giants need first-round pick Deonte Banks, second-round pick Tyler Nubin, and third-round picks Cor’Dale Flott and Dru Phillips to be the players they were drafted to be.
• They need some luck. That starts with good health, especially...