5 Giant hurdles that could bury New York this NFL season

After a surprising campaign that saw New York make it to the second round of the playoffs in 2022, the Giants came crashing back down to Earth last season. They’ll have to correct a lot of mistakes in order to get back to respectability in 2024, and we’ll rank their top concerns. All statistics are sourced from Football Reference.

Perhaps not surprising to anyone who watched New York play last year, the Giants finished second to last in the NFL in percentage of drives that led to points. There were too many empty possessions for the Giants, who may need to deploy a different thought process during the 2024 campaign. ESPN wrote that the team’s offensive line was historically bad in 2023.

It’s not the in vogue way to think about offense in today’s NFL, but the Giants might want to consider small victories during the course of the game. This entails attempting 45+ long field goals when in range, to take advantage of the possibility of points. As we’ll go into later, the Giants don’t have many difference makers on offense, so settling for three points may keep them in more games.

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The Giants moved on from Don “Wink” Martindale during the offseason, who is intimately known for his consistent blitzing schemes. The 2023 Giants brought the house on a lot of occasions, but it didn’t result in a lot of game changing plays. Despite bringing extra men, New York finished in the bottom five in the NFL in sacks, and near the bottom in quarterback knockdowns.

The Giants hired Shane Bowen to be their new defensive coordinator, and ESPN took a closer look as to why they went in that direction. Bowen is a relatively younger coach in his late 30s, but has experience leading defenses with the Tennessee Titans. The Giants reportedly liked that Bowen’s defenses have done a great job of stopping the run.

It was one of the indelible images of New York’s 2023 season, and one that Giants fans would rather forget. During an embarrassing performance on Monday Night Football, head coach Brian Daboll was seeing flipping a tablet to the ground after it appeared that quarterback Daniel Jones didn’t want to listen to what he was saying.

It was a low moment for the team, and was perhaps an instance that they never really fully recovered from. Yahoo Sports openly asked whether Daboll is on the hot seat heading into the 2024 season. His job security could be tenuous if New York gets off to a putrid start to the campaign.

As the NFL world knows, the Giants made a half-hearted effort this spring to retain Saquon Barkley. Audio of general manager Joe Schoen’s conversation with Barkley was featured on Hard Knocks, which has been dissected this summer. Bleacher Report wrote that Barkley’s Giants tenure was effectively over after that fateful call.

New York’s backfield looks a lot less impressive in 2024, which is an issue considering that the team wasn’t that explosive on offense to begin with. Devin Singletary will likely lead the Giants in carries this season, and knows Daboll from their time together with the Buffalo Bills. Still, it’s hard to call Barkley’s departure anything less than a massive downgrade.

New York hopes that their offensive fortunes will change dramatically after the selection of Malik Nabers in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. ClutchPoints compared Nabers’ ceiling to that of Amon-Ra St. Brown’s, Ja’Marr Chase and D.J. Moore. That’s pretty high praise for the LSU rookie.

With that said, the Giants have not inspired much confidence in their ability to bring along young pass catchers. Wan’Dale Robinson and Jalin Hyatt are two other young receivers in New York that are still waiting for their banner moment. It’ll be interesting to see if New York takes a different approach with Nabers.

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