Giants Potential: Why 2025 Could Be a Turnaround Season

The 2025 outlook for the New York Giants has not been positive, with some believing this franchise is still years away from being competitive. 

The question, though, is why. The NFL is a league built on parity. The salary cap, rosters, and scheduling are all set up, making it increasingly more difficult for the best teams to stay on top. Every season, a team goes from worst to first, and nobody bats an eyelash. 

Big Blue Nation should be well aware of this since they watched the Giants go from 4-13 in 2021 to 9-7 in 2022. If they could do it, why could they not do it again?

Were they really bad in 2023, or were they just injured? 

Let’s start with the decline in 2023. After a 9-7-1 season in head coach Brian Daboll’s first season, they fell to 6-10. Were they really bad in 2023, or were they just injured? 

After the success of the 2022 season, everyone was excited about the prospects of another playoff run in 2023. All those hopes were dashed in the season's first game against the Cowboys.

It was not just the fact that they lost 40-0 that was the problem. Starting left tackle Andrew Thomas suffered an injury that kept him out of the lineup for the next seven weeks. 

The team went 2-5 over that span of time as they continued to lose offensive linemen. 

In fact, the offensive line dealt with injuries throughout the entire season. At one point, there was not a starter from Week 1 on the offensive line, and the Giants had to pull in guys off the streets to play. 

In addition to Thomas and the offensive line injuries, many other key players missed significant time. Quarterback Daniel Jones missed a chunk of time due to neck and knee injuries. 

His backup, Tyrod Taylor, also missed time with a rib injury, which saw him land on IR. That turned the operation over to Tommy Devito, an undrafted free-agent rookie. 

By the end of the year, Jones had six starts, Devito had six starts, and Taylor had five starts. That level of inconsistency would not help any team be successful. Add to that running back Saquon Barkley's three-game absence and tight end Darren Waller's five-game absence. 

That's a lot of missing production and an overall lack of continuity. Even with all that, they finished with six wins and lost four other games by one touchdown and conversion or less. 

Who knows what that season could have been if everyone had been healthy? Maybe that and the fact that it may have forced the front office to resign a couple of guys who they let walk away to become All-Pro with other organizations.