The Good and Bad News From Giants' Schedule Release

The New York Giants’ 2025 schedule has arrived, and with it the realization that it is loaded with quality talent, especially at quarterback.

Playing the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, and Washington Commanders twice means having to take down Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott, and Jayden Daniels for 35 percent of the season. On top of that, the Giants will play two better quarterbacks in Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes and Los Angeles Chargers passer Justin Herbert.

It won’t be easy, and it might be ugly, but New York has long known those phenoms would line its schedule. What did the fanbase learn from Wednesday’s news?

There are three takeaways from the Giants’ schedule release.

1. Three prime-time games temper expectations.

The New York faithful have grown pessimistic in the post-Eli Manning era, and it’s hard to blame them. Still, a strong prime-time docket would at least raise some eyebrows and suggest that there’s more reason to be excited than they’ve been giving credit for.

That won’t be the case.

The Giants were given three prime-time games (with Weeks 17 and 18 to be determined). They’ll host the Kansas City Chiefs on Week 3’s edition of Sunday Night Football and the Eagles to kick off Week 6. In Week 13, they’ll visit the New England Patriots for Monday Night Football.

Only eight teams have fewer prime-time games, many of which don’t get the boost that comes with the New York market.

2. The Giants are favored in one game.

While it must be said that being favored in a game is not directly tied to how many wins a team is expected to find over a 17-game season, opening odds help set the bar for expectations.

As of Thursday, New York is favored in one game – Week 5 against the hosting New Orleans Saints. They are currently underdogs against every team in the NFC East, NFC North, and AFC West, and with home-field advantage at play, it’s hard to argue that the Giants are more likely than not to win on any given week.

A lot will change between now and September, and once the footballs start flying, anything can happen. Russell Wilson can exceed expectations. Maybe he doesn’t but Jaxson Dart does. There’s time to buck these trends, but neither rest, nor location are enough to swing those lines just yet.

3. The second half of the schedule opens the door for Dart to start.

The plan is for Dart to sit for the duration of his rookie season as he gets acclimated to the NFL game and sits behind Wilson and Jameis Winston. The pressures of drafting a first-round quarterback and the possibility things go so well (or poorly) that he needs to play mean that there's a shot he sees time in Year 1.

That could very well happen after Week 14, when the team has a convenient bye week late in the year before a late-season stretch (vs. Washington, vs. Minnesota, at Las Vegas, vs. Dallas) that is a little more forgiving than September’s gauntlet.

With the bye giving Dart an extra week to prepare and three games in front of the fans clamoring for his arrival, the Giants might feel encouraged to let the rookie out of the nest in December.