For Giants Fans Eyes Only: Picking Up The Pieces From Last Night's Curb Stomping And Moving Forward
Matt Rourke. Shutterstock Images.Alright Giants fans, we've had 12 hours to lick our wounds, cry in our beers, and clean the vomit off of ourselves after that absolute shitkicking in Philly. While I understand some people may need more time to grieve a season, my soul left my body sometime after that give up punt in the 4th quarter, so the healing has already begun for me.
If you are one of the people that needs more time, feel free to bookmark this page then come back to it at a later time. For those ready to move on to the future while also acknowledging this season was a success for the Giants, keep reading for some positivity.
- First of all, this season was a success even after last night's debacle. Pretty much anything after 7 wins was like found money and the Giants won their first playoff game in 4000 days on their way to the divisional round, which is soooooo much better than the five previous seasons.
Remember Pat Shurmur's big stupid face? Ben McAdoo's idiotic slicked back hair? Coach Judge's demands for discipline followed by undisciplined play every week that caused my fat ass to run laps in rain, sleet, hail, and snow with only a free medium Pepsi to show for it? Well all that is gone, thank God.
- The biggest takeaway from this season is that we have a fucking coach and I cannot stress how important that is. Brian Daboll pulled almost every right lever there was to pull this season outside of a couple of punts (I know people haaaated the surrender punt in the first Commanders game even though it almost worked for the Giants, the punt in the middle of the 4th quarter last night almost killed me, and every punt where Adoree Jackson was the return man was the worst decision Daboll made this year).
However, you can't forget how every week it felt like the Giants had a great gameplan for their opponent then would change the following week to match up with the next opponent. That's what having a good coaching staff is all about. Every single thing I have read about Daboll this year has been glowing and every time I get upset about last night, I think about the last five seasons of hell along with this play and instantly feel much better about the future.
This coaching staff got the Giants as far as it could this season before they hit the point where they needed more talent.
- Speaking of coaching staffs, I imagine losing 38-7 isn't a great think to have on a resume for the coordinators looking to take head coaching jobs elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for Wink and Kafka to one day sit atop a team’s coaching org chart and get a big fat bag. But I'd also like a little bit of continuity now that we appear to have a staff of coaches with fully functioning brains.
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- As for brains that aren't fully functional, The GM That Shall Not Be Named won't be able to hurt us as much next season. The salary cap graveyard of dead cap he left behind was an absolute nightmare this season and made improving the roster so hard, even though the Giants did hit on a bunch of cast offs on waivers.
Even with a bunch of space, next year's cap isn't all sunshine and rainbows even before the Giants start handing out extensions to their own guys. But it's only going to get better from here on out now that Handsome Joe Schoen is in charge of the books considering the magic he was able to pull out of his ass despite being handcuffed by that bumbling idiot's mistakes.
- I think it's fair to say Daniel Jones' price tag did not go up a cent last night, even if it's gonna be more money than I can fathom. The Danwagon also likely lost a few stragglers that weren't ride or die anyway, which is fine.
This quote gave me pause in terms of Danny's interest in coming back to a franchise that did barely anything to help him before this year. But I'm sure this was exactly what his agent told him to say.
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- I also have no clue what is going to happen with Saquon either. I feel like he stays but honestly, it's hard to see this front office doling out a ton of money for a running back about to turn 26 that wasn't a complete game wrecker over the second half of the season. His comments however felt different than Daniel Jones'.
As well as Saquon apparently being pretty open to make it work for both sides.
- I love Isaiah Hodgins, appreciate what Richie James did when he was Good Richie James, am happy Darius Slayton climbed up from 12th on the depth chart to make meaningful plays, and think Wan'Dale Robinson is as electric as every Kentucky fan promised. But the Giants need receivers. As in plural, with at least one picked high in the draft and another maybe traded since the free agent class looks like hell, even though I will completely buy in on anybody Joe Schoen signs.
I also can't wait for Odell Beckham Jr. to sign anywhere because stuff like this is going to drive me nuts until he ends up with a team.
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- You know what I said about receivers? Triple it for linebackers. I know the Giants have refused to put real resources into the linebacker position forever, even though their glory days in the 80s were built around the position. But you NEED to have better linebackers to win, especially in Wink's defense.
The D-Line is good and the secondary is a couple of improvements away from being good. But the linebackers are flat out abysmal and will continue to fuck this team if they rely on guys off the street and late round draft picks. I do think this defense can be nasty as early as next year if they fill the right positions and they allow Wink to cook.
Also I just saw this right after I published which feels like a good thing.
- This is the annual part of the Giants offseason preview where I beg for offensive line help and this year is no different. The Giants have to get some big uglies in the interior line and figure out how to turn Evan Neal into the prospect we all thought he would be as he stonewalled SEC monsters every week at Bama. I know Andrew Thomas struggled as a rookie too, but he flashed more than Neal did.
A bad rookie season does not mean a bad career (Source: All the fucking idiots that wrote Thomas off after one year). But Right Tackle is a concern until Neal can prove it's no longer a concern.
- There is plenty more to talk about considering the Giants saw up close and personal last night how far they have to go to become the class of the NFC. But we have plenty of time to talk about all that and what Joe Schoen can do with all those picks he stockpiled.
It was still an awesome season full of incredible wins, extremely nice not looking at mock drafts before Halloween for once, and I think pretty much every Giants fan is proud to be a fan of the team again, which was something you couldn't say for most of this stretch.
So Kyle Shanahan, if you are reading this, PLEASE find a way to beat our two biggest rivals in the playoffs with a rookie quarterback. Or at least slow them down enough so whoever survives that triple threat match from hell in the AFC can pick off the Eagles or Cowboys because while this season was a success as a Giants fan, it's going to end up being an absolute failure if we have to hear either of those fanbases talk shit about being Super Bowl champions.