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The Giants are counting on coveted rookie receiver Malik Nabers unlocking the offense in 2024. (Amy Monks/Yahoo Sports)
When the New York Giants made the playoffs at the end of the 2022 season, everyone celebrated. As they should have. It had been a long time since the Giants made the playoffs and even longer since they won a playoff game. Making the postseason and winning a playoff game is never a bad thing.
Ultimately, that run might have done more harm than good.
That 9-7-1 season, propped up by plenty of close wins that belied how good the Giants actually were, led to a 2023 offseason approach that contained delusion. The Giants weren’t ready to contend. They were a rebuilding team that happened to slide into the playoffs. They tricked themselves into thinking otherwise.
The Giants’ biggest question a year later stems from a mistake they made, which happens often in the NFL: They paid big for an average quarterback. Daniel Jones signed a four-year deal worth $160 million in the afterglow of that playoff win against a similarly overrated Vikings team. Instead of throwing in the towel on Jones, they decided his 3,205-yard, 15-touchdown season was worth $40 million per season. Then Jones threw for two touchdowns and six interceptions in six games last season before he tore his ACL, playing at the same ho-hum level he had most of his career. That’s not what you want from a player making about $12 million more per season than T.J. Watt. It’s hard to move on from quarterbacks, but the Giants could have done so without any complaint if they didn’t make the playoffs two seasons ago. That playoff appearance and win probably cost them $92 million in guaranteed money to Jones.
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It might have also caused them to put off an honest assessment of the roster and how close they were to being contenders. With a clearer head they might not have made moves like trading a third-round draft pick, 100th overall, to the Las Vegas…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-offseason-power-rankings-no-28-new-york-giants-try-to-regroup-with-daniel-jones-brian-daboll-122556279.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-06-24 12:25:56
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