Giants vs. Dolphins: Week 15 staff picks and predictions

The Giants Wire staff offers their picks and predictions ahead of a Week 15 game between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins.

The New York Giants (2-11) will take on the Miami Dolphins (3-10) at MetLife Stadium in a game featuring Eli Manning at quarterback for what may be the final time in front of Big Blue fans.

Experts have heavily sided with the Dolphins — 6:4 — with most of those expecting a close Miami victory.

How does the Giants Wire staff see this Week 15 battle shaking out? Here’s a look at our picks and score predictions:

Dan Benton: Giants 27, Dolphins 23

This is essentially a game for draft positioning and the loser benefits more than the winner. That won’t prevent both clubs from attempting to get the victory, which is actually bad news for the Giants and their fans.

*Above prediction was also printed in USA TODAY Sports Weekly alongside a full game preview. Print editions are available every Wednesday at newsstands everywhere.

John Fennelly: Giants 23, Dolphins 16

The Giants have to win sometime (we think) and why not this week? They should have beaten the Eagles on Monday night but the coaching staff is not functioning on all cylinders (and haven’t been for some time), so they allowed the crippled Eagles to steal the win. This week, they face another limited team but, again, with better coaches. This could be Eli Manning’s last hurrah as a Giant, so I’ll pick him to go out a winner.

Doug Rush: Dolphins 24, Giants 20

Last week, we saw the return of Eli Manning after almost three months on the bench and he nearly pulled out a win.

Leave it to the Giants defense and terrible game-planning from the coaching staff in the second half to let the Eagles come back and snatch the win away from a Giants team that has lost mine straight and hasn’t seen a victory since Week 4.

Currently, the Giants have in possession the second-worst record in the NFL and the second overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. They’re up against a team that at one point, would be up for the first overall pick in the draft with the Miami Dolphins.

The Dolphins though, lead by veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick, have since won three games and nearly pulled out a fourth one last week against the New York Jets.

The Dolphins might not be a good team, but they’re young, they fight hard and they’ve proven that they can win some games — which again, is something the Giants haven’t done since the end of September.

Until the Giants can actually go out there and show the fans, the organization and the rest of the football world that they can finish and win a football game, it’s hard to confidently pick a game in their favor.

Tyler Henry: Giants 30, Dolphins 27

This game is no roll over, especially when both teams are probably two of the worst five teams in the NFL.

Eli Manning looked really good during the first half of last week’s game against the Eagles in his return as a starter. The Dolphins have shown fight winning three of their last six. Many Giants fans will be rooting against their team due to the heavy draft position implications surrounding this game. Even so, fans attending the game will certainly be happy to cheer on Eli Manning one more time. It could be Manning’s last start in a Giants uniform.

I think the game is really close, but I believe this is the one the Giants can go win. Miami having to play in cold weather is a recipe for the Giants to reign victorious on Sunday. Eli Manning is 3-0 in his career against the Dolphins and I expect him to stay perfect against Miami.

I think it’s time the Giants finally end the losing streak and get one final win led by Eli Manning. In a close one, I think the Giants take it.

Pat Ragazzo: N/A

N/A

Kevin Hickey: N/A

N/A

Mike Moraitis: Giants 24, Dolphins 23

Here we are again, wondering if this will be Eli Manning’s last game for the Giants. This time around there is a little extra emotion attached with this also possibly being Eli’s last game at home.

With what we’ve seen from the Giants during this nine-game losing streak, there’s nothing to suggest this team can win another game, so this pick is going mostly on emotion.

The Dolphins are vulnerable to say the least, and while they have been playing much better of late, it’s going to be a tall task for this squad to go into what will be an amped up building with fans cheering their heart out for Manning. The veteran will build off what he did in the first half of the Eagles game and this time will put together a full 60 minutes against a defense with far less talent than Philly’s.

Serena Burks: Giants 24, Dolphins 17

Neither team is having a good season, but the Giants have Eli at the helm. If he can get some decent throws out, and they can get Saquon Barkley involved early, that will be huge. Add in the defense needing to pressure Ryan Fitzpatrick into throwing the ball versus scrambling, which is something this defense can certainly do.

It’s really a battle for pride at this point and with all of the drama in the locker room, the Giants need the win more than the Dolphins. The question really is, will Pat Shurmur and James Bettcher set the team up for success, or are we going to see more of the same on both sides of the ball?