The New York Giants have not received much love this offseason and fans should not expect that to change at any point in the near future.
Already this year, we’ve seen the Giants listed as underdogs in 14 of their 16 games, while also facing seemingly endless criticism in the world of power rankings. USA TODAY, Sports Illustrated and ESPN each have them near the bottom of the pack, but none have been as critical as Peter King of Football Morning in America.
In King’s latest power rankings, which were released on Monday, the Giants check in at No. 30 overall.
30. New York Giants (4-12)
Steelers, Niners, Rams, Cowboys in the first month, and Seattle, Baltimore and Dallas in the last month: Welcome to the new job, Joe Judge. The Giants are pretty far removed from being any sort of factor in the NFL. The last playoff win was the Super Bowl trimming of the Patriots nine seasons ago. The Giants appear to be in good shape at the most important position, with Daniel Jones coming off a good freshman season (despite 23 turnovers) as Eli Manning’s heir; Saquon Barkley’s obviously an impact running back. But questions abound everywhere else.
The pass-rush and secondary are both lacking, with or without 2019 first-round cornerback Deandre Baker, a suspect in an armed robbery in Florida. New York allowed the 30th-most points per game last year, gave up a passer rating of 101.4, and their leading returning pass-rusher, Oshane Ximines, had 4.5 sacks. New defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has a big job, figuring out where to get pressure and how to cover up holes in the secondary. The Giants need Nate Solder to play to his late New England level; he slipped last year. It’s likely GM Dave Gettleman drafted New York’s long-term tackles this year—Andrew Thomas and Matt Peart, in the first and third rounds. But if the Giants are this low in the NFL hierarchy come the new year, Gettleman might not be around to see the futures of Thomas and Peart. I trust the Giants to score. I don’t trust them to defend.
The Giants have been one of the NFL’s worst teams since 2012, so seeing them continuously ranked this low should come as little surprise. No one across the NFL is going to express faith in them (outside of Nate Burleson) until they can prove they’ve righted their ship.
And in case you were wondering, the only two teams to rank lower than the Giants were the Washington Redskins (No. 31) and Jacksonville Jaguars (No. 32).
The Kansas City Chiefs topped the lost, while the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles checked in at No. 9 and No. 15, respectively.
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