The Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl last season and followed it up with an impressive offseason. So impressive, says ESPN’s Dan Graziano, that he ranked it the best in the NFL since the salary cap was instituted in 1994.
The New York Giants won two Super Bowls since then and their subsequent offseasons after those wins weren’t too bad. Graziano ranked them 14th and 15 out of 27.
No. 14: 2011 New York Giants
In February of 2012, the Giants were coming off another upset victory over the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl and had designs on repeating, but fell back to Earth instead. General manager Jerry Reese may have had his worst offseason in 2012 with a lackluster and fruitless draft and marginal free agent additions.
Their free-agent losses were all guys who were about done anyway, including Brandon Jacobs, Mario Manningham and Aaron Ross. And they managed to sign tight end Martellus Bennett on the cheap for one season before his career really took off. The Giants’ draft was an 0-for-7 disaster, though, and this was a roster that needed more work than its stewards thought. The 2012 Giants managed the same regular-season record (9-7) as the 2011 team did, but this time it wasn’t good enough to get them into the playoffs.
No. 15: 2007 New York Giants
The Giants shocked the world by beating the undefeated Patriots in February of 2008 and then took the NFL by storm that fall. The only team could stand in the Giants’ way was, unfortunately, the Giants.
Their season was usurped by the Plaxico Buress shooting incident, and even though they earned the top seed in the NFC, they exited the playoff immediately with a soft showing against Philadelphia.
Hall of Fame defensive end Michael Strahan retired following the Giants’ Super Bowl upset of the unbeaten Patriots. Edge rusher Osi Umenyiora suffered a season-ending injury during the offseason. The team traded tight end Jeremy Shockey, who was in the coaches’ doghouse anyway, to the Saints and lost Reggie Torbor, Kawika Mitchell, William Joseph and Gibril Wilson in free agency. The positives included a draft that brought in Kenny Phillips, Terrell Thomas and Mario Manningham. And the 2008 Giants posted the best record of any Tom Coughlin Giants team ever at 12-4 before losing to the division-rival Eagles in the playoffs.
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