Giants Fans Not Optimistic Ahead of Upcoming Season, New Poll Shows

According to a recent poll, Giants fans have tempered their expectations for the year ahead.

Fans sit in the stadium during New York Giants Fan Fest at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on Thursday, August 24, 2023. / Julian Leshay/Special to NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

After last year’s less-than-exciting stats, New York Giants fans are entering the 2024 season skeptical of what the team can accomplish despite the additions of some new faces projected to make the team better. 

So says a new poll by The Athletic, which revealed that only 17.2% of Giants fans are hopeful for the upcoming season. The poll results, to which over 12,000 responses were received, put the Giants 31st in terms of fan confidence.

Representing the optimist side was “Optimist Jay,” who believes that quarterback Daniel Jones will use the team’s open attempt to replace him this past April in the draft as motivation to tear things up. 

“They have improved the O-line and added wide receiver Malik Nabers. And believe it or not, I think losing Saquon Barkley will be addition by subtraction, forcing the offense to move the ball around to others. If the young secondary steps up, the defense can be top 10,” Jay said.

Jay is right that Jones needs to perform well this year. He recently landed on a CBS poll of the top 10 quarterbacks with the most to prove in 2024. If the five-year Giants veteran fails to impress, he is at serious risk of being replaced. 

He also has a point about Nabers, who has very much lived up to his billing so far, lending optimism that fans who were stung by the departure of running back Saquon
Barkley to the Eagles, could find solace in what the rookie out of LSU can do.

On the other side of the coin is “Pessimist Charles: who just isn’t sold on Jones leading the offense. “Daniel Jones would struggle to quarterback an FCS school, let alone an NFL offense,” he wrote. “Add this to the lack of depth in the secondary and the fact that we only have one good receiver, and a race to the bottom is likely.”

Another pessimist, “Danny” believes the Giants have no consistency.

“The Giants have never been conventionally good,” he said. “In Super Bowl seasons and recent playoff runs alike, they are entirely dependent on miracles, crazy catches, the other team’s misfortune, etc. The Giants don’t win games by large margins. Everything they do is squeaking it out. Terrible. Seven wins max.”

Of note, the Philadelphia Eagles ranked eighth in the confidence poll (90.6). The Washington Commanders, who have a new starting quarterback in Jayden Daniels, came in 17th with a 78.0 percent confidence rating, and the Dallas Cowboys, a team whose fan base is usually brimming with optimism every year before the start of a new season, ranked one spot ahead of the Giants, scoring a 19.9 percent confidence rating.  

Although the Giants’ future may look bleak for the 2024 season, few fans are still holding out hope that the improvements made on both sides of the ball and with head coach Brian Daboll taking over the play calling gives the fan base something more to cheer about.

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