New York Giants Fail to Inspire NFL Executives' Faith in New Poll

The New York Giants earned a low ranking in a new poll by The Athletic regarding NFC teams. Is the ranking fair?

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen isn’t the only NFL executive that is taking a “wait and see” approach when it comes to the 2022 team.

Schoen, who told the media that he doesn’t want to set any expectations for his first-ever roster assembled as a general manager, clearly has some concerns that he’s been unable to address, thanks in part to the salary cap conundrum he inherited from the previous regime. 

And those concerns have been recognized as well by a panel of unnamed NFL executives who, in a poll by Mike Sando of The Athletic ranking the top NFC teams, has the Giants ranked 13th out of 15 teams.

Notes Sando of the ranking:

Execs expect the Giants' offensive line and offensive coaching to improve, but the margin for error is small for a team lacking in depth and short-term flexibility.

"How many wins do you get just by becoming more competent from a leadership standpoint?" one of the voters asked. "I don't think they are a playoff team by any means, but could they surprise and win eight? Maybe."

Schoen has done the best he could given the salary cap situation, which right off the bat necessitated him clearing close to $40 million just to get into compliance with the cap at the start of the league year. While the 43-year-old general manager did manage to bring in a bunch of solid veteran additions, only guard Mark Glowinski got a multi-year deal.

While Schoen tried to focus on building through the draft—he upped the Giants nine draft picks to 11 through some draft weekend trades—the injury bug has once again hit the giants hard. The team lost two draft picks, offensive lineman Marcus McKethan and inside linebacker Darrian Beavers—to season-ending injuries. They’ve also had to go through most of the spring and summer without guys like first-round edge Kayvon Thibodeaux, third-round offensive lineman Joshua Ezeudu (unknown) and third-round cornerback Cordale Flott (groin); and fourth-round safety Dane Belton (collarbone).

Add to that being forced for salary cap reasons to open a significant hole at cornerback—Schoen had to lop James Bradberry, a functional cornerback, off the roster so he could pay the rookie class—and it’s no surprise that there is a lukewarm feeling about the Giants ahead of the start of the 2022 regular season.

To be fair, Schoen inherited this mess and is probably looking at multiple years before it’s finally cleaned up. There is optimism that in 2023 the Giants will be in better cap shape, but Schoen has already had to restructure several contracts to open up cap space, thereby pushing money into the future, resulting in backloaded contracts swelling even further.

Then when one throws into the equation the uncertainties at quarterback—the Giants think Daniel Jones is on the right track, but that’s based on a limited number of preseason snaps played primarily against opponents’ backups—and that the team is still relatively young and trying to learn brand new systems, and the low ranking for the Giants is not at all insulting.

Still, there’s a reason why teams line up and play the game, and it’s not unheard of for teams of which not much is expected to surprise. The Giants likely won’t be a playoff team this year, not with Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll still evaluating what they have and what they still need that they weren’t able to et due to salary cap constraints.

But if the Giants, who last year won just four games and hardly resembled a functioning team, can aim for at least eight wins and show some sort of weekly growth in all facets of the game, Schoen and company can chalk that up to a successful first season despite having had the deck stacked against them.

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