What Would Success Look Like for Giants in 2024?

A better won-loss record is a start, but the Giants' accomplishing the following would also indicate the team is back on track.

New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll / Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

What Would Success Look Like for Giants in 2024?

If the New York Giants are to be successful in 2024, they have to start by winning more games than they lose–that much is a given.

But there are a few other things that, if the Giants can accomplish in the coming season, will further reinforce that the program is headed in the right direction. Here are three such X-factors.

Better Player Development

Last season, the Houston Texans, a surprise playoff team, led the league last year in adjusted games lost due to injury. That’s a testament to their scouting of talent and their player development. 

But that’s also a rarity, as teams that generally rank at or near the top league-wide in injuries on an annual basis are unlikely to find much success every week. 

Just ask the Giants, who have been at or near the top of the league in injuries for several years. Injuries cannot be avoided given the game's violent nature, but ensuring that you have young players ready to step in at a moment’s notice without a drop-off is something within a team’s control.

That was not the case last year for the Giants. While they got lucky with quarterback Tommy DeVito, the same couldn’t be said for their offensive line depth, which was a big catalyst in helping to sink the team’s 2023 hopes.

We saw, for example, how offensive lineman Marcus McKethan was given a chance to contribute to the starting offensive line only to struggle and be pulled from the lineup, barely returning the rest of the regular season. 

That has to change moving forward to where more success stories are emerging than there are guys who get a chance only to be banished to the bench and never heard from again. 

Dominating Opponents on the Scoreboard 

We know: a win is a win. But how nice would it be if the Giants started winning some games more easily than having to eke out a win in a one-score game?

Of their six wins last season, the Giants topped opponents by two or more scores just twice. When they won nine games the year before, four were by two or more scores. 

In the last two seasons, their three largest margins of victory have been Week 17, 2022, against the Colts (28 points), Week 18 last year against the Eagles (17 points), and Week 11 last year against Washington (12 points).

Again, a win is a win, but that doesn’t mean the team should have to struggle to achieve it. 

Succeeding in Division Play

The easiest path to the playoffs is for a team to win its division. Some would even argue that there is no reason for a team not to be competitive within its division, given the degree of familiarity the teams have with one another and how they play each other twice a year.

When it has come to the Giants, winning in the division has been, shall we say, tricky. In the first year of the Joe Schoen-Brian Daboll era, the Giants went 1-4-1 against fellow NFC East teams Washington, Dallas, and Philadelphia. Last year, they fared a little better, going 3-3. 

But that two-year record of 4-7-1 ranks third among the NFC East in division play, behind Dallas (9-3) and the Eagles (8-4), the two teams that have earned playoff berths in those two years. (Washington’s two-year record in the division is 2-9-1.) 

Final Thoughts

Expectations for the Giants’ 2024 season are low since the team has only recently begun getting on the field and giving the coaching staff an upfront look at how the new personnel is blending with the old. 

It’s also been a time for the coaching staff to experiment with different looks and personnel packages to help give them a competitive edge in their upcoming games. While we won’t know the outcome of all this work until the curtain rises on the 2024 season, there is optimism within the Giants that there is nowhere to go but up.

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