Giants Country

New York Giants Get No Respect in The Athletic’s NFC Confidence Ranking Poll

A poll of five NFL executives done by The Athletic shows that confidence in the New York Giants taking that quantum leap forward in head coach Joe Judge's second season isn't exactly riding high.

Patricia Traina

New York Giants Get No Respect in The Athletic’s NFC Confidence Ranking Poll
New York Giants Get No Respect in The Athletic’s NFC Confidence Ranking Poll /

Good thing the New York Giants as a team has thick skin, as otherwise, the results of a confidence ranking pool as conducted by The Athletic’s Mike Sando might otherwise suggest that the Giants not even bother to play the regular season.

Sando polled five NFL executives to gauge their confidence level in all 16 NFC East teams, and the Giants finished 15th out of 16 NFC teams, just above the Lions, who finished last, and the Chicago Bears, who were 14th.

While the five voters didn’t unanimously agree on where the Giants rank, the range was pretty much similar across the board of five voters, ranging from 13th (one voter) to 15th (two voters).

One of the more damning statements by the voters was as follows:

Their defense has a chance, but without Saquon Barkley, an offense built around Daniel Jones does not. They do a lot of things with weird special teams formations that take up practice time, but their season is riding on some of the basics, like whether they can protect the quarterback.

(How this voter knows what the Giants do in practice is even a bigger mystery than the person’s identity since the team only opens the first 20 minutes of its in-season practices to the media, and since league rules prohibit active league personnel from other teams from attending training camp practices unless admission is charged for entry to the practice.)

Another more complimentary voter thinks the Giants offense has potential, but if, and only if that offensive line does its job.

The Giants haven’t won the NFC East since 2011, their last Super Bowl championship season. As Sando pointed out, the Giants' dry spell between division championships is their longest since 1964-1985. Since then, the Giants have had two winning seasons in 2012 (9-7) and 2016 (11-5), the last time they went to the postseason.

For those wondering, the Dallas Cowboys, who finished third behind the Giants in the NFC East standings last year and whose new defensive coordinator Dan Quinn has his work cut out for him in rebuilding a historically bad defense, ranked seventh.

The defending NFC East champion Washington Football Team, with its solid defense and looming question mark at quarterback, finished tenth. Lastly, the rebuilding Philadelphia Eagles, who have a new coaching staff and a new starting quarterback, ranked 11th.

More from Giants Country

Join the Giants Country Community

Published
Patricia Traina
PATRICIA TRAINA

Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for 30+ seasons, and her work has appeared in multiple media outlets, including The Athletic, Forbes, Bleacher Report, and the Sports Illustrated media group. As a credentialed New York Giants press corps member, Patricia has also covered five Super Bowls (three featuring the Giants), the annual NFL draft, and the NFL Scouting Combine. She is the author of The Big 50: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants. In addition to her work with New York Giants On SI, Patricia hosts the Locked On Giants podcast. Patricia is also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the Football Writers Association of America.

Home/News