Giants' Quick Turnaround Is Bad Look For Jets

The Giants had their season come to an end on Saturday, but they made much more progress this year than the Jets.

New York is the largest city in America, but it feels a lot smaller these days for the Jets. 

That's because of the success and quick turnaround for their crosstown rivals, the New York Football Giants. They made it to the postseason and won a playoff game over the Vikings, before losing to the Eagles on Saturday night in the Divisional round. 

This especially stings like sweat in the Jets' eyes because both teams were the exact same situation at the end of 2021. 

Both teams finished with identical last place 4-13 records in their respective divisions. 

This is where the road parts. 

The Giants cleaned house, firing General Manager Dave Gettleman and their Head Coach, Joe Judge. The Jets however, decided to stick with GM Joe Douglas and Head Coach Robert Saleh. 

Joe Schoen was named as the new GM of the Giants and Brian Daboll, their new Head Coach. 

I'm personally a huge fan of Daboll, and I recommended him to be the next Head Coach in Washington to their Team President in 2019, Bruce Allen, after I met with him and he had asked me for my ideas. 

Daboll had struck me as being the most unpredictable mind in the game at that time, and getting outside the box is what wins in the NFL. 

In the 2022 NFL Draft, both teams picked back-to-back. In today's pass-happy league, the Jets went with the best cornerback out there No. 4 overall, Ahmad Gardner, while the Giants took edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux with the very next pick. 

This illustrates another key philosophical difference between the two organizations, the Jets opted for the cover corner, while the Giants decided on taking someone who could disrupt the pocket, before the pass was thrown. 

Not picking up the fifth-year option on Giants' quarterback Daniel Jones' contract was another huge move that set the table for how this all worked out. 

I loved the move, because it backed Jones into a corner. I thought it was a stroke of genius by the new Giants' regime. If Jones performed, he'd break the bank and the Giants would win, and if he didn't, the Giants would simply move on and nobody would have expected any different. 

It was a win-win move by Giants' management. 

I loved this move so much, it caused me to go on YouTube on May 12, and predict the Giants as the surprise team in the NFC in 2022. 

Meanwhile, at the end of May, I predicted Douglas had built a last place team with the Jets again for a variety of reasons, mainly because of the poor offensive line he had built. 

What made these predictions easy to make? 

For one, outside of my love for Daboll, I've always liked Daniel Jones. In 2019, I evaluated Jones (Grade:B) and felt the Giants had something in him. I liked the combination of Jones and Daboll so much, I predicted Jones would be the "Comeback Player of the Year." Meanwhile, I predicted Jets' quarterback Zach Wilson would be a sure-fire bust, if taken in the first-round, prior to him being drafted. 

"If you have a quarterback, you have a chance," as the old saying goes. That gave the edge to the Giants. I was far more confident in Jones than Wilson, and I knew the Jets were stuck on Wilson regardless of the lack of evidence he had produced, and regardless of his off-the-field drama. 

The Giants on the other hand, were committed to getting rid of their problems. They dealt away one of their biggest problems, wide receiver Kadarius Toney to Kansas City. The same Toney I had a 70% bust rate on pre-draft 2021, the same draft as the Jets selected Wilson. 

The Giants were serious about making the necessary changes to win, while the Jets were not. 

At the end of the day, the biggest difference between these two teams in New York is very distinct. 

The Giants acknowledged they were broken at the end of 2021. They acknowledged it by making changes to fix it. The Jets refused to acknowledge they were broken to the same degree. The Jets refused to make such changes on their org chart, and instead crossed their fingers and hoped for the best. 

That's why the Giants made it deep into the playoffs, and the Jets headed back to the drawing board.

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