It’s a disgrace the Giants aren’t on HBO’s Onerous Knocks once more this yr.
The behind the scenes of Monday’s free agent motion and nervous moments and not using a beginning quarterback on the roster would have been must-see TV.
The stakes are even greater after final yr, when Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll let Saquon Barkley (Eagles) and Xavier McKinney (Packers) stroll to first-team All-Professional seasons and a Philadelphia Tremendous Bowl victory.
At the very least the Giants had Daniel Jones below contract final March coming off a 6-11 season.
One yr later, they’re coming off a 3-14 marketing campaign and don’t have a No. 1 or No. 2 quarterback to talk of on their depth chart in any respect.
That may very well be seen optimistically as a clear slate, besides this incompetent regime has landed the franchise in no-man’s land:
They’re determined for a quarterback who will be capable of win video games instantly in 2025, and they’re determined for a quarterback of the long run, too.
Schoen is attempting to handle the current first.
He promised to pursue “whoever gives us the best chance to win” at quarterback when he laid out the Giants’ plans on the NFL Mix two weeks in the past.
And the GM wasn’t kidding: he took a run at buying and selling for Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who was the very best QB obtainable till he determined to remain in Los Angeles relatively than accepting a commerce to New York or Las Vegas.
Lacking on Stafford, although, now has landed the Giants in an uncomfortable and harmful place firstly of free company: There’s a probability they could not be capable of discover an appropriate empty chair on the QB carousel when the music stops.
Aaron Rodgers, who grew to become the Giants’ Plan B as soon as they whiffed on Stafford, had extra choices on Monday than initially anticipated across the league.
The Pittsburgh Steelers emerged as a potential Rodgers match as soon as Justin Fields signed with the Jets. And the Minnesota Vikings grew to become a possible Rodgers choice, as nicely, after the Seattle Seahawks traded Geno Smith to the Raiders and signed Sam Darnold in his place.
If Rodgers scorns the Giants and indicators elsewhere, that may seemingly land Schoen and Daboll on Possibility C: the Steelers’ Russell Wilson.
Signing Wilson all the time has been the almost definitely final result of the Giants’ frantic seek for a succesful starter the previous few weeks. Keep in mind: they hosted him in individual on a go to final yr earlier than he signed in Pittsburgh.
Wilson to New York isn’t any certainty, both, although, relying on how the dominoes proceed to fall.
And mockingly, as of 6 p.m. Japanese on Monday, Jones — the Giants’ former No. 6 general choose — was the domino that the NFL’s quarterback carousel and the Giants’ search was ready to see fall.
Jones was believed to be deciding on Monday evening between staying with the Minnesota Vikings or signing with the Indianapolis Colts.
If Jones chooses the Vikings, Rodgers’ choices would shrink to the Steelers and Giants. If Jones chooses Indy, Rodgers may very well be in severe play for Minnesota, after which Wilson might find yourself again in Pittsburgh — with the Giants on the skin trying in.
Wilson additionally may very well be in play for a group just like the Colts or Titans relying on how their searches go.
That will result in a Plan D that might land the Giants on a veteran just like the Cleveland Browns’ Jameis Winston.
The attention-grabbing query now could be how the Giants’ free agent quarterback outcomes will influence their draft plans.
They’ve all the time projected as prone to choose a quarterback within the first 2-3 rounds of April’s draft. The one query has been whether or not they would take one at No. 3 general or commerce as much as No. 1.
Perhaps dropping out on the entire high free brokers and commerce targets will make the Giants extra pressing about choosing a QB within the first spherical — though the Titans and Browns conceivably each might take one at picks No. 1 and a couple of.
Or, because the Giants’ Stafford pursuit and Schoen’s Mix press convention appeared to point, possibly they’re lukewarm on this quarterback class within the high 5 and extra enthusiastic about including a supreme expertise like Colorado nook Travis Hunter or Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter at No. 3.
Then they might attempt to discover a solution to choose a participant like Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart within the again half of the primary spherical or early second.
This can be a dizzying quantity of unresolved situations, after all, to deal with a very powerful place within the sport with the beginning of the 2025 NFL season solely six months away and Schoen and Daboll on the recent seat in Yr 4.
However that is what occurs when a franchise runs itself this poorly and loses this continuously: the Giants are now not seen as a vacation spot.
Everybody is aware of they’re poorly run and on the verge of one other regime change. They know the tales of how gamers have felt underappreciated and disrespected on their means out.
So the Giants are relegated to taking rampant “swings,” as Schoen promised, at no matter pitch comes throughout the plate — and to creating a number of completely different plans. Which quantities to no actual plan in any respect.
