PHILADELPHIA — The Giants have forfeited the precise to be taken severely as an NFL franchise till additional discover.
Sunday’s developments appeared to point that co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch might retain Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll as GM and head coach for 2025.
If that’s true, it means the Giants (3-14) have lowered their group’s customary for what is appropriate in New York.
It means they’re not the franchise their outdated, nationally polished fame paints them to be.
It means they’re irrelevant. An afterthought.
A basement-dwelling franchise that has lived there so lengthy, they will now see completely in the dead of night — and so they’ve confused that with the lights approaching.
Preserving Schoen and Daboll both would imply Giants’ possession doesn’t know what unhealthy soccer seems to be like or doesn’t thoughts it.
It additionally would imply they’re prioritizing one thing aside from profitable after Sunday’s 20-13 loss to the NFC East rival Philadelphia Eagles (14-3), which clinched the Giants’ first winless division report (0-6) in franchise historical past.
It additionally marked the Giants’ twelfth consecutive loss at Lincoln Monetary Discipline courting again to 2013. The Giants rotated starters out and in with backups. The Eagles performed nearly all backups and nonetheless gained.
A roughing the passer penalty on Kayvon Thibodeaux, Schoen’s first-ever Giants draft decide at No. 5 general in 2022, value the Giants dearly late within the fourth quarter.
A scary risk arose Sunday morning when ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that “John Mara … has railed against the NFL for making sure that the league doesn’t have this dead money in coaches’ salaries” and “Brian Daboll’s got time left:”
Are Mara and Tisch maintaining Schoen and Daboll into the fourth season of their five-year contracts due to … cash?
As a result of they don’t wish to be paying the final coach whereas hiring the following coach, like they needed to do with Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur and Joe Choose?
Say it ain’t so.
Perhaps NFL commissioner Roger Goodell must step in and repair the Giants right here in 2025 like former commish Pete Rozelle did in 1979.
They misplaced a franchise report 10 straight video games this season. They didn’t win a single recreation within the NFC East.
Regardless of a playoff berth and a postseason victory of their regime’s 2022 rookie season, Schoen and Daboll at the moment are 19-33-1 general by way of three years.
That features a 12-31-1 report of their final 44 common season video games and a 1-12-0 report in opposition to the Eagles and Dallas Cowboys, together with playoffs.
Rookie receiver Malik Nabers set a brand new Giants franchise report for catches in a single season (109) along with his 108th seize with round eight minutes remaining in Sunday’s third quarter. That snapped Steve Smith’s 107-catch mark from 2009.
However Daboll has overseen one of many NFL’s worst offenses after taking up playcalling full-time.
And Nabers’ particular person promise didn’t assist the Giants’ backside line.
Neither did Saquon Barkley dashing for two,000 yards after Schoen let him stroll to the Giants’ greatest rival in free company.
Neither did Schoen’s poor personnel strikes and underwhelming draft picks — or Daboll’s 2023 teaching employees dysfunction and quite a few recreation administration flaws.
The airplane banners over MetLife Stadium and the fan outrage begging Mara for change have recurred so usually that the shock worth is gone.
That doesn’t imply the Giants ought to get snug of their new regular: irrelevance. However that’s precisely what they’ll be doing if they preserve Schoen and Daboll.
They’ll be telling their followers that they’ve reset the franchise’s customary.
They’ll be telling their followers to get used to the darkness.
