John Mara is adamantly towards tanking.
It’s honest sport to accuse the Giants‘ co-owner of many things. Tanking is not one of them.
When the Giants benched Eli Manning in 2017, Mara said it as clearly as ever:
“I read something somewhere about are we gonna tank the rest of the season? That’s full bulls–t. I might by no means permit that,” Mara mentioned seven years in the past.
Mara is the chairman of the NFL Administration Council government committee. He sits on one other committee actually titled the “Competition” Committee.
His father Wellington is his guiding mild. So Mara above all believes in by no means insulting his followers and in by no means shedding sight of that precedence.
So in 2019, when Pat Shurmur’s 3-11 Giants solely needed to lose out to get the No. 2 total decide, Mara’s group beat Washington in Week 16 anyway in a sport that was dubbed The Chase Younger Bowl.
The Giants slid right down to the No. 4 total decide and missed out on selecting Younger, the Ohio State go rusher, at No. 2. They bought franchise left deal with Andrew Thomas out of Georgia as a substitute.
Not dangerous.
And now Younger, as destiny would have it, will probably be enjoying for the Saints (4-8) on Sunday towards Mara’s Giants (2-10) at MetLife Stadium.
Nobody ever is aware of how the draft goes to work out. So Mara doesn’t imagine in shedding on goal to get the next draft decide.
He hates shedding. He believes within the integrity of the sport.
He respects the gamers on his group sufficient to not allow them to put their our bodies on the road for an intentional defeat.
He values the Giants’ followers an excessive amount of to anticipate them to proceed paying for normal embarrassments that they’ve to depart early.
He’s too pleased with his franchise’s 100 years of operation to let the legacy of 12 months 100 be that he tanked the tip of the season for the next draft decide.
Regardless of all of these information, nonetheless, loads of Giants followers nonetheless imagine their group is making an attempt to lose down the stretch on goal.
Know why? As a result of it’s arduous for them to make sense of the group on the sphere in any other case.
They assume that the Giants are trotting out a preseason sport’s depth chart towards the Saints on Sunday as a result of they’re not invested in successful the sport.
The rationale they’re pondering this manner is that it’s higher than accepting the truth:
Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll did such a foul job these previous three years that they’re about to lose 12 straight to finish the season and land the No. 1 total decide accidentally — not on goal.
They’ve run such an uninspiring operation in 2024 that the majority of their notable gamers have both tapped out, disappeared from view after harm or, in Daniel Jones’ case, requested for his or her launch.
Brian Burns, Darius Slayton, Jon Runyan Jr. and a handful of different veterans are, within the tongue-in-cheek phrases of 1 participant, the “last men standing.”
Drew Lock is lastly getting a full week to arrange because the Giants’ beginning quarterback, after being disregarded by Daboll two video games in the past so Tommy DeVito may begin a 30-7 blowout loss to the Bucs.
However now Malik Nabers is questionable with a hip flexor as his observe participation dipped throughout this frigid week.
It displays poorly on Schoen and Daboll, to say the least, that they’re altering their minds on which quarterback offers them the perfect likelihood to win this rapidly. So why are they enjoying Lock?
Properly, along with being the higher quarterback, Lock has a greater likelihood of placing up sufficient factors to maintain a last rating wanting respectable. His garbage-time TD at Dallas on Thanksgiving was an ideal instance.
It’s optics. A 27-20 loss to the Cowboys appears so much higher on the stat sheet than the actual rating: 27-13.
These optics video games would possibly idiot outsiders, however Mara is aware of what the actual rating was on Thanksgiving.
Mara is aware of what it means to be a 5.5-point dwelling underdog to a 4-8 group that already fired its head coach this season.
He is aware of the Giants have the worst group within the league.
In late October, whereas Mara’s vote of confidence in Schoen and Daboll appeared baseless, it was comprehensible from one perspective:
What was the Giants’ co-owner going to say?
He didn’t wish to make a foul scenario worse. He most likely had an outdoor hope that his help of Schoen and Daboll would embolden and strengthen the group’s resolve and perception.
It’s apparent now, nonetheless, that it didn’t have that impact.
Mara stepping in to make clear and finish the messy Jones scenario earlier than the quarterback’s was telling.
Nobody is aware of the place the Tisch household stands proper now. Nobody has heard from them publicly.
However Mara could not want any coaxing to make sweeping change if the stadium is empty on Sunday and the Giants get blown out by Bergen Catholic-product Darren Rizzi, Derek Carr and Alvin Kamara.
He mentioned in October that he wouldn’t be making a change in-season and left the door open to a potential transfer after Week 18. The query now, although, appears to be if he can wait that lengthy.
As a result of his group is so dangerous that many followers assume the Giants are tanking. And that’s not it.
They’re simply that dangerous.
FLOTT ADDED AS QUESTIONABLE
The Giants added nook Cor’Dale Flott (quad/knee) to the harm report as questionable. He joins a bunch of starters that may doubtlessly be on the sidelines.
The group additionally made a collection of strikes to have the ability to subject a group on Sunday:
They waived quarterback Tim Boyle. They performed defensive deal with D.J. Davidson (shoulder) on injured reserve. They signed defensive tackles Casey Rogers and Elijah Garcia to the lively roster off the observe squad. They elevated offensive deal with Tyre Phillips and nook Greg Stroman from the observe squad. And so they claimed nook/returner Dee Williams off waivers from the Seattle Seahawks.
