New York Giants preview 2023: Over or under 7.5 wins? Chances to claim NFC East title?

August 16, 2023

528

Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley — New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, right, hands off the ball to Saquon Barkley during a practice at the NFL football team's training facility in East Rutherford, N.J., Thursday, July 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

It’s NFL team preview time, and today we’re looking at the New York Giants. Each Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from July 25 through Sept. 8, we will take an in-depth look at each team in the NFL with a 7- to 10-minute video going through impactful additions and departures, last year’s rankings and strength of schedule in 2023.

Home Field Sports analyst Jim Derry will then make a prediction on the team’s record this season and where they will finish in their respective division, along with the over/under win total, as posted at Caesars Sportsbook.

These stories are a brief summary of the accompanied preview videos – powered by the Dattitude Podcast (which will review each division every Friday until the season begins). The schedule for when each team will run is listed below with a link to each story and video that already has run.

NEW YORK GIANTS

Coach: Brian Daboll (2nd season)

2022 record: 9-7-1, 3rd in NFC East; defeated Minnesota, 31-24, in wild-card round; lost to Philadelphia, 38-7, in divisional round.

Last season in a nutshell: It didn’t end the way they wanted, but anyone (even a negative nelly Giants fan) would have to call 2022 a success.

Even with the expected “easy” schedule, very few predicted this team to finish with a winning record, and certainly, no one thought they would open 7-2. That being said, the second half of the season was more like we expected, as New York wilted to a 2-5-1 finish, with three of those defeats being blowouts.

In the playoffs, they happened to get a Vikings team they had played tightly a few weeks earlier, before getting blasted by Philadelphia for the third time in seven weeks (well, they only lost the regular-season finale by six points) in the divisional round.

Quarterback Daniel Jones took the next step in his progression and was rewarded with an insane contract – four years, $160 million, that included a $36 million signing bonus. Meanwhile, Saquon Barkley, who rushed for 1,312 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2022, had to hold out to get a one-year deal worth $11 million.

To say there was controversy in the Big Apple and elsewhere around the NFL about such disproportionate contracts would be a major understatement.

Meanwhile, the Giants’ defense was decent against teams not named Dallas or Philadelphia, but like the offense, they sputtered at the end. In fact, they allowed 300 or more total yards in eight of their 11 games (including playoffs) after their bye in Week 9.

2023 bye week: 13

2023 Draft: 1 (24th overall) CB Deonte Banks, Maryland; 2 (57) C John Michael Schmitz, Minnesota; 3 (73) WR Jalin Hyatt, Tennessee; 5 (172) RB Eric Gray, Oklahoma; 6 (209) CB Tre Hawkins, Old Dominion; 7 (243) DT Jordan Riley, Oregon; 7 (254) S Gervarrius Owens, Houston.

Free-agent signings: LB Bobby Okereke (from Indianapolis), 4 years, $40M; DT Rakeem Nunez-Roches (from Tampa Bay), 3 years, $12M; DE A’Shawn Robinson (from LA Rams), 1 year, $5M; WR Jamison Crowder (from Buffalo), 1 year, $1.32M; CB Bobby McCain (from Washington), 1 year, $1.32M; CB Amini Oruwariye (from Detroit), 1 year, $1.23M; WR Jeff Smith (from NY Jets), 1 year, $1.2M; G Sean Harlow (from Arizona), 1 year, $1.08M; DE Tashawn Bower (from Las Vegas), 1 year, $1.08M; C JC Hassenauer (from Pittsburgh), 1 year, $1.04M; RB James Robinson (from New England), 1 year, $1.01M.

What needs to go right: First off, the Giants need to show they have cohesiveness right from the get-go, so another fast start sure would help that situation. Unfortunately, they will have to pull off some upsets to make that happen with games in the first six weeks at San Francisco, vs. Seattle on a Monday night, at Miami and at Buffalo.

Jones took a step forward in 2022, but can he do it again in 2023? He won more games last season (nine) than he did the previous two seasons combined, and he had career highs in completion percentage (.675), passing yards (3,205), and interception percentage (1.1), all while being picked off just five times all year in 472 attempts.

That’s nice, and so were the aforementioned numbers Barkley put up, but their offensive line was atrocious last season, and there isn’t much reason to think they’ll be better this year. PFF has them ranked 29th, while RotoWire has them 28th. Can the rookie center Schmitz step up?

Also, the Giants’ defense ranked 25th in total yards allowed and were 27th against the run. That’s a formula for why they didn’t fare well against Tony Pollard and Dallas and Jalen Hurts and Philadelphia. Will that improve? It will have to if the team expects to make it to the playoffs once again.

Key moments in video:

0:00 New York Giants

1:20 Giants hope for another fast start

2:12 Daniel Jones had multiple career highs

2:39 Saquon Barkley on 1-year deal

3:55 Darren Waller should help

5:02 Can they improve defense?

6:15 Giants’ schedule looks tough

8:18 Prediction, best bets