Where do the Giants go from here?

Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

Brian Daboll is out of answers for the New York Giants

The New York Giants are a mess.

After another disheartening loss on primetime TV, the Giants are 1-3, but it sure feels like this team hasn’t won a game yet. They needed a furious comeback to defeat the Arizona Cardinals on the road, but outside of that, they’ve been outclassed by every opponent they’ve faced this season.

Badly.

After making the playoffs last year, there was hope for the Giants to try and repeat their success. They kept all their coordinators, including offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. However, the offense has completely nosedived through four games this season.

The Giants are currently dead last in EPA per play and 28th in Success Rate. For as good as Kafka and head coach Brian Daboll were last year at finding answers for a roster loaded with middling talent, it seems like all of the answers have run out, especially up front. Even before giving up 11 sacks and 14 QB hits to the Seahawks on Monday, the Giants had the second highest pressure rate allowed in the NFL. Sure, you can say that injuries to LT Andrew Thomas and C John Michael Schmitz getting hurt, but this offensive line has been poor even before that. You can go back to 2019, when Jones was drafted, and the offensive line has been an issue. That spans multiple regime changes and multiple head coaches, but none of them can seem to fix the problem here: Jones can’t keep pressure away from him, and some of that is due to poor coaching on the offensive line and development of talent.

One of their 2023 first round picks, RT Evan Neal, has been poor through the first four games of his second year. Per Sports Information Solutions, Neal has been credited with 10 blown blocks in the passing game, tied for second most in the NFL through three games. His hand placement is all over the place and his feet are out of whack as well. There are success stories on that same Giants offensive line (see: Thomas), but it just feels like Neal doesn’t have it yet.

Despite all of the offensive line issues, some of that high pressure and sack rate has to be put on Jones, as well. Jones simply has zero feel for pressure and that leads into far too many negative plays, especially for a QB who just received a $160 million extension this offseason. Per SIS, among all QBs with at least 70 pass attempts, Jones is second in the NFL in pressure rate. This makes sense because the Giants offensive line is also second in that metric. However, when Jones is pressured, his sack rate is the eighth highest in the NFL, and he has a propensity for even turning those sacks into catastrophic plays. Since 2019, nobody has fumbled the ball more than Jones, and it’s largely come as a result of a sack where he doesn’t feel the pressure and loses the ball. That can’t happen for a guy who’s got the same yearly salary as Matthew Stafford and Dak Prescott. Not all of the fault can go to the offensive line, this is just who Jones is, and it’s not someone you can win with and it really isn’t someone you can pay $160 million.

Because of the poor play of Jones, you haven’t even really been able to see the value of the skill position talent they’ve added. Trading for TE Darren Waller was supposed to help unlock the middle of the field for Jones and give him a guy that can win his isolated matchups. However, with Jones’ rough start and the pressure sinking the team, Waller has seen limited targets and even more limited production. The pressure is forcing the Giants to keep an extra man in the protection, and Waller is seeing even more time blocking than he is being a pass catcher, which isn’t what they traded for.

Day 2 pick Jalin Hyatt was supposed to bring a vertical speed element to this team and make the offense more explosive, but he can’t even see the field, let alone get any targets. Before last night, Hyatt only saw three targets per SIS, and a paltry 2.1 Yards per Route Run. He can’t get any run, and when he does, he never sees any targets.

This offense is cratering fast, and it really feels like Daboll is fed up. He’s out of solutions, and he can only scheme so far. It’s like the old adage, “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” Well, Daboll has led this offense to water before, but he can’t go out there and make the throws, or make the blocks. That’s up to his highly paid QB and multiple high investments on the offensive line, and he’s even on his last nerve there.

So, to answer the question of where the Giants go from here: I’m not sure, but the trajectory right now is going downhill, fast.