The Season From Hell
In all my years of watching the New York Giants, I’m not sure any season has felt worse than 2024.
We didn’t exactly have a ton of hope entering the year. After an upstart 2022, 2023 was a disaster. Everyone regressed. Jones was ass and got hurt. Saquon looked washed up and slow. The defense crumbled, and Wink Martindale got into a feud with Brian Daboll behind the scenes and divorced. The team only managed the 6th overall pick, well short of the top 3 QB options. The Line was in dire need of repairs. Cap space was low. I would have been happy with 6-7 wins. I expected 5-7 wins. What I got instead was the football universe trolling me, and every other Giants fan, specifically.
It started with Saquon immediately bailing for Philadelphia. Giants fans knew he was gone, and letting him walk was still the right move. But he chose the enemy and had an attitude about it. I don’t judge Saquon for making the best choice for himself, his family, and his career. I do wish he handled it better. He knew what he was doing, he knew Giants fans would hate him for it, but he acted surprised by it. But while it hurt, it didn’t feel too bad, because if 2023 was anything to go by, he’d lost a step. He wasn’t Saquon anymore. He got caught from behind on breakaway runs, he didn’t cut the same way, he wasn’t the guy we drafted. We all understood he’d likely do better on the Eagles behind a much better line, but I don’t think any of us expected him to explode like this. He goes out and makes a legitimate MVP case for himself, almost breaking the damn single-season yardage record. He would have, if they didn’t take mercy on us in week 18. I’m honestly shocked we were spared that humiliation. For the rest of time Giants fans now have to listen to Eagles fans say “thanks for Saquon” and all we can do is get sad and angry about it.
All of this is made worse by Hard Knocks. Though it came out after the events, the new “Offseason” version of Hard Knocks focusing on Joe Schoen and the offseason process embarrasses the team horribly. Schoen is clearly done with Saquon and makes a few quips that would go on to haunt us. John Mara openly cries about how poorly he’ll sleep if Saquon leaves and goes to Philly. Joe Schoen’s own kid tells him to draft Jayden Daniels. These clips would be replayed endlessly on social media all year as easy dunks.
Xavier McKinney also leaves. One of Gettleman’s few good picks, the team lets X walk for some reason. He goes to Green Bay and takes all the interceptions with him. Like, all of them. He catches picks in almost every game and transforms Green Bay’s defense. The Giants defense, now stuck with the former Titans D-Coordinator operating a “bend and then break” style, gets 5 total interceptions, barely ahead of the Browns 4. The Giants pass rush isn’t actually too bad, but new expensive addition Brian Burns is merely good, not game-changing. Dexter Lawrence is having a great season in spite of everything…until he fucks up his elbow and goes on IR. Deonte Banks, a ray of hope in 2023, spends the year being cooked by every WR he faces, and it takes too long for the team to bench him.
The team enters the special 100th-year celebration season wearing the widely mocked Century Red uniforms. As a gimmick, they are silly, and I’m okay with silly gimmicks for one special occasion, but they function terribly in motion as the announcers can’t read the numbers to see who is who. It doesn’t help that they enter the game with reasonable expectations against a Vikings team stuck with Sam Darnold. While Darnold would eventually go on to prove this game isn’t a fluke, the defense gets bodied in the opener by a guy we’d all written off as a joke.
In week 2, the Commanders would not reach the endzone once. They would win anyway, because they kicked 7 field goals. The Giants are unable to outscore 21 points off of field goals, and miss several chances of their own after Gano is hurt and the team neglected to secure a backup kicker. The Commanders would only get better, completing what is by all accounts a miraculous turnaround. Jayden Daniels is the best rookie QB we’ve ever watched. Their draft class is perfect. The coaching is excellent. The Commies were supposed to be in year one of a long rebuild, and they reach the NFCCG and look to be a long-term contender. Whelp. At least the Cowboys are shit? The Giants are still unable to manage a win against the Cowboys, even without Dak.
In week 3 the Giants pass rush did their solemn duty and turned Deshaun Watson into paste for their first win of the season. This win would eventually push them out of the top 2 slots in the draft, but at least I got to see my team make Watson eat shit.
In week 5, coming off a Lions hangover week, the Giants beat Seattle for their most perplexing win of the year. This game in particular pissed me off because I almost went to it. I never go to football games because my team is rarely within reasonable monetary reach. I eventually decided I didn’t want to pay a couple hundred dollars to drive 3 hours to Seattle and watch my team eat shit. Of course that’s the game they win. Assholes. But hey! The team is now 2-3. They aren’t good, but they are on track to what we more of less expect.
The Giants would then lose 10 games in a row, a franchise record for consecutive failure. Highlights include:
-Scoring 7 total points in primetime against a Bengals defense so bad it wastes an MVP-level year from Joe Burrow
-Letting Barkley run all over them in his Met-life return
-Choking against a very beatable Steelers team thanks to Daniel Jones making one of the worst throws of his career and then the offense deciding to not double team TJ Watt on 4th down.
-The nadir of the year comes in Germany in front of an international crowd, as the team crumbles against the then-considered worst team in football, the Carolina Panthers. Daniel Jones is benched, cut, and signs with the Vikings practice squad. The locker room is furious, seeing the benching for what it is, a financial business move to avoid risking paying Jones for injury.
-The Giants go with Tommy Cutlets, last year’s feel-good story, instead of the #2 QB Drew Lock. Many are confused. DeVito gets hurt in a Buccaneers slaughter anyway.
-Drew Lock proves to everyone why they didn’t start him as they lose to the Dak-less Cowboys.
-The Giants get their game-tying field goal attempt blocked in New Orleans
-DeVito starts again for the Ravens game. He gets concussed. Drew Lock is hurt, so the Giants are forced to give snaps to Tim Boyle.
-Airplanes start flying “fire everyone” type banners over Met-life during every home game
After that mess, the team is 2-13 and in firm control of the #1 pick. The problem is that a plethora of teams have also decided to be absolute ass at the same time. The Titans, Browns, Raiders, Panthers, Patriots, Jaguars, and Jets are all 4-wins or less. A single win can send a team flying down the order. The Raiders just won a game and are now deep in the ranks. The Giants have to lose 2 more games, against a mediocre Colts team fighting for the playoffs, and probably the Eagles backups. They decide this is the week to show up. They obliterate the Colts, in a win that makes essentially nobody happy except the Patriots, Browns, and Titans, who are now ahead of the Giants in draft order.
They go out and lose the final game of the season to the Eagles backups. Thanks to the Patriots winning, the Giants now own the #3 pick. They now face a dilemma of hoping the Browns or Titans do not draft one of the top 2 QBs, or trading up assets they cannot afford to lose to ensure they can grab Cam Ward or Shadeur Sanders. Both QBs of course are pathetic prospects compared to the 2024 draft’s 6 QBs, all of whom had promising success during the season (outside JJ McCarthy, who missed the year).
Surely this is the time to reset. Joe Schoen has had a single good draft in his 3 seasons. His other drafts have been full of busts or mediocre guys, he’s terrible at securing depth, his cap management has been poor, the Daniel Jones deal is awful. Daboll has done a terrible job coaching them up. He’s gotten into feuds with Wink. He stripped Mike Kafka of playcalling, only to also call bad plays, and now I have no idea what Kafka even does. The Giants just had the worst season in their 100 year history. They can’t pull a Bears and bring on the future of the franchise in this lame-duck situation, right? Whelp. Mara basically tells everyone that he’s mad and disappointed and not sure the team is headed in the right direction…but fires nobody. Mara doesn’t want to do any work finding new people. Cool shit.
Then, within the past week, the Hall of Fame changes their voting rules to make admission even harder, and as a result Eli’s borderline case gets denied first ballot, and his future induction is now in much worse condition. Then the Eagles and Saquon go and win a Super Bowl.
My only positives this season were that Malik Nabers is cool, Tyrone Tracy and Tyler Nubin are neat, and the rest of the draft class might pan out okay. Nabers set the rookie WR record for completions and would own the rookie record overall if Brock Bowers didn’t exist. Considering he missed a few games, that’s pretty rad. At least Daniel Jones is gone, and we’ve finally moved on to new mistakes. I hesitate to say it can’t get any worse, because it can, but not by much. Any faith I had left in this franchise’s decision-makers is simply gone. From the top down I trust nobody. I have no expectations, I have no faith, I will hate everything that happens until they prove they are worth cheering for.
In the words of fire lord Zuko: “That’s rough buddy.”
Ba ZING!
(Or was it Ba Sing Se?)
Ba sing se
avatar, the only anime i cared to watch and enjoy
Being a Washington fan, I can say what you felt this year Dave is exactly what I felt last year. Which I guess would make this year your 2022. I do genuinely hope somehow someway the giants can figure *something* out in the next few years. It’d be nice for the cowboys to be dead last in the East for the next years.
I’m honestly not sure if I’m more surprised that Eli missed the HoF cut outright or the fact that it apparently wasn’t even remotely close for him. Either way, my (kind of) hot take on that decision is that it’s going to heavily impact the prospects of other guys making it in who previously felt like locks – specifically Phillip Rivers. I’m probably very wrong about this, but this was such an unexpected turn that it’s making me reevaluate the resumes of other guys that were in the conversation, but not entirely guaranteed, similar to Eli.
I think guys like Eli and Philip are about to be part of a conversation the HoF is going to start having regarding QBs and overall stat inflation. You would generally expect some stat inflation given that happens in all sports, but the rise of passing stats is kind of ridiculous. It’s INSANELY easy to get a lot of yards if you’re even remotely durable as a QB. The top-20 passing yard leaders of all time feature some of the following: Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan, Carson Palmer, Joe Flacco, and even Kirk Cousins will crack the top-20 if he has like 1 decent game next season.
What do some of the more questionable guys like Phil and Stafford have outside of their numbers? Stafford has a Super Bowl, but his only other accolades are 2 (!) Pro Bowls and a Comeback Player of the Year. Phil has more Pro Bowls (8), but 0 (!) All Pros and 0 Super Bowls. I still think Eli gets in because he’s a Manning and he beat Brady twice, but with voting getting stricter, there’s going to be a lot of productive QBs that are going to get the shaft.
I think he (and Rivers) will make it in, but not until after Brees/Ben/Brady get inducted in the next three years.
Eli’s best item in his body of work is two Super Bowl MVPs. He is the only eligible player who is a two-time SB MVP not in the Hall, so that is what I think will ultimately get him in. Philip “crybaby” Rivers has the 6th all time passing yards rank, for now, assuming Rodgers comes back and gets the ~500 yards he needs to flip positions.
Stats are why Dan Marino is in the Hall – he also has one AFC championship that Rivers doesn’t and he threw in a much different NFL where he rewrote the record books. Rivers will probably get in, but it will not be to the nearly universal acclaim that Marino got.
I can definitely see this happening, and I think it’s for the best, though it’s unfortunate that it took this long for the voters to start taking stat inflation into account.
And I agree on the points of both Rivers and Stafford. It’s why I specified Rivers. Yes, he has the numbers, but outside of Pro Bowls, the accolades simply aren’t there, and he doesn’t have the playoff success to justify it. Even if you want to use the excuse that it was often Tom Brady preventing him from getting to a Super Bowl, then you have to acknowledge the fact that Eli got him twice on the biggest stage. Just shows how consequential this decision was. It sets a huge precedent and suddenly you’re going to have a lot of guys that may get left out after having previously been thought of as relatively safe bets.
It doesn’t help that Brees, Ben, Rodgers, Manning, and Brady also played in the same era, not mention other very good players such as Ryans and Stafford to compete with…
There’s no universe that Rivers should make it in before Eli. I wonder if Eli’s goofy media career is hurting him more than helping. Perhaps the voters are put off by all his antics and commercials.
Eli’s good public image is not hurting him. What’s hurting him is the lack of all-pros, never being an MVP, leading the league in INTs 3 times, and spending the back 3rd of his career being sub-par, making his good years feel further away. His case has always been more borderline than any Giants fan wants to admit, and the current HoF voting block is made up of a lot of data nerd types like Aaron Schatz who value numbers, which aren’t Eli’s strongest argument.
If anything Eli being very likable and contributing to football beyond retirement helps his case. People like Eli. Compare him to Big Ben, who should also be a hall of famer and has a better case, but nobody likes him at all. Even Steelers fans think he sucks as a person. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ben misses his first chance too, even if he shouldn’t.
I think Eli got the ‘not a first ballot guy’ thing. I think he gets in eventually. He has a waaaay better case than Hester. lol
I’m kinda curious why Giants fans think Eli is the HOF guy rather than, say, his coach? His D pretty much won both games and he mostly manage to not screw it up. (yes, the SB reminded me of 42).
Coughlin also deserves to get in, why do we have to separate the two into either/or? Most of us all want Coughlin in too.
Eli set the record for postseason passing yards in 2011 and still holds that record. 46 does not happen without Eli and the most iconic play of the game is the perfect throw to Manningham. Reducing it to “the D basically won both games’ is reductive nonsense and this narrative needs to stop. 2011’s run was Eli and Cruz dragging the Giants asses into the promised land.
If the voters keep holding over guys with obvious HOF cases like Vinatieri and Kuechly, Ben might miss out on the first ballot just because of an insane backlog. Because seriously, WTF.
It doesn’t help that Brees, Ben, Rodgers, Manning, and Brady also played in the same era, not mention other very good players such as Ryans and Stafford to compete with…
As a Pats fan I always enjoy the Gnats failing, but even I hope Eli gets in the HoF. He seems like an alright guy off the field and his 4th quarter heroics were pretty legendary.
Which Season was worse: This or 2017?
This is a strange question to ask on a comic who’s entire premise is how 2024 was the worst
I mean you did say ¨I’m not sure if any season felt worse than 2024¨, and you do like to exaggerate for humorous purposes in your comics (to great effect)…I remember reading the Iron Manning comic where you seemed really really mad at the Giants for the first time ever, and you said very similar things in that comic too (Just way more aggressive). So I was wondering if being supremely disappointed at a terrible team would be better than being so upset and hurt at a classless move by your own team.
I can’t speak for Dave, but as a fellow Jints fan, 2017 was the previous worst Giants season ever, but how could you even possibly try to compare the two? The Giants were a national embarrassment to themselves MULTIPLE times this year, people were clowning on them leading up to and after the Super Bowl, when they shouldn’t have been on anyone’s minds.
It’s like asking someone if it was worse when they shat themselves while watching a movie in a theater, and they made it to the bathroom in the darkness and were able to clean themselves up and dash to their car mostly unseen… or when they LOUDLY shat themselves while talking on a stage to a group of 300 people, and they were wearing white pants and it ran down their leg leaving stains, and they had to take the subway home, with people pointing and laughing constantly.
At least in 2017, Mara was able to clean up the stains. This year, he was just like, “Ehhh, whatever, brown stripes look nice.”
that’s a hell of a metaphor, and the final line is *chef’s kiss* nice!
I don’t understand the weird recency bias around Daniels! It seemed entirely based around the fact they beat a lions team with 0 defense got to the nfc championship? Strouds rookie season he had every single stat possible better by a decent amount he just didn’t get to play the lions and missed the afc title game
Man don’t come in here acting like we’re all crazy when you clearly didn’t pay attention to Daniels or even have your facts right. At least check the data before you just start saying shit. Every single stat possible? Daniels beat Stroud in multiple categories!
Daniels threw for more touchdowns, had a higher completion percentage, and a higher QBR. This also proves you did not take into account rushing data at all, where Daniels literally broke the record for most rushing yards by a rookie QB, and he also scored 6 more touchdowns with his legs. Stroud didn’t do much of anything on the ground as a rookie. Here, check out this article for his accolades: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/commanders-star-jayden-daniels-rewrites-the-nfl-record-book-in-week-17-plus-12-other-wild-stats-from-the-week/
Stroud had an awesome rookie year. So did Daniels. They were both phenomenal. It would have been phenomenal even if Daniels hadn’t reached the NFCCG. This isn’t recency bias, this is one of the best rookie QB seasons we’ve ever seen, a year after another one of the best rookie seasons we’ve ever seen.
Spot on analysis. I’m just hoping Daniels maintains at least some of this great year going forward.
As long as he has Kliff Kingsbury he will be fine, the Commanders will get more help for him this year, especially with all that cap space. He´s the closest thing to Lamar Jackson we have ever seen.
except for… y’know… lamar
and like, RG3?
No, Dave, wait, he said “every single stat line possible”. I don’t see how you can top that with actual facts and detailed numbers. It’s every single stat line. EVERY ONE. Possible. Drink that in, hang your head in shame, and move on, man. This argument is lost.
Woah Woah Woah, there is no recency bias, he really did have the best rookie season ever, admitted by CJ Stroud himself. Granted, Daniels has a better coach and scheme (And a way better O-line), but by most metrics, Daniels did out perform Stroud if you want to compare their rookie seasons. Don´t be delusional.
” They obliterate the Colts, in a win that makes essentially nobody happy except the Patriots, Browns, and Titans, who are now ahead of the Giants in draft order.”
Hey now! The Gnats also made the Bengals happy with this win. It was part of the 17-step parlay the Bengals needed to make the playoffs. It was the one thing I absolutely did not see happening.
Definitely agree that this is the worst Giants season in recent history and possibly ever. I’m still salty that Mara didn’t clean house. With us not having a QB I feel like Schoen is going to reach then him and Daboll will get another year after this one because we had a rookie QB, then finally after another 2 years of crap Mara will fire everyone. We’ll start a new rebuild in 2027 with a new coach and GM and as Giants fans we’ll be hoping that we’ll be competitive in 2028.
I’m tired man.
You forgot the bit after the 2027 season where Mara says, “Look, I know our QB is awful, but we’ve done everything we could to screw this kid up,” and then he’ll force every coach/GM he hires to keep the kid until 2031, even when they suck. WHEEEE!!!!
Rosenthal pointed out this morning that the Giants currently have zero quarterbacks on the roster, which makes sense in context with how the contracts fell but also kinda says it all about where the franchise is right now.
I have never, in 40+ years of supporting Philly, felt genuine pity for another NFC East team until this year (it’ll never happen with the Cowboys). I hated the Giants. I detested them in the Phil Simms era. I could barely contain my anger at having to root for them against the Patriots to prevent the perfect season, but at no point till this year, when the absoloute perfect storm of fuckery happened, did I feel pity.
The Giants fanbase is insufferable, but genuine, which is all that swings it. All I can say is this is the low, it cannot get any worse, and please, please, finish above the Cowboys next year because I cannot imagine how amusing that will be.
If there’s nothing else we should have learned since 2020 globally, it’s that it can always get worse.
Very similar feelings to what I had in 2007 and 2012-13. At least with the first one you guys saved our season with barely 30 seconds to go… #CamCameron #IncognitoGate
Do you think it’s worse to know your team is bad and have an unwatchable year, or be a Bengals fan and know your team is good and just 1 horrible loss going the other way could have led to a deep playoff run?
At least 5 Bengals losses came down to weird 4th quarter bullshit (SO many missed field goals in the 4th!)
Bad and unwatchable is a gross understatement. Its just not about having a bad team, but having no hope that your team will be any better.The Giants should have fired their Coach and Gm, or at least of the 2, especially since this was the worst Giants season of all-time, but instead you keep both and to add insult to injury, you have no franchise QB or player to build around. You are building from the ground up with a flawed foundation. There is also a 0 guarantee that you would have a deep playoff run, you could have just as easily get blown out out of the Wildcard, and even then being the Bengals would be better because they still have the pieces to do well next year. Their foundation is still very strong with Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase.
Me, a Jags Fan: “First Time?”
Well, they can always not drafta QB and sign Rodgers instead. I do feel kind of bad speaking that into existence.
Man, I’m still pissed that my Seahawks lost to your Giants week five. If we’d of won that we’d of gotten the division. I’m not even mad at the Giants, I’m madder at my own team for fucking it up.