SI Offers Grim Prediction for Giants 2024 Season

The heat is on for the New York Giants brass to show that last season’s 6-11 disappointing season was more the result of a team unable to overcome a rash of injuries than it was about talent or coaching.

However, despite general manager Joe Schoen’s several roster reinforcements at key positions, such as the offensive line and edge rusher, SI.com’s Conor Orr is far from bullish about the Giants’ 2024 season.

Orr, in his prediction of the NFC teams’ records this coming season, has the Giants finishing at 4-13, with wins coming against the Vikings in Week 1, the Seahawks in Week 5, the Panthers in Germany in Week 10, and the Cowboys on Thanksgiving (Week 13).

“The Giants are banking on a bounce-back year from Daniel Jones, who had his 2023 season cut short due to a torn ACL,” Orr reasoned. “They will have to host the Saints, Buccaneers, Ravens, Bengals, and Colts for difficult home games.”

Before going any further, let’s digest that first part. Yes, the Giants are looking to run it back again with Jones, who is on track for Week 1 in his recovery from the torn ACL suffered last season.

While it’s no secret that the team was interested in acquiring quarterback Drake Maye in the draft, had they been able to do so, odds were that the team would have had Maye sit for the coming year while Jones and backup Drew Lock handled the heavy lifting.

When the Giants could not draft the quarterback they wanted, rather than reach for their second choice (believed to have been Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy), they pivoted to Plan B, which was to continue building up the roster around the quarterback position.

That approach brought them receiver Malik Nabers in the first round, tight end Theo Johnson in the fourth round, and running back Tyrone Tracy Jr in the fifth round.

Jones, who, thanks to his $47.855 million cap hit this year (of which $36 million is guaranteed), was never going anywhere this year, regardless of what the Giants did in the draft. 

That said, there’s likely little doubt that this is it for Jones, who, if he wants to see Year 3 of his four-year contract, must show that he’s the quarterback that led the team back to the playoffs in 2022 rather than the shell-shocked, injury-prone version he was last year.

Getting back to Orr’s prediction of four wins, the Giants have a tough stretch starting in Week 3 and ending in Week 8, in which wins may be hard to come by.

But they have as good of a chance of starting the year with two wins against the Vikings and Commanders, both of whom are likely to start rookie quarterbacks (McCarthy and Jayden Daniels, respectively).

That leads us to the next part of Orr’s “justification” of his record prediction.

“New York could hang with the best teams because of their ferocious defensive front led by edge rusher Brian Burns, who joined the Giants in March after being traded by the Panthers.”

Indeed, the Giants’ defense, as coordinated by Shane Bowen, appears to be the key to the Giants having a much better record than what Orr has predicted.

In addition to winning their first two games of 2024, the Giants can squeak out at least two wins in that Week 3-8 stretch (Seattle and maybe an upset of either Philadelphia at home or the Steelers on the road?).

-The Giants then have what looks like a “soft spot” in Weeks 9-12 in which they will see Washington at home, the Panthers, and the Bucs after their Week 11 bye. All three games are winnable, though the Bucs game might be the toughest.

At the back end of the schedule (Weeks 13-1180), the Giants appear to match up decently against the Saints (Week 14), Falcons (Week 16), and Colts (Week 17).

These projections are opinions, but with all due respect to Orr, we think he’s selling the Giants short, given the roster upgrades and the sense of urgency inside 1925 Giants Drive.