These Giants aren’t expecting to get the benefit of the doubt

The Giants do not deserve the benefit of the doubt. 

That is just the way it is. 

There are scenarios that can be pliable enough, with stretching and bending and some expert twisting, to shape a forecast for a winning season ahead. But there has been more than a decade of losing, and that builds distrust and the expectation that what can go wrong will go wrong, and the one-year respite in 2022 only bought the new regime of Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll one season of relief. 

If it is true that where there is smoke, there is fire, the Giants had better make sure their jerseys are flame-retardant. The only things missing this summer from the mob-mentality abuse of Daniel Jones are the pitchforks. There are rankings of the offensive line as the worst in the NFL, and the regard for the running back and tight end rooms are not much brighter. 

It is as if doom-scrolling is part of breakfast for Giants fans. Coffee, toasted bagel and the morning shredding of Big Blue. 

This is all quite unpleasant for the Giants. But not unexpected and, realistically, not unwarranted. The sins of the past are hard to forget. 

“I mean, when you don’t win a lot of games for a certain duration, of course,” safety Jason Pinnock told The Post after Thursday’s practice, as the Giants closed out their 2024 training camp. “The only way out of that is to not believe what you’re hearing, block out the noise and worry about everything in-house.’’ 

This team is working smartly, and it seems as if a few holes have been plugged. There is a belief that the front office added an impact player on offense (rookie receiver Malik Nabers) and defense (edge rusher Brian Burns). Should the Giants at least be given some benefit of the doubt that this season will be better than the last one? 

“No,’’ said Pinnock, 25. “I don’t think we’ve earned it. That may be harsh, but that’s how I see it. We don’t have room for error. We don’t have that room for the benefit of the doubt. We have to not only be successful, we have to be successful and prove people wrong. It’s kind of another factor to that.’’ 

This attitude is the pervading one up and down the roster. For a case to be made, evidence is required. This franchise is in short supply right now, and suggesting otherwise is fruitless. 

No benefit of the doubt. 

“I don’t know if I would word it that way, but I think we’re a talented team,’’ said receiver Darius Slayton, who, along with Jones and Dexter Lawrence, is a product of the 2019 draft class. “We’ve shown that all preseason, in the games and the joint practices that we’ve had, we’ve had success and been able to move the ball. It’s not like we’ve been inept.’’ 

There are a million and one decisions that go into assembling a team. When a franchise is in the black year after year, the confidence level is high that those decisions will be on the money. The Giants have been in the red since 2013 — a losing record in nine of the past 11 seasons. Schoen and Daboll in 2022 pushed the DEFCON alert to a more tolerable anxiety level, but that was a fleeting departure and the angst is back. 

The Giants had no interest in taking Oregon quarterback Bo Nix with the No. 6 pick in the 2024 draft, and he went No. 12 to the Broncos, where he has been impressive enough to convince Sean Payton to name the rookie the starter for the regular season. 

Given how Jones has looked this summer — not as bad as some outsiders deem his performance to be, but certainly not gangbusters — do the Giants get the benefit of the doubt that they did the right thing by passing on Nix? Or, for that matter, for passing on Michael Penix Jr., who went No. 9 to the Falcons? 

If Nix wins a few games early and Jones and the Giants do not, duck for cover. 

The Giants tried to get a deal done with Saquon Barkley for a year and a half, and generally fans understood that paying top dollar to a running back, even an extremely talented one such as Barkley, was not necessarily a wise investment. Still, if Barkley is churning out 100-yard games for the despised, rival Eagles and the Giants’ ground game is stuck in the turf, the Barkley chatter will be deafening. 

Some of this is fair, none of it is fun for the Giants, and all of it can cause a team to start throwing resentment at anyone who doubts them. 

“Anger? No,’’ Pinnock said. “More so kind of just lights a fire under you, that’s all. Anger, not really because the thing is, the people aren’t in the building and don’t know our responsibilities or profession or etcetera.’’ 

There is nothing the Giants can do to gain the benefit of the doubt that they are on the right track. Until the season gets underway, that is.