Season Preview

The Giants have had a horrific pre-season.  Their 5-0 record was deceiving as the starters continually got destroyed.  The offense in particular was non-existent as was the pass rush on defense. 

Since the pre-season started, they lost their best athlete on offense (David Wilson to injury /retirement), their best athlete on defense (Will Hill – drug related, cut), their top offensive signee to short term injury (Geoff Schwartz), their expected comeback player of the year (Chris Snee to injury / retirement), their #1 Draft Pick (Odell Beckham) has not been healthy, and their former # 1 receiver Hakeem Nicks looked dominant against the Giants in a pre-season game.  Ironically, this new faster paced offense, where you get the ball to a receiver short and let him run after the catch, would have been a great for his skills. The offensive line, a liability last year, may actually be worse.  It’s hard to be optimistic about this team.

Having said that, here is what could go right: 

Andre Williams looks legit.  I know they brought in Jennings as their “Bell cow” but I am hoping /expecting Williams to be their feature back by the end of the year.  On defense, Damontre Moore continues to show progress, and I can see him being a dominant lineman.  If those two are allowed to contribute, it could help significantly.  Beason is coming back from his pre-season injury shoring up the defense.  Much is then riding on JPP becoming anything close to his 2011 form.  He didn’t show much in preseason, but his opportunities were limited and he claims to be fully healthy (and in a contract year).  The pass defense looks improved with good secondary signees.

Overall, I expect the defense to be above average and the offense to be bad.  It could get better as the season goes on as they learn the offense and Schwartz comes back from injury, but a year from now we will be reading about whether the Giants should be keeping Manning and if so at what price.  There is no way he gets another $20m a year contract.

Prediction: 6-10

I was thinking it was an 8-8 team prior to the pre-season.  As mentioned above, much went wrong.
Some of it permanent, and some just surprised me (how bad Manning has looked).

This is a 4-12 quality team with a very easy schedule, so they will win 6 games.