The New York Giants have been stuck in a rut for the last two years. After a strong, playoff-winning start to the new era led by general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll in 2022, it all went downhill in 2023 and 2024.
Following their successful 2022 campaign, Schoen and company made some crucial and controversial roster decisions that ultimately backfired, resulting in a six-win 2023 campaign and a three-win 2024 season.
Fans, analysts, and former players have all expressed their disappointment in the team’s recent stretch. Former Giants Pro Bowl safety Antrel Rolle is the latest to sound off on the team.
Former Giants Pro Bowler sounds off on team’s recent woes
Rolle recently spoke to Kyle Odegard of Gambling Industry News, sharing his thoughts on the Giants’ recent woes.
“Listen, I love my Giants. I just felt like there were some bad moves along the way, man. GM moves,” Rolle said.
“They got rid of some guys and paid some guys where it didn’t make sense to me. The film doesn’t lie.”
Many of the Giants’ decisions in recent offseasons became immediately controversial. In 2023, they decided not to extend RB Saquon Barkley, and instead, extended QB Daniel Jones to a four-year, $160 million deal while slapping Barkley with the franchise tag.
The team was immediately maligned by fans and pundits alike for these decisions. The situation compounded for the worse the following year when Jones regressed, suffered a torn ACL, and the Giants watched Barkley walk out the door to sign with their most-hated rival, the Philadelphia Eagles.
“I understood Saquon had injuries, but if you had gotten Saquon more help, he would have been who Philly experienced this year,” Rolle said. “Maybe not to that extent because we know how dominant the offensive line is there, but I just felt like there were a lot of bad moves made that really didn’t make any sense.”
Now, Barkley and the Eagles are Super Bowl champions. The Giants are looking to bounce back from a 3-14 finish.
Also in the mix was the loss of S Xavier McKinney last offseason. He was the runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year in 2024, his first season with his new team, the Green Bay Packers.
Will the Giants be able to turn things around?
In 2016, the Giants went 11-5 and made it to the playoffs for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign that resulted in their fourth Lombardi Trophy. But since then, it’s been a tough time to be a Giants fan.
The Giants are 40-91-1 since the start of the 2017 season. Their sole winning season came in 2022, when they went 9-7-1 in Daboll’s first season as the head coach.
Making draft picks inside the top 10 has basically become an annual occurrence for the G-Men. But it wasn’t always this way.
During Rolle’s five-year tenure with the Giants, the team had three winning seasons, a record of 41-39, and won a Super Bowl (XLVI). Rolle played an integral role in the team’s success as a captain, leader, and Pro Bowl talent (2010 and 2013).
Rolle knows what a good and successful Giants team looks like. And he knows that the moves made in recent offseasons haven’t looked so good.
However, this offseason, the Giants earned high marks across the board for their work in both free agency and the draft. They overhauled their quarterback room, reinforced their secondary, and added some high-upside rookies to give their youthful roster an even brighter future.
“With that being said, they are trying to get back into the right direction,” Rolle told Odegard. “They drafted the stud they drafted this year (Abdul Carter). He’s going to be a helluva player. That goes without saying. You have Nabers, who’s been playing out of his mind. Russell Wilson can distribute the ball. How good will Russ be? That’s to be determined. But we haven’t seen a huge decline in Russell Wilson.
“But I feel like Nabers needs more help, and you can use more help in the backfield. Those will be the key focal points to turn the organization back around.”
While things have been tough in recent years, there is hope for a brighter future for the Giants.
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