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Can the famed New York Giants actually make it to the playoffs in the 2020 National Football League season?
With free agency and the draft in the books, the 2020 offseason is effectively over.
High-profile players like Jadeveon Clowney or Cam Newton will eventually get signed, while others like Dak Prescott may hold out if no contract agreement can be made.
Still, for the most part, we know what each team will look like heading into next season. We can predict which team is built to compete for a Super Bowl run, and which will probably tank for the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL draft.
When looking at early playoff predictions, it comes to no surprise that the New York Giants are missing in most cases. However, there are reasons to believe that the G-Men can actually make the playoffs in 2020.
3-13, 5-11, 4-12. In total, no team in the NFL has a worse record over the last three seasons than the New York Giants, who missed the playoffs seven of the last eight years. No doubt, Giants fans did not have much positives to look at in recent history. Instead, they saw their team firing several head coaches, witnessed the benching of Eli Manning and the departure of Odell Beckham Jr., and had to watch their team taking a backseat to the rivaled Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.
Now, there might be light at the end of the tunnel for Giants fans across the world.
Only time will tell whether the hiring of Joe Judge as the new head coach was a good move by Dave Gettleman. If it was not, it most likely will be the last personnel decision he made as the general manager. As things are now though, Judge is a promising rookie head coach, whose introductory press conference showed he has a clear vision in mind. He was fortunate to sit under the learning tree of Bill Belichick for seven years and did a great job selecting his coordinators. Say about Jason Garrett what you want. The criticism when he was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys was justified. But he sure knows how to coach an offense.
In fact, we have seen Garrett get Dallas Cowboys teams to the playoffs, basing his offense on a strong offensive line, a good, young quarterback and an outstanding running back. In 2017, the Cowboys made the playoffs going 9-7 with Dez Bryant, who would eventually get released by the team and is yet to find a new one, as the second option on offense.
The New York Giants invested a lot of resources in their offensive line. They spent this year's No. 4 pick on tackle Andrew Thomas. Kevin Zeitler and Will Hernandez are one of the better guard duos in the league, and despite his limitations and bad contract, Nate Solder is a starting caliber tackle nonetheless. Overall, it is not quite what the Cowboys had in the past but it is still a very good offensive line.
Daniel Jones has proven the critics wrong so far, throwing 24 touchdowns in 13 games. Clearly, he made some mistakes in those games, but the majority were correctible ones, made by a rookie quarterback without a full off-season to build chemistry with his team. So, if “Danny Dimes” can build on his strengths and improve his pocket awareness to limit the turnovers, he can absolutely be a good starting quarterback in 2020. That is not enough to carry this team by himself, but it suffices to potentially make the playoffs in the NFC East, arguably the worst division in the NFC for years.
Then, the Giants have Saquon Barkley. As most would argue, more talented than Ezekiel Elliot, who carried the Cowboys to the playoffs in 2017, and more versatile than Christian McCaffrey, who was an MVP candidate in 2019. Despite having a relatively quiet 2019 season, Barkley is projected to be among the running backs with the most touchdowns and rushing yards in 2020. If New York can get the run game going, the playbook will open up, allowing Daniel Jones to make throws to a competent receiving core with Golden Tate, Darius Slayton, Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram.
Of course, if the Giants want to make the playoffs, the defense has to improve compared to previous years. To ensure that, New York signed linebacker Blake Martinez, cornerback James Bradberry and outside linebacker Kyler Fackrell in free agency. Furthermore, they spent six of their ten draft picks on defensive players, including safety Xavier McKinney and hybrid linebacker Carter Coughlin. At first glance, none of these signings and draft picks particularly stand out. However, they will improve this defense, which might be all that is needed.
The Giants will not win 12+ games in 2020. Nobody would argue they are Super Bowl contenders. But if the chips fall right, can they win 9 games in the self-destructive NFC East, riding the shoulders of Saquon Barkley and playing an old-fashioned way of football? Absolutely.
Their schedule is tough, the odds are not in their favor. But we have seen crazier things happen in past seasons to not rule out the G-Men making the playoffs in 2020.
