Every week Giants fan seem to grow more and more disappointed with the team that they are seeing on the field, and there are a few very key reasons to why this historic franchise is on the bottom of the NFC East once again.
The first problem the Giants have is their very inconsistent offensive line. The Giants are only averaging 77.9 rushing yards per game, which is second to last in the whole league. This is even with Saquon Barkley as their running back. Even with all the talent Barkley has he is unable to really show it. This is due to the little to no help he gets from the guys blocking for him.
According to Football Outsiders, the Giants have the worst offensive line in the NFL. This ranking is not surprising though, as they have allowed the third most sacks out of all teams. This group is also second to last in the league in getting run plays stopped behind the line of scrimmage. This happens to the Giants on 25.6% of all their run plays. Both of these poor statistics make it easy to see why the Giants offensive line is dead last in terms of ranking.
The Giants offensive struggles do not end after the run game. Poor play from the aging quarterback Eli Manning and the offensive line lead to a very below average passing offense. So far on the season, 37 year old Eli Manning has nine total turnovers. This may not seem like a whole lot but considering he has only scored eight touchdowns… it is significant. Anytime your quarterback has more turnovers than touchdowns, winning should not be expected. And winning definitely is not happening for the Giants, who have only two wins through nine games this year.
Manning, who only fumbled three total times in his career before this season, already has matched that total in 2018. With 8 games left for the Giants, they should really focus on protecting their quarterback. Unless they would like to see those three fumbles double or even triple from now until week 17.
Directly related to the offensive struggles is the man who calls the plays. This man, Pat Shurmur, also happens to be the Giants first year head coach. Anytime a team gets a new coach it is hard, especially when he has to install a new offense. Also, it doesn’t help that Shurmur didn’t see any success the last time he accepted a head coaching job. From 2011-2012 as the coach of the Browns, he accumulated a 9-23 record, which was good enough to get him fired prior to the 2013 season. Shurmur seems unable to control the egos of his players, and seems overwhelmed and even a little confused on what is not working. Shurmur was most likely hoping to revamp his reputation as a head coach through this job but things are not looking that way.
Even with all of these problems the Giants have been so bad the past few years that they actually got some good out of it. Due to their extremely poor records, they have been able to have very high draft picks. While this seems great and is easily the best way to rebuild, the Giants have been only 50% successful. With four choices in the top 15 of the past five drafts, the Giants have found themselves two star players. Both Odell Beckham Jr. and Saquon Barkley are in the conversation for best at their position in the whole league.
The other two, however are the exact opposite. Both of these players are not even members of the Giants anymore. Eli Apple, who was drafted tenth overall in 2016 is now a member of the New Orleans Saints. Erick Flowers, who was drafted 9th overall in the 2015 draft is now a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars. If both of these players developed positively instead of negatively, who knows where the Giants could be.
Overall, the Giants are a team with two star players that can’t do much more themselves to help the team compete. This team lacks depth, general talent, and a real leader. Their quarterback has obviously began to fall off from where he was, and he is also 37 years old.
Even knowing this, the Giants have not drafted a quarterback that can really develop behind Manning and eventually take over the reigns. They have no one to turn to and the organization and all of the people with power in it seem unable to give up on Manning and let him keep his pretty positive reputation as he goes into retirement. It is a hard year to be a fan of the New York Giants, and that seems like it is going to be the case for at least a few more years.
