New York Giants roundtable, predicting Big Blue’s 2019 win total
By Ed Stein
Ed Stein, Co-site expert, Empire Writes Back
It’s a different year, but the results won’t be much better for Big Blue. To get this out of the way early, unless Eli Manning gets hurt, the only way rookie quarterback Daniel Jones plays is in mop-up duty. Actually, I’ll walk that back a little. Should the Giants be out of it in week 17, Jones might get a start.
While I think the offense will be able to control the ball and clock better than they have in recent years, it won’t be enough to significantly improve their record. That’s because the defensive front seven is going to be bad and the D will give up lots of points. Not the recipe for a winner. I came to my final prediction a little differently. Instead of going week-by-week, I did vs each division.
New York Giants vs NFC East
No matter the year or the condition of all four teams, when calculating how the Giants will do in the division any given year, you start at 3-3 and work your way either up or down. It’s very hard to win more than four division games in a season. In 2019, the G-Men take two of the six contests. They split with Washington, and steal one from either Dallas or Philly.
New York Giants vs AFC East
Even though the AFC East teams are close, there isn’t the intensity that there is against the NFC East. There is no way the G-Men beat New England. Miami at MetLife, on the other hand, is a win. I wish I could tell you that Big Blue would at least split against Buffalo and NYJ, but I can’t. The Giants go 1-3 against the AFC East.
New York Giants vs. NFC North
The NFC’s black and blue division will leave the Giants pretty black and blue. Despite the week one struggles of both Green Bay and Chicago, both teams are superior to NYG. Additionally, the Vikings pretty darn good as well. Fortunately for the Giants, they catch Minnesota at home in what might be a trap game for the Nordic-themed warriors. I think Big Blue wins either that game or on the road against Detroit making them 1-3 vs the NFC North.
New York Giants vs Other
An NFL schedule is done in four parts. Aside from the divisional play, NYG plays the other conference teams who finished the previous season in the same position (fourth place) as they did. Since Big Blue already plays Detroit as part of the NFC North, it leaves Tampa Bay and Arizona. The G-Men win both of those games.
Final Record: 6-10
There you have it. On the low end, we expect the New York Giants to win five games. On the high end, eight games. Most likely, the G-Men take six of their 16 games in 2019.