4 Big Questions Facing the Giants at the Start of 2024 Season
With the preseason now in the rearview, the 2024 NFL regular season is just two weeks away and for the New York Giants, there is a lot to be discovered in what will be an important season for the franchise.
The Giants are entering year three of the Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll regime which started in a positively stunning fashion for a team that everyone thought would be staring at a multi-year rebuild.
After a successful 2022 campaign that featured a 9-7-1 record, several come-from-behind victories, and a road postseason win, everything went back in the other direction. The injuries piled up and talent was depleted, leading to a 6-11 showing and questions looming at the quarterback position with Daniel Jones.
Jones was done no justice with the offensive line charged with protecting him, but he also reversed his own course from the career-high season he had two years ago when he tallied over 3,200 yards and 22 total touchdowns.
Couple that with his injury history, which now includes two neck injuries and a torn ACL, and his questionable choices in the pocket, and the Giants are faced with an ultimatum when it comes to discerning whether they will make a long-term future with the gunslinger.
However, Jones isn’t the only concern facing the organization as the season opener draws near. They will also need to overcome challenges at other positions on both sides of the football if they are to compete with the rest of the league in 2024.
From the starting weapons to the depth, or lack thereof, here are the four biggest questions the Giants must answer coming into this season.
1. Can Daniel Jones defeat the turnover woes and become a more aggressive quarterback?
There is no secret in saying Daniel Jones is about to enter a pivotal season for not only his future in New York but his NFL career as well.
In his first five seasons with the Giants, Jones has been a very decisive topic swirling around the team. His inconsistent performances from year to year, coupled with his turnover woes and inability to stay healthy, have had many questioning whether he will ever advance in his development enough to be the quarterback for the long haul.
As mentioned before, the Giants have openly admitted their failures in supplying Jones with everything he needs to succeed on the gridiron, like consistency in coaching and a competent offensive line.
Yet, they have finally figured it all out and are giving their starting arm both of these elements and more to work with, leaving it up to him to right his repetitive mistakes and prove he is the guy.
During the summer, Jones was put through a much more rigorous training camp than he was accustomed to in previous years, including 11-on-11 team drills and live work in joint practices with the Lions and Jets.
The objective was to get him comfortable feeling some pressure in the pocket again and build cohesion with his newest toy in wide receiver Malik Nabers and the rest of the Giants' offense.
On the practice field at the team’s facilities, it seemed to work as Jones looked confident with his strong arm and nifty legs again. He was forming an eye-opening connection with Nabers and his array of targets. His timing was good enough for him to scan the field and make the right reads as a passer.
However, as soon as Jones touched ground in Houston for his first live game in nine months, it reverted to the same old story. In two quarters, the Duke product completed 11 of his passes for 138 yards but failed to find the endzone and threw two head-scratching interceptions, one of which was returned right in front of him for a touchdown to the Texans.
While this may have been the rusty remnants of watching the game from the sidelines for three-quarters of the past year, it was alarming and brings a load of uncertainty for Jones as his one-year tryout for his job commences.
The Giants aren’t deemed a Super Bowl contender and they have a handful of pieces that can help them compete in what is a gauntlet of a schedule, but it won’t mean much if Jones is the bad apple that digs holes for them with his nagging mental mistakes.
That remains the biggest question mark of the Giants 2024 campaign -- can Daniel Jones grow to his best self under Daboll’s tutelage and play calling, shake off the turnover habits, and give New York another flash of the pan that happened in 2022? If the answer becomes no very quickly, the Giants will be heading for the top of the draft order next spring.