A Letter To All Giants Fans

Author: Kiernan Fischer

Editor: Fran Attie

Okay, Giant’s fans, it has been a few weeks now since the brutal end to the regular season, and as tough as that was to swallow, the fact of the matter is it was never about the playoffs this year for the Giants; frankly, they just weren’t a playoff caliber team. There still was, however, a lot to like about the Giants this season, so in this article I am going to break down some things I saw, and what the plan should be moving forward.

First thing was the coaching staff. For the first time since Tom Coughlin had his falling out with the Giants we have a coach that the team really wants to play for. Joe Judge is our guy! I was skeptical of the hiring at first and, admittedly, was not a fan after the slow start, but Judge was still learning at that point, and in Belichick-like fashion, he got a feel for his roster as the year went on and started playing to their strengths. He started calling more designed runs for Daniel Jones, forcing teams to have to game plan for the option, and once he fired the offensive line coach, the line started playing better and the Giants became a running team even without Saquon Barkley. Losing Barkley and still winning 6 games really should be a testament to our coach’s talent.

It wasn’t just Joe Judge that impressed me, however, Patrick Graham made a case for best defensive coordinator in the league this year. Even though the Giants did not have one of the most talented defensive rosters going into the year, opposing offenses would still constantly talk about how the Giants were exceptionally coached and how well they changed up their defensive looks at the line. Pete Caroll said that facing the Giants was the first time he felt his offense didn’t know what to do. Graham just announced he will stay another year in his current position and the team needs to make sure he stays there as long as possible.

Finally, the Giants also did something they have not done since 2016, which is beating the Eagles and the Cowboys. This may not seem like a big deal to non-Giant fans, but losing to our two biggest rivals is always demoralizing. Now when playing big division games against the two, Giants players and fans will not have that “how will we blow this” moment of doubt creeping into their heads. That is a big deal, especially if you think about the improvement they showed from the first to the second Eagles game. And I firmly believe the win over Dallas in week 17 served as a huge building block for next season, seeing as we hadn't beaten the Cowboys since 2016!

Obviously the draft board will change a lot between now and draft night, so I am not going to break down the draft prospects quite yet. But overall, there was a lot to be happy about as a Giants fan in 2020. And though there is still a lot of work to be done, for the first time in a while we are headed in the right direction.

SPORTS ARE OUR UNIVERSE