The New York Giants hit rock bottom in 2024.
In their centennial season, the team finished with a 3-14 NFL record.
Their .176 win percentage was the fourth-lowest in franchise history, and Brian Daboll became the first Giants head coach to lose 14 games in a year.
Quarterback Daniel Jones was benched and cut during the season, while the decision to allow eventual Super Bowl champion Saquon Barkley to leave in the offseason was embarrassingly captured by Hard Knocks cameras.
That led to league-wide fan ridicule, and massive criticism of owner John Mara and general manager Joe Schoen.
On the field, New York also got swept by every team in their division for the first time in franchise history, and went 89 days between victories.
The mood around the franchise was perhaps summed up when planes were flown over Metlife Stadium with banners that implored the ownership to ‘fire everybody’ and ‘plz fix this dumpster fire.’
For a team that have seen the playoffs just twice since winning Super Bowl XLVI back in 2012, things can surely only get better next season… right?
Well, according to Stephen A. Smith, maybe not.
The Giants are in a particularly perilous position once again this offseason.
With Jones gone, they only quarterback currently under contract is last season’s third-choice Tommy DeVito.
This year’s QB draft class is regarded as fairly weak, and New York were said to have been ‘all in’ on bringing Matthew Stafford on board, but he decided to stay put with the Los Angeles Rams.
Now, the two highest-profile signal callers remaining in free agency are veterans Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson.
The Giants could turn to either man to lead them in 2025 – but Smith believes Metlife Stadium is far from a desirable destination.
“They have plummeted and I’m going to tell you why,” Stephen A. said on ESPN’s First Take, when asked how far the Giants have fallen as a brand.
“We were lamenting the state of affairs with the Jacksonville Jaguars (a few months ago), okay? And we were talking about how awful they have been. And then I said hold up fellas.
“I do the research, and I’m reminded that with Blake Bortles, they’ve been to an AFC Championship game in the last decade.
“Since the Giants won the Super Bowl in 2011, they have been to the playoffs twice in the last 13, 14 years. That’s it. They have been awful.”
Smith then went on to blast GM Schoen and the franchise for making ‘criminal’ decisions in the last 12 months.
He continued: “You’ve got a GM who’s wearing diapers in his position. He just got there, and what does he do? What is he known for?
“It’s not losing Saquon Barkley. Mistakes happen. Nobody’s flawless. But how do you go, with the cameras rolling, and be all dismissive and disrespectful to clearly your best player?
“(The Giants) drafted Daniel Jones. You give him $40million a year, but you don’t have $16m to give Saquon Barkley? And now the reigning, defending Super Bowl champion somehow find a way to give him $20m?
“You’ve got to be kidding me. This is the New York Giants. They are awful. They haven’t changed ownership to allow this disintegration to take place with their brand before our very eyes.
“It’s criminal. It’s sacrilegious. They are awful. And people need to say that, and they need to get their behinds together because they are trash right now.”
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