It's an espn insider piece so limited access, but here is the key piece: (Written by KC Joyner)
Bottom line
That the Giants were able to win seven games last season despite horrible luck and a slew of injuries unprecedented in the past decade speaks to just how incredibly effective their coaching staff is at working around problems. Given the wide variety of upgrades listed above and the talent this team can bring home in the draft, Tom Coughlin and company likely won't have to perform any miracles in 2014. Barring another disaster, the Giants will have all of the tools necessary to record a double-digit win total and earn a spot in the NFC playoffs.
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They are unstoppable in the postseason.
Oh wait.....
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Hell, they might be a playoff team. They might not be. But to make an argument either way in April prior to the draft, training camp, & preseason is illogical & quite frankly, stupid.
It's also quite possible, the winner of the division is one and done in the playoffs.....
Anything can happen....they won 7 games last year.....what was the competition in those 7 games....they lost two games to the Cowboys who were not a playoff team.....somehow they won 7 games(playing quarterbackless teams helped a lot)......but they were more a 3-4 win team.....
Is the OL solid? Not by a long shot.....we don't have a TE....we don't have a #1 receiver.....our RB position is fragile at best.....we have lost players in the DL....we still need linebackers...after this season, we have no safeties signed(starters, anyways)....we could lose Prince next year.....If JPP has a bounceback year, how much will he cost?
And then there is Eli.....I thought he would have a bounce back year, after 2012, and he was worse....now, his ankle could be ready by the season opener, but does this offense have the pieces to protect him, and give him options to move the ball....and then there is that little matter of a new offensive system.....
How do you make a prediction on all those variables? Well, you can predict on the positive side or the negative side.....but I don't know how anyone can make a prediction, until we actually see these guys play in preseason....
That OL will be a work in progress, and we can only hope it gets better as the season goes on.....and then hope that there are no major injuries, because this team has absolutely no depth....
But anything CAN happen, there have been some decent additions, (Along with unfortunate departures.) and if things jell, they could catch fire. We've seen other teams rebuild in short a short time, and maybe the Giants can get far enough along to make the cut. But I don't have any idea what Eli will be like in 2014. If the Giants can field a solid team that can be competitive in every game, I will consider that a major victory.
Eli had minor routine surgery, they didn't amputate anything so stop the exaggerating.
As daunting as those figures are, the reality is a lot of Manning's woes were due to errors other than his own. According to my tape breakdowns, Manning, who had ankle surgery Thursday but should be back in six weeks, had a bad decision rate (BDR) of 2.4 percent (BDR tracks how often a quarterback makes a mental error that leads to a turnover opportunity for the opposing team). That is actually lower than his 2.8 percent BDR in 2012, when he threw just 15 picks, so he actually took a step forward in that category last season. In addition, only three of Manning's interceptions occurred as a result of these bad decisions.
Where he got hurt in the interception department is picks that occurred due to factors other than bad decisions. Four were due to miscommunications with wide receivers, and two happened because a receiver ran the wrong route. Those types of picks are completely avoidable (none of Manning's interceptions in 2012 occurred due to these types of mistakes) so to see a significant drop in his interceptions total would not be a surprise.
Better luck could also lead to an improvement in this area. Manning had a total of 54 interceptions and near-interceptions last season (a near-interception defined as a pass that hits a defender's catch frame that doesn't result in a pick). Since 27 were turned into interceptions, that is an interception conversion rate of 50 percent. The leaguewide average in this category is 40 percent, so a return to a standard luck level could reduce the interception total even further.