NYP: Don’t be afraid to get excited about this Giants team

Michael Matthews? Darcy Johnson?

Boss was ok. I find it hard to believe there's not Kevin Boss type production from this year's TE group and then some.

Really the only argument is 2008 Eli vs 2017 Eli and again, the fact that Eli was the best player on the field (for NYG) in January in Green Bay should put some minds at ease.

1) Win the division getting an automatic "Invitation to the dance"
2) Get a first round bye
3) Get number 1 seed
4) Win the first playoff game (I.e. Don't peak too early / get too confident (see 2011 15-1 Packers))
5) Win second playoff game and get to Super Bowl
6) Win another damn Super Bowl! (Remember to 2000 season)

Eli is not the only argument. The 2008 OL was significantly better than this group.

Dallas literally just won 13 games based almost entirely on the fact that they had an elite OL. Every single aspect of that team was borne out of the fact that they could control clock and wear teams down on the ground.

Dak Prescott never has the type of year he just had behind the OL we have.

that this team won 11 games last year with a less experienced OL, and zero skill position players outside of Odell.

So the overall roster makeup is dependent on whether or not the OL is great?

of it, but I feel it's overall a better roster.

2008 was a more talented roster than 2011 for sure. Look at the results.

Doesnt change the fact that I'd take this roster over any in the Eli era.

I didn't claim that at any point.

All I'm saying is that you can't just gloss over it and assume it won't be an issue because everything else is better. Poor OL play can still wreck games by itself and it can neutralize the strength of our skill players.

Odell/Marshall/Shep/Engram sounds wonderful on paper but if Eli is constantly under duress, it won't matter.

Eli also had a sub-par year last year so if it was because of the OL, there's not a whole lot of reasons to believe that will change. If it was simply because he had a down year on his own merit, is one game in GB enough to give everyone confidence that it was nothing more than an off year?

Saying "we won 11 games last year and our roster is better on paper now, so we will win more than 11 games this year" sounds like sound logic, but in the NFL, it often doesn't work out like that because there are so many other factors that come into play.

Quote:

Saying "we won 11 games last year and our roster is better on paper now, so we will win more than 11 games this year" sounds like sound logic

I wouldn't call it sound logic if you don't even factor the tougher schedule and talent around the conference.

It's going to be a very tough road in the conference this year. It's wide open. Giants could play good ball and fail to make the playoffs.

In comment 13551935 KWALL2 said:

Quote:

Quote: Saying "we won 11 games last year and our roster is better on paper now, so we will win more than 11 games this year" sounds like sound logic I wouldn't call it sound logic if you don't even factor the tougher schedule and talent around the conference. It's going to be a very tough road in the conference this year. It's wide open. Giants could play good ball and fail to make the playoffs.

Did you read my post? You're quoting me out of context.

I'm petrified to get excited about this Giants team. Doing everything I can to avoid it. They're plenty talented. But preseasons have had a way of destroying good Giants teams before.

As noted above, I'll start getting excited near the end of the season if we're in hunt and we're relatively healthy.

if he plays well the Giants will make some noise.

A legitimate Super Bowl contender.

Let's pray we luck out with injuries.

2008 just wowed me along after each game the Giants were winning, no Strahan or Osi and they were still dominant. If it wasn’t after the 2007 Super Bowl victory just that same year I would’ve been going crazy. We all knew the rest with Plaxico.

I’ll, of course, take 10-6 and a SB victory over going 12-4 or w/e with home field advantage. At the same time, I would like some more playoff games in NJ. After the Ravens SB I think we’ve only had 3 for us to attend. That Atlanta game was so fucking wild. Second best game I've ever been to (after 2014 ECF for NY Rangers vs Montreal)

I’d say 2005 was the season I anticipated the most, this might be second. Someone mentioned 2003 as well, I’d put that up there for me too.

the offensive line is anywhere near league average this could be a dominant team and able to beat any team in the NFL.
Seems they have decent depth at almost every position, even Oline. There may actually be no let down because of injury on the oline.

So whats the deal with Flowers? Does he have a short leash or something? Haven’t really been paying attention to any off season chatter (not that they would give away anything ever, have an interesting press conference) or is he still going to continue to be God awful, yet keep his position all season long? Is Fluker a failsafe for him or something?

2012 was another season that I think people expected to play out much differently than it had.

Coming off a Super Bowl victory, having a litany of pass rushers including a young, ascending JPP who looked like a superstar in the making, a trio of WR's who were virtually unstoppable down the stretch the previous year, a defense that really kicked it up in the playoffs.

Hell, we even started 6-2 and everything seemed like it was going according to plan.. and then the bottom just completely fell out from under that team and it became an absolutely disastrous finish to the year. The game in Atlanta was flat out embarrassing.

You just never know.

As I recall the injury bottoming out began to rear its ugly head..By the time we faced the Falcons and Ravens et al, we were an embarrassing shell of what we were the first 8 games, imv..

Lot of posts on this thread. I am unfortunately, probably not breaking any new territory here, but our defensive depth sucks. Particularly at Nickle/Slot Corner, and SAM Linebacker.

Hopefully Bromely and someone else can step up to aliviate the worries at DT or else I really worry about even a mild run of injuries on our defensive side.

Also, I only did not bring up our MIKE depth because I assume that Robinson will swallow a lot of those snaps in the nickel/dime.

Does our defensive depth really "suck"?

Sometimes I see people make claims like that and wonder what exactly it's based on. Are there a list of teams that we can point to and say "see, this team definitely has better depth on the defensive side of the ball than we do.." ?

I'm genuinely curious.

I feel like the vast majority of NFL teams' starters along the defensive line aren't even as good as ours, nor are their DB's.

Who knows? Bob Papa said once on the radio that the things we as Giants fans have issues with every other team has issues with, such as glaring needs at a particular position or whatever. Then again, who knows? Does another team have the same shitty group of offensive linemen for 4+ years? I am starting to follow the all 32 teams around the league less and less. I don't have time for that.

is decided already. Patriots back in the Super Bowl. No matter what.

are afraid to get excited about the team before the season starts because we've had our guts ripped out so many times before when the team turns into shit after the first game...however I will say this team does look like a more quality team than we've had in years but it still will come down to the O line and their success or failure.....