I went back and watched every game from last season (long)

I had the COVID and was stuck in isolation with lots of time to kill (luckily my symptoms were very mild) so I decided to go back and watch every Giants game a second time, 5 months after the season was over.

To put it bluntly, it was a totally different experience. Make no mistake about it, it was not nearly as fun, but I felt like I was able to be much more objective about performance with the outcomes already determined 5 months ago.

I learned very quickly that I am emotionally attached to the games, the players and the immediate results because that's part of the fun of being a fan during the season. It seemed like work at times (like the ARZ, Clev and Balt games) - BUT I'm glad I did it.

To completely plagiarize Peter King - these are the things I think, I think after rewatching all the games:

1.) The Giants are closer to being good than I previously thought and the reason for that is Joe Judge and his staff. Re-watching the games made it abundantly clear just how bad this roster was. There was very little talent to work with and the coaches seemed to play each game to "keep it close" because they had no shot at dominating anyone on either side of the ball. There was a three game stretch in which they were clearly outclassed after DJ was banged up or missing - The Cardinals game, the Browns game, and the Ravens game. Every other game that they played they had a legit shot at winning with some really terrible players getting significant reps.

2.) Daniel Jones is an enigma to me. Sometimes he looks every bit like an elite QB. He made some great throws into some tight windows to some bad receivers (more on that later). He is a real weapon when he is on the move, especially on designed run plays. I really do think he can be a Super Bowl winning QB - something that I DID not think before. here are the three things that bother me:
a.) Pocket Presence: he took more bad sacks than any other QBs the Giants played last year. He has to have a better understanding of where the pressure is coming from, when to get rid of the ball, and when not to press the issue. Eli had similar issues and he is a HOF. I do think DJ can get better with this.
b.) Protect Himself: make no mistake about it - he is an absolute WEAPON with the ball in his hands, but he took some absolute shots from defenders too frequently. He's not a small guy - it's not like RG3 out there or anything - but man did he get walloped too often for my liking. He's a gamer, which I love, but he was definitely nursing a serious injury after he was hurt in the Cincy game. He was just a different player after that.
c.) Decision Making: He threw some INTs that were not his fault, but he also threw some INTs that were bad and they were at bad times. The INTs at the end of the Bears and Rams games really stick out in my mind. Again, this is something Eli struggled with throughout his career and he got better when his weapons improved b/c not every throw had to be perfect. I think this will get better too.

3.) The Giants WRs stunk. I was completely wrong about this. They had no one that could break a tackle or run away from a defender. They had no one that could create significant separation consistently. There were very few plays in which I felt like a WR really battled to get into the end zone and make a highlight type run after the catch. Slayton is really good against CBs that would be considered JAGS (it was clear he wasn't the same player after the WFT game due to injury). Next year, with Kenny G on the scene - he's going to have a lot of favorable matchups, but he is no WR1. Shep is another enigma - there are times where I think he's a really good slot WR and other times where he goes long stretches and disappears. CJ Board, D. Rattley, Mack, and G. Tate (he had the worst body language of any player I saw) all played significant minutes and they all stink. We could have had BIll Walsh as the OC and he wasn't dialing up any offense with these guys. Garrett is better than many give him credit for.

4.) A healthy Barkley is going to run for 1700 yards and 15 TDS behind this OL. They turned a corner in the 2nd half of the Rams game and were a different group (they were bad in the Cardinals game) after that. Gallman, Morris, Lewis and Freeman left a TON of yards on the table. None of them could make anyone miss at the second level, none of them could break a tackle, and none of them were running away from anyone. The yards they did get were b/c of the offense line. At different points during the season they were really able to push some DLs around.

5.) The defense was the definition of bend but don't break despite having to play some really terrible defenders significant snaps. Bradberry is very good, but teams just stopped throwing in his direction b/c the other guy was just so bad. Yiadom, Lewis and Ballentine cost them a few games early in the year. None of them are good and were targeted A LOT. I think Love and Ryan are very similar players.

6.) LW is a star. I don't understand why people didn't want to pay him. Dalvin is going to be missed, but I'm interested in what A. Johnson can do with more snaps. He flashed quite a bit during the season. THat DL last year was very good - especially in the red zone. The Giants defense in the red zone, as a whole, was very good. Meanwhile, the Giants offense was terrible in the red zone.

7.) Evan Engram was better than I thought. If he could somehow find a way to get more consistent with his hands, he would be a star. He was the only guy on that offense that could get open with any kind of regularity. Garrett really made him the focal point of the offense b/c everyone else was bad. I think with Rudolph on the team next year - he can really be a difference maker because he won't have to run so many stick routes to the marker.

8.) Special teams were a mixed bag - which was a surprise being that Judge is the coach and the Giants special teams had been pretty good recently. Gano was very good. They had some untimely special team lapses which was very disappointing to see.

9.) I hate to say this, but I think the Giants were pretty unlucky last year. There were some crazy plays, ref calls, events that just killed them this year that seemed out of proportion compared to the teams they played. I get super angry when calls go against the Giants in the heat of the battle and my wife loves to poke the bear with comments like, "you wouldn't say that if it were against the Giants". But even watching it later, minus the emotion, it felt disproportionate. The crazy 4th down conversion in the Bears game and the fist Dallas game was riddled with calls the went against the Giants - that's just two that really stuck out in my mind. I guess the old saying that good teams make their own luck is true - the Giants lost a lot of games.

10.) The Giants schedule last year was hard. I am not overlooking the fact that the NFC east was not good...but they are still divisional games. Even when teams are bad, they always play divisional foes differently. Outside their own division, they played only 2 teams that had a losing record - the 49ers and Bengals. That schedule was no joke. It doesn't look like next year is going to be much easier, but they will be battle tested and have proven that they can hang.

If you actually read this far - I really feel like the arrow on this team is pointing up. I loved the draft and FA cycle and think the Giants have put themselves in a good spot moving forward. The optimist in me sees a franchise that has turned the corner.