A dysfunctional season of football is nothing new to the confines of MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. But what the New York Giants and New York Jets pulled off this year will stick in the minds of fans for generations.
The Giants hoped to start things off on the right foot celebrating the 100th year of their historic franchise, but things could not have gone worse for Big Blue. The team would go 3-14 and winless at home until week 16 of the regular season.
Recently, there has been speculation about Head Coach Brian Daboll and General Manager Joe Schoen since the beginning of the season. This was felt most strongly when the Giants made the decision to let their franchise cornerstone and fan favorite running back Saquon Barkley walk to their division rival, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Particularly notable was how quarterback Daniel Jones handled a dysfunctional team. Instead of the Giants letting him play out the final weeks, they benched him. The issue wasn’t that Jones got benched, but how the organization decided to do it. They stripped him of any meaningful practice reps. He was being used as a practice safety and his coveted starting position went to Tommy DeVito.
The decision Schoen and Daboll made to keep Jones and let Barkley walk at the end of the season left the team with no franchise quarterback and their former franchise icon breaking records for their biggest rival. Don’t worry though, the Giants did break a record of their own this season: the most losses in franchise history with 14.
Team president and owner John Mara attempted to quell the fan voices. Mara said he would be keeping the pair together and aiming for stability throughout the franchise. Stability has not been a theme for the Giants in recent memory with the team having gone through five head coaches and two general managers in the last 10 years.
The decision to keep Daboll as head coach was the right choice. He won Coach of the Year in 2022 after the Giants won a playoff game in his first year in charge. While serving as the Bills offensive coordinator from 2018-2021, he helped design an offense around Josh Allen that led to multiple successful seasons. Allowing Daboll to get a quarterback he could coach up from the start could be beneficial for the Giants and highlight his coaching ability that we saw in Buffalo.
Schoen has one more offseason to prove he can keep his job. After that, it will be time for the Giants organization to move on. There is only so much time you can give your general manager to assemble a complete roster, and Schoen has yet to do so.
Now onto the other team in East Rutherford, the New York Jets. This is a team that is the butt of almost every joke when discussing a dysfunctional team in the NFL. They have missed the playoffs for the last 14 consecutive years — tied for the longest time without a playoff appearance in North American sports.
There are a lot of issues that explain the Jets’ recent struggles. But before that, we should go back to 2023 when the Jets decided to trade for former MVP and future hall of famer Aaron Rodgers.
Upon arriving at the Jets, Rodgers brought with him a lot of talent, as well as a lot of baggage. The first game of the 2023 season rolled around with a lot of optimism, and Rodgers ruptured his Achilles on the fourth snap. That season was scrapped before it ever got to fourth down.
In 2024, Rodgers was back, and with a new offensive line to protect him. The Jets never took off, going just 5-12 this season. Their offense was never explosive enough, and the defense went from exceptional to barely mediocre. Many defensive players regressed during their 2024 campaign and defenses win championships
This led to the firing of Jets Head Coach Robert Saleh in the middle of the season. It was one of the most disappointing seasons in recent memory, considering preseason expectations with Rodgers at full strength.
The Jets’ defense has always been pretty good, but the offense has never been good enough, and Saleh could not give the team what they needed.
With Saleh out as head coach, the Jets have hired a new head coach, former Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn, last week — a strong move for the organization. Glenn knows what it means to be a Jet, having played eight seasons with them. He’s had a good coaching career as a coordinator with the Lions. Glenn also has some scouting experience and can help voice his ideas more effectively to the general manager.
The new general manager hire for the Jets is Darren Mougey, former assistant general manager of the Denver Broncos. He drafted well for the Broncos — something the Jets have lacked for a long time.
It’s hard for many fans to believe that both the Jets and Giants have bright futures ahead after these seasons of football fans endured. I do feel the new hires by the Jets are going to help them, but on the Giants side of the ball, if they don’t get the right quarterback, fans are in for another long season.
