The Giants aren’t acting like a rebuilding team anymore.
They’re acting like a team that believes its upstart 2022 playoff berth warrants a run at the NFC East crown and a deeper trip into the 2023 NFL postseason.
They’re acting like a team that just gave its quarterback $82 million over the next two seasons and is now fitting its decisions into a new, shorter-term design with Daniel Jones at the center.
This franchise erred badly in 2021 by overestimating its team after a 6-10 finish in 2020 under the previous regime of Dave Gettleman and Joe Judge. They loaded up on veterans and big contracts and fell on their face.
Optimism in northern New Jersey hasn’t been this high in a long time coming off Joe Schoen’s and Brian Daboll’s 9-7-1 debut season and a Wild Card road playoff victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
And surely, it’s encouraging that Giants ownership is spending money to improve the roster. Schoen is targeting holes to fill and addressing them.
The Giants are tired of the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys running them out of buildings, and they’re trying to do something about it.
But Schoen, who believes primarily in drafting and developing, suddenly has gone on a veritable shopping spree for older veterans, including slot wide receiver Jamison Crowder’s signing to a one-year deal on Thursday.
The GM also has added several players with significant recent injury histories, which doesn’t vibe with his frequent references to preferring known commodities with less “margin for error.”
It’s also a dangerous game to play since the Giants have struggled to keep players healthy for many years running now. They were the NFL’s sixth most-injured team in 2022, per ManGamesLost.com, and only won early in spite of that.
Schoen has traded for Darren Waller, 30, who played in nine games for the Raiders last season due to a hamstring. He just signed Crowder, who turns 30 in June and played in just four games for the Bills last season due to a broken foot.
Wideout Parris Campbell, 25, is younger and played all 17 games last season, but he appeared in only 15 games the previous three seasons combined. Safety Bobby McCain, a durable player, turns 30 in August.
Defensive lineman Rakeem Nunez-Roches turns 30 in July. Wideout Jeff Smith, 25, finished last season on injured reserve.
Inside linebacker Bobby Okereke, who turns 27 in July, is the lone player of Schoen’s recent significant signings who is both relatively young and carrying no major injury flags.
To Schoen’s credit, the Giants’ second-year GM has made these types of moves instead of, say, surrendering a first-round pick for a veteran receiver such as the Cardinals’ DeAndre Hopkins or the Broncos’ Jerry Jeudy.
So in that context, the GM is not completely abandoning the future for the present. He’s held onto his assets for now while trying to stockpile productive possibilities for 2023.
And a lot of these veteran signings, injury prone or not, are coming in on one-year contracts or deals the team can escape relatively quickly. So they won’t tie Schoen’s hands behind his back in 2024 if this coming season goes south and he has to pivot.
The Giants, if they are going for it again, have created some smarter escape hatches this time, there’s no question about it.
That starts with Jones’ contract, which allows them to get out after either two or three years if necessary, despite its four-year, $160 million full term.
In reality, Jones’ contract still allows Schoen to draft a quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft if the Giants slip this season to a high draft pick in 2024 and Jones’ contract becomes a mistake.
That’s good business.
It’s just a tricky balance to straddle the line between building a foundation properly for the future while also trying to win now.
The Giants have found that out the hard way several times in recent years, never fully committing to a long-term rebuild. Head coaches have borne the brunt of it, paying with their jobs when results didn’t match accelerated expectations.
Schoen the GM, like Judge the coach before him, came in with an eye on building the Giants brick by brick. He recognized how unstable the foundation had become. There would be no quick fix.
Jones’ and the team’s early success, however, prompted co-owner John Mara to tell a reporter “we’re back” in January.
And now it has the Giants signing a lot of players who have very little to do with the long term and everything to do with challenging for the division and more in 2023.
This should make for an exciting season. It’s fun to think about what could be possible in East Rutherford, N.J., if Daboll and Jones take the quarterback’s game to the next level.
The NFC East’s schedule this year will be much more difficult, however. The Eagles and Cowboys are still more talented rosters top to bottom.
And in the NFL, you have to know when to take your shot. You can’t miss.