The Giants‘ results in their season openers under Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll have foreshadowed whether the team would succeed or slide immediately into the NFC’s gutter.
Their dramatic 21-20 comeback road win over the Tennessee Titans in 2022 ignited a 6-1 start and led to the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2016 and its first postseason victory since 2011.
Their 40-0 home loss to the Dallas Cowboys in 2023 spiraled into a 1-5 start and a 6-11 final record.
Their 28-6 home dud against the Minnesota Vikings in 2024 preceded a 1-3 start, a 3-14 finish and a 0-6 NFC East record. Planes flew over MetLife Stadium urging co-owner John Mara to make a change due to the embarrassment of the franchise’s 100th season.
So the optimism entering this 2025 season, after a sunny summer in East Rutherford, N.J., will only go as far as the Giants make it go with a win on Sunday in Washington.
“It starts now,” wide receiver Malik Nabers said this week. “It’s a division rival. We got to come out and get this win first. It adds to winning our division, so we have to take those guys serious[ly].
“They turned the program around. We’re building something great over here,” Nabers added. “So we have to go out there. We can’t mess around with them — just put them to bed early.”
Putting the Commanders to bed early would inject doubt into Washington’s ability to run back its sudden turnaround behind star quarterback Jayden Daniels. And it could create a surge of momentum for the Giants to genuinely believe they can become relevant again in the NFC East and the conference.
It’s been difficult for players to stay positive in recent years.
The Giants have lost their Week 1 opener in seven of the last eight seasons, and the team has lacked the resilience, health and talent to overcome even that sliver of early adversity.
The expected absence of left tackle Andrew Thomas from Sunday’s lineup casts an ominous cloud over the team’s fortunes. Giants management often has blamed Thomas’ absence for the offense’s and team’s shortcomings when he’d been out, but no one is interested in excuses now.
Schoen’s and Daboll’s Giants have been outscored 53-3 in the first halves of their three season openers from 2022-24.
If the Giants’ offensive line can’t protect Russell Wilson — who is less mobile than Daniel Jones — the drums will bang loudly early for Jaxson Dart. And they will not stop until the exciting first-round rookie is under center.
On the flip side, the Giants’ best reason for optimism in Sunday’s opener is their defensive front. It is loaded with four first-round picks: Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux and rookie Abdul Carter.
They’re so promising that Giants great Leonard Marshall, the two-time Super Bowl champion, predicted that this pass rush will harken back to the glory days when Marshall, Lawrence Taylor and the bunch ran roughshod over NFL offenses.
“The return to the legacy that we planted in the 80s, the Big Blue Wrecking Crew, I think is about to come back to life. Just a new form of it,” Marshall said on the Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard podcast. “A little bit faster, a little bit swifter and a little bit more aggressive than the teams I played on.
“However, it doesn’t happen on paper,” Marshall continued. “It happens on the field. And I’m dying to see what these seven guys [on defense] can do when they get on the field together.”
Lawrence, the leader of that imposing front, was a man of few words when asked about how he thinks the Giants will be able to compete in their division — and separate from last season’s pathetic 3-14 finish.
“We got to go beat Washington,” Lawrence said. “That’s how I’m going to answer that one.”
That’s all that matters right now: beating Washington.
The Giants have looked good in the preseason, but the preseason doesn’t matter at all.
Sunday matters. Sunday means everything.
