The Giants went 0-6 in the NFC East last season. They’re 0-2 against Commanders MVP candidate Jayden Daniels. And they’ve lost 15 of their last 16 games against the Cowboys, including their last eight meetings.
But Washington and Dallas both could be vulnerable to Giants road upsets in Weeks 1 and 2 of this regular season, respectively, after stubbing their toes this summer.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has ostracized star pass rusher Micah Parsons, who requested a trade out of town during his holdout. And Commanders GM Adam Peters has let star receiver Terry McLaurin’s holdout and trade request drag toward Labor Day.
On top of that, Washington just traded bruising back Brian Robinson Jr. to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Giants lost twice to the Commanders last season, once with Robinson in the lineup and once without him on the field. But he killed New York on the ground when he faced them, rumbling 17 times for 133 yards in a crushing Week 2 Giants road loss in Maryland.
Washington, who will host the Giants in a Sept. 7 season opener, is very high on rookie running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt. And Deebo Samuel’s addition to the receiving corps gives them a punishing ballcarrier if they need one.
But the Commanders just traded away the player who might have been their best counter to the Giants’ pass rush of Brian Burns, Dexter Lawrence, Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux.
The best way for Washington to neutralize the Giants’ pass rush likely will be to run right at them. If Commanders coordinator Kliff Kingsbury’s running back corps is more finesse than power, though, that might play into the Giants defense’s hands.
And that would possibly open up more opportunities for the Giants to pin their ears back and get after Daniels before he can beat them with both his arm and legs.
Then there are the Cowboys. The Parsons drama is ugly.
There is a chance he doesn’t play against the Giants in that Week 2 game. There is even a chance he isn’t on the Cowboys’ roster at all at that point.
Plus, Dallas has several injuries to key players.
Linebacker Demarvion Overshown will be out while recovering from a late-season ACL tear, despite encouraging progress in rehab.
Top corner Trevon Diggs might miss that game as he continues to recover from December knee surgery. And left tackle Tyler Guyton (fractured bone, sprained knee) is no guarantee to suit up against the Giants, either.
Diggs sitting out would be a big deal.
Top Giants receiver Malik Nabers did catch 12 passes on Diggs and Dallas’ defense in his first meeting with them as a rookie in Sept. 2024.
But Diggs limited Nabers to 9.6 yards per catch, the Giants didn’t score a single touchdown and an overworked Nabers was concussed in the fourth quarter as Diggs hounded him.
The Cowboys’ defensive coordinator also is now Matt Eberflus, the former Chicago Bears head coach. So maybe the Giants will find more opportunities than they did against the schemes of Dan Quinn in 2023 and Mike Zimmer in 2024.
Not that the Giants don’t have concerns of their own, from the uncertainty surrounding left tackle Andrew Thomas’ foot to Nabers’ extended rest for a back ailment to Lawrence’s steady build-up toward a full workload of football.
They’re also fielding a new offense with a new quarterback in Russell Wilson and playcaller in offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. So it’s never easy to come out of the gates on fire without having to iron out some wrinkles.
Still, for all the talk about the Giants’ difficult schedule, there is more opportunity in these early games than there could have been.
The Giants avoided Saquon Barkley and the reigning champion Philadelphia Eagles in these early weeks.
They instead drew a Washington team that they would have beaten in Week 2 last season if not for a bad Nabers fourth down drop and the Giants’ mismanagement of injured kicker Graham Gano.
And then the league’s schedule makers made them the visiting team in Brian Schottenheimer’s first ever home game as an NFL head coach in Week 2 against the Cowboys in Arlington, Tex.
Plus, the Commanders and Cowboys seemingly have been unable to get out of their own way lately, at least on the business side.
And it’s getting close to the time when that business is going to impact the product on the field in September – when the Giants will be waiting to try to take advantage and snatch some unexpected wins.
