What was the New York Giants record this season?
One of the biggest surprises of the past season (at least for me) was how far the New York Giants made it despite injury issues all over the field and the strength of the NFC East. Every year a team comes out of the NFC East into the playoffs and the consensus seems to be they only got there because the conference was so bad this year. To be fair that was the case for a while. In 2019 the Eagles held the best record at 9-7, 2020 it was Washington at 7-9, 2021 Dallas did have a good year at 12-5 and then 2022 came. With Philadelphia ending the regular season at 14-3 and Dallas at 12-5 again, the NFC East was not an easy division. The New York Giants finished 9-7 which only brought them in at 3rd but still was enough to see the postseason.
Were the New York Giants healthy this past season?
The answer to that question is not at all. The bigger surprise was doing what they did as the most injured team in the NFC East. With an average Banged Up Score of 69.6, New York was far from healthy. With an average weekly ranking position of 21.4 they came in as the 23rd out of 32 teams. Not the stat you would think would get you to the divisional round of the playoffs. Their health trend started off lower than most and then just kept declining until week 7 where they started to climb out of the hole they were in only to fall again before finally getting some traction and starting to get healthy as they made their push for the playoffs. They were one of two teams in the wildcard round who outplayed their healthier opponent and coincidently the other team was their NFC East counterpart Dallas Cowboys. Perhaps there is some merit to the NFC East old school hard-nosed football you hear about.
What Giants players were injured?
Shifting focus from their overall trend to a closer look at why and where injuries had their biggest impact, it is clear the Giants faced adversity from nearly everywhere on the field. Possibly the most affected position however was at wide receiver. New York ranked 26 out of 32 teams in total passing yards and when you look at the injuries sustained to the receiving corps. Giants receivers dealt with your classic aggravating injuries that you see throughout the year such as groin, hamstring and other soft tissue annoyances but also found their room diminished by season ending injuries. ACL tears to both Sterling Shepard who had just returned from an Achilles tear and Wan’Dale Robinson who had already been out earlier in the year for a knee injury left them with much less depth at a position that was already hurting. Injuries to Kenny Golladay (MCL) and Kadarius Toney (Hamstring) and the later release of Toney left them with very little at the position.
On the defensive side OLB Kayvon Thibodeaux dealt with an MCL injury early but was able to return week 3, Adoree’ Jackson (MCL) and Xavier McKinney (hand) both lost a lot of time towards the end of the season. Azeez Ojulari also dealt with a calf injury all season. The point of all of this is that the injuries faced by the Giants weren’t confined to one position but were spread amongst the entire team. Head Coach Brian Daboll had his hands full and still made it to the playoffs. He has done a great job his first year with the team and has shown was he is able to accomplish.
Cowboys and Giants players both huddled around Sterling Shepard after his injury 🙏❤️ pic.twitter.com/I5HlvC7vLs
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 27, 2022
What do the Giants need to do to be successful next season?
From a health standpoint he will need to close some gaps and look at drafting and signing players who have good health records. With good player depth, his coaching ability, and some more talent the Giants could put together a good playoff contending team. I don’t personally think they will be Super Bowl ready next year but if Daboll and staff can put the pieces together then give it two – three years and we may have a different story on our hands. This offseason he will have to deal with the Barkley situation and how he handles that and how the team responds will be a big tell but as always health will always be a factor. If his staff can do whatever it takes to reduce catastrophic injuries and really focus on prevention (and that definitely includes Saquon’s injury history) then they have a chance in a division that is only getting stronger.
