Welcome to the Rebuilding Year

Last year was an apparition and one we didn’t have to admit to until Sunday night. After being bludgeoned in the Divisional Round by the Eagles last year we were still able to laugh it off as we had no right to be there to begin with. For the first time since 2016, Giants fandom had experienced borderline competent football and it led to a mania likened to lost civilizations witnessing an airplane for the first time.  

Good vibes and a bevy of sexy off-season moves led to the lunacy of thinking there was a chance of the team covering, let alone beating, the Cowboys.  But 40-0 will tell you the space between the Giants and the top of NFC East remains years away.

The term talent gap has been thrown around, and while very true in its existence(!) moreover there’s more of a time gap.  The Cowboy’s braintrust has been evolving over the years along with the Eagles.  Both teams have been built into organizations through savvy drafting and cap management so creative it’s spawned its own field of math.  The Giants leadership is still new to this shit and they’re acting like it to the point that they themselves may not have been aware of how far they had to go.

With Sunday night behind them the Giants can begin the rebuild in the rain soaked and still dangerous turf of MetLife as last year didn’t count.  2022 will be one of the most well remembered seasons for the Giants for some time but at its best, it was a tasteful takedown, a controlled demolition built on one-year contracts, under-manned rosters, and whoever the Buffalo Bills couldn't add from the practice squad.  Joe Schoen gave in to the idea of impermanence in service to airing out the fumes leftover from the Hog Mollie Whisperer regime at 1925 Giants Drive and everyone underestimated how long they would stay.

Sunday, was the most brutal of reality checks but there’s still 16 games left on the slate to change what that means.  To progress forward the Giants have to hold onto to two ill fitting facts, genuine change is possible and it sure as hell won’t be today.