Giants get first chance to distance themselves from recent past

LANDOVER, Md. — So much of what Brian Daboll did in the spring and summer — as he laid out and executed his detailed, minute-by-minute schedule for the Giants — focused on changing the awful way his team started off in 2023 and 2024.

Changes and alterations were considered and implemented. 

There were more team periods — 11-on-11 — in training camp.

There were more snaps for the starters in the preseason games, with Daboll admitting “there’s no substitute for playing the game.” 

Daboll got his team through it all without incurring any significant injuries, so that is a big plus.

Now we will see if any of this means anything Sunday afternoon, when the Giants, full of good vibes within their own locker room, open their season against the Commanders at Northwest Stadium. 

“Really, our focus is on this year,” Daboll said. “So, what we can do this year, the team that we have this year, the keys to the game, the things we need to do to be successful against a really good football team. But it’s a new team. Every year is a new season. So, we’re doing the best we can to get off to a fast start the way we want to. Whether it’s what we did in OTAs, what we did in training camp, how we handled the preseason, but it’ll ultimately come down to performance on Sundays.” 

All the positive thoughts will come crashing down if the Giants come out of the gate in the same horrid fashion that set a terrible tone the past two years.

They were given a home game to open up in 2023 and provided a no-show, embarrassing 40-0 loss to the Cowboys.

They were given another home game in 2024, and looked listless and ineffectual in a 28-6 loss to the Vikings. 

For those scoring at home, that’s getting outscored 68-6 the past two season openers. 

“That game last year, I still remember it, and I’m probably going to remember it for a while,” said right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor, who was on the Raiders in 2023 and thus not part of the Giants’ humbling 40-point takedown to start that season. 

There are those in the building skeptical as to why the Giants did not look ready to play in the past two openers, and especially miffed by the offense’s ineptitude, not scoring a single touchdown.

But wait, it gets worse.

In Daboll’s three previous season openers, his team has been outscored 53-3 in the first half.

That’s three points in six quarters of football. 

The director of those attacks, Daniel Jones, is now the Colts’ starting quarterback, and the Giants are pinning a great deal on replacing him with Russell Wilson as a reason why the scoring will increase, early and exponentially. 

Wilson, 36, now qualifies as a journeyman, as he is on his fourth team in the past five years after a decade establishing himself as a top-tier player with the Seahawks.

He was not exactly a hot commodity when he hit the open market, as the Giants presented him with his only offer to come in and start.

Wilson’s arrival was heralded with his new teammates, and the early impression he made was impressive to behold.

Everything hinges on how he plays from here on out, though, as rookie Jaxson Dart, after an eye-opening summer, is waiting in the wings as the No. 2 quarterback on the depth chart, and No. 1 in the hearts and minds of many fans eager to see his career launched. 

“I think mindset is everything,” Wilson said. “I think belief is everything. I think belief in one another, faith in one another, faith in the process and belief in the process and the system and what we do really well. Then working at those things at a relentless rate.” 

The Commanders, rejuvenated by the presence and superlative play of rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, won 12 games in the 2024 regular season and two more in the playoffs.

The Giants are coming off a three-win campaign.

So, this is not really a litmus test for the Giants.

In six of the past eight years, they not only dropped their opener but also lost the next week to start out 0-2.

The Giants are on the road again in Week 2 to face the Cowboys in a second consecutive NFC East affair. 

“You’re talking about years past,” second-year running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. said. “You’re talking about eight years ago. That has nothing to do with what we have going on right now.” 

That is the hope — to distance themselves from all the losing of the recent past.