The 1980 Ray Perkins Giants finished fifth and last in the NFC East with a 4-12 record. But the 9-7 1981 Ray Perkins Giants ended an 18-year playoff drought, beating the defending NFC Champions Eagles in a wild-card game.
It helped that General Manager George Young was lucky enough to use the second pick in the 1981 NFL Draft against a Lawrence Taylor.
The Joe Schoen Giants have a huge talent gap to fill with the Eagles (and 49ers and Cowboys), and LT isn’t going through the big blue door.
But it’s no more an impossible dream than the Giants of 2022 making the playoffs with a new regime after hitting rock bottom in 2021. Not in this crazy NFL week after week, year after year. Ask the Trevor Lawrence Jaguars. And ask any team who can relate to Humpty Dumpty and his big fall: ask the Sean McVay Rams. Ask the Aaron Rodgers Packers. Ask the cliff Kingsbury Cardinals. Ask the Titans by Mike Vrabel.
So how do Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll close the gap?
Here’s how:
Danny Bucks
It always starts with the quarterback. Either you have someone who can take you to a Super Bowl or you don’t. Daboll has worked wonders with Daniel Jones, but understands he’s not Josh Allen, or Joe Burrow, or Patrick Mahomes, or Justin Herbert, or Lamar Jackson, or Jalen Hurts, or what Trevor Lawrence is destined to be — and sooner rather than later.
But look, Brock Purdy has the 49ers in the NFC championship game. The lesson here is, if you surround your quarterback with enough playmakers and protectors, give him and yourself a chance.
Daniel Jones falls behind against the Eagles. Corey Sipkin for NY Post
Giants GM Joe Schoen, left, and head coach Brian Daboll speak to the media. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST
Purdy undoubtedly feels like a kid in a candy store, and of course a draft and a free hand aren’t going to allow Jones to feel that way. But the Giants will pay him to take another leap forward toward Eli Manning’s home in Eliteville, NJ, in his second year in the Daboll system. The return of Wan’Dale Robinson and the development of Revelation Isaiah Hodgins and right tackle Evan Neal will help.
It’s not lost on Schoen that the Eagles were throwing money and resources into the ditches on both sides of the ball, and he began following that model in his first draft (Kayvon Thibodeaux, Neal, offensive linemen in the third and fifth rounds and a defender in the fifth round). Yes, the Giants need an inside linebacker to help Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams (after the pay cut) stop the run, but infighting is also huge against the Eagles, Cowboys and Commanders.
Get Danny Dollars A Go-to-Guy
Schoen’s voluntary statement that there are currently No. 1 receivers at home dismisses the reality that Ja’Marr Chase (Bengals), AJ Brown (Eagles) and Deebo Samuel (49ers) are still alive to compete for a spot in the Super to get a bowl. Mahomes lost Tyreek Hill to the Dolphins, but he is Mahomes.
If the Giants were a player away, a trade for DeAndre Hopkins would make sense, but he’ll be 31 and the Giants aren’t a player away. Stefon Diggs was 26 when Schoen’s former boss Brandon Beane traded for him.
The Giants pick 25th and could find a #1 receiver there (see Justin Jefferson, 22nd pick, 2020) or possibly with the 57th pick in the second round (see Brown, see Deebo). Schoen, who advocates building by design rather than turning into a drunken sailor at liberty, has nine tips – four of the first 100.
Payquon
Find a way to keep Saquon Barkley. He helps Jones the way Christian McCaffrey helps Purdy. Jones called him the best defenseman in the league.
“I appreciate that,” Barkley told the Post. “It’s a great compliment when it comes from a guy like that when that comes out of his mouth. And (smiles) … I kind of agree with him.”
A nod for Wink
Everyone in and around 1925 Giants Drive wants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale to take on that elusive head coaching job while also hoping and praying he’s back. Make him an offer he can’t refuse when push comes to shove. And even if not.
Smart, touch and dependency
In the summer of 1999, following a devastating game loss at the 1998 AFC Championship in Denver, Bill Parcell’s Jets coaching staff wore START OVER shirts. It was a reminder that the 1999 team had accomplished nothing and shouldn’t take anything for granted just because the 1998 Jets were so close to a Super Bowl. Vinny Testaverde would tear his Achilles in the opener and that was it.
Daboll did a masterful job of energizing and unifying the building and was named NFC Coach of the Year at Tuesday’s annual Committee of 101 National Media Awards. Getting the buy-in from players strangled in the clutches of stifling loss syndrome was beyond John Mara’s wildest dreams.
Brian Daboll walks to the sidelines in the Giants’ loss to the Eagles.Charles Wenzelberg / New York Pos
When training camp opens in 2023, with greater expectations, Daboll will need to receive the same buy-in as rookie HC from a new team with a host of new faces. Jim Fassel was 10-5-1 and a wildcard playoff loser as a rookie HC in 1997 but faltered to 8-8 in 1998. On the other hand, Parcells was 3-12-1 as a rookie HC in the year 1983 and bounced back with a 9-7 team in 1984, losing in the divisional round.
So no, there are never any guarantees, especially in this NFL these days.
But Mara and Steve Tisch and Giants fans have every reason to believe their franchise is in good hands. The NFC landscape of 2023 shouldn’t scare anyone. If anyone can close the gap on the Eagles (and 49ers and Cowboys), believe Schoen and Daboll can.