It’s a shame the Giants aren’t on HBO’s Hard Knocks again this year.
The behind the scenes of Monday’s free agent action and nervous moments without a starting quarterback on the roster would have been must-see TV.
The stakes are even higher after last year, when Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll let Saquon Barkley (Eagles) and Xavier McKinney (Packers) walk to first-team All-Pro seasons and a Philadelphia Super Bowl victory.
At least the Giants had Daniel Jones under contract last March coming off a 6-11 season.
One year later, they’re coming off a 3-14 campaign and don’t have a No. 1 or No. 2 quarterback to speak of on their depth chart at all.
That could be viewed optimistically as a clean slate, except this incompetent regime has landed the franchise in no-man’s land:
They are desperate for a quarterback who will be able to win games immediately in 2025, and they are desperate for a quarterback of the future, too.
Schoen is trying to take care of the present first.
He promised to pursue “whoever gives us the best chance to win” at quarterback when he laid out the Giants’ plans at the NFL Combine two weeks ago.
And the GM wasn’t kidding: he took a run at trading for Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who was the best QB available until he decided to stay in Los Angeles rather than accepting a trade to New York or Las Vegas.
Missing on Stafford, though, now has landed the Giants in an uncomfortable and dangerous position at the start of free agency: There is a chance they may not be able to find an acceptable empty chair on the QB carousel when the music stops.
Aaron Rodgers, who became the Giants’ Plan B once they whiffed on Stafford, had more options on Monday than originally anticipated around the league.
The Pittsburgh Steelers emerged as a possible Rodgers fit once Justin Fields signed with the Jets. And the Minnesota Vikings became a potential Rodgers option, as well, after the Seattle Seahawks traded Geno Smith to the Raiders and signed Sam Darnold in his place.
If Rodgers scorns the Giants and signs elsewhere, that would likely land Schoen and Daboll on Option C: the Steelers’ Russell Wilson.
Signing Wilson always has been the most likely outcome of the Giants’ frantic search for a capable starter the last few weeks. Remember: they hosted him in person on a visit last year before he signed in Pittsburgh.
Wilson to New York is no certainty, either, though, depending on how the dominoes continue to fall.
And ironically, as of 6 p.m. Eastern on Monday, Jones — the Giants’ former No. 6 overall pick — was the domino that the NFL’s quarterback carousel and the Giants’ search was waiting to see fall.
Jones was believed to be deciding on Monday night between staying with the Minnesota Vikings or signing with the Indianapolis Colts.
If Jones chooses the Vikings, Rodgers’ options would shrink to the Steelers and Giants. If Jones chooses Indy, Rodgers could be in serious play for Minnesota, and then Wilson could end up back in Pittsburgh — with the Giants on the outside looking in.
Wilson also could be in play for a team like the Colts or Titans depending on how their searches go.
That would lead to a Plan D that could land the Giants on a veteran like the Cleveland Browns’ Jameis Winston.
The interesting question now is how the Giants’ free agent quarterback results will impact their draft plans.
They have always projected as likely to select a quarterback in the first 2-3 rounds of April’s draft. The only question has been whether they would take one at No. 3 overall or trade up to No. 1.
Maybe losing out on all of the top free agents and trade targets will make the Giants more urgent about picking a QB in the first round — although the Titans and Browns conceivably both could take one at picks No. 1 and 2.
Or, as the Giants’ Stafford pursuit and Schoen’s Combine press conference seemed to indicate, maybe they are lukewarm on this quarterback class in the top five and more excited about adding a supreme talent like Colorado corner Travis Hunter or Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter at No. 3.
Then they could try to find a way to pick a player like Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart in the back half of the first round or early second.
This is a dizzying amount of unresolved scenarios, of course, to address the most important position in the sport with the start of the 2025 NFL season only six months away and Schoen and Daboll on the hot seat in Year Four.
But this is what happens when a franchise runs itself this poorly and loses this frequently: the Giants are no longer viewed as a destination.
Everyone knows they are poorly run and on the verge of another regime change. They know the stories of how players have felt underappreciated and disrespected on their way out.
So the Giants are relegated to taking rampant “swings,” as Schoen promised, at whatever pitch comes across the plate — and to making several different plans. Which amounts to no real plan at all.