With the Super Bowl done and dusted, football fans have turned their attention to April’s NFL draft. The Jets and Giants will feature early in the first round of the 2022 draft, something that’s become a tradition in recent years, but this time around New York football finds itself front and center even more so than usual. Courtesy of traded draft picks from the Bears and Seahawks, the Giants and Jets respectively each own multiple picks within the first seven selections. With both franchises needing serious overhauls to climb out of the cellar, the 2022 draft provides each a strong opportunity to start a trend in the right direction, and begs the question; will the Jets or Giants be good again first?
Since the Giants won the Super Bowl in 2011, the New York football teams have combined to be the two worst in the NFL. In that nine year span, they have made the playoffs only one time, (the Giants in 2016), and have produced 16 out of a possible 18 losing seasons. They are 43 – 113. As are the hallmarks of most bad football teams, poor coaching and quarterback play have been front and center for both, with each team a proverbial revolving door of coaches, general managers, and quarterbacks. Whichever team gets these right first will have a huge head start towards achieving competency first, but both have a lot of questions that still need to be answered.
As rebuilds go, the Jets are farther along than the Giants. Before the 2021 season they hired popular 49ers’ defensive coordinator Robert Saleh as their new head coach, and drafted Zach Wilson from BYU with the second overall pick to be their quarterback of the future. Wilson’s rookie season left plenty to be desired however, as he posted a 55.6% completion percentage along with 9 touchdowns to 11 picks, and a lowly QBR of 28.2. Other recently drafted quarterbacks like Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, and fellow AFC East rookie Mac Jones all had markedly better debut campaigns. The Jets themselves possibly fared even worse, going 4-13 and finishing dead last in points and yards allowed per game; not a good sign for a defensively oriented head coach.
If the Jets want 2022 to look different, both Saleh and Wilson will have to make a big step forward, but the potential for improvement is there. Wilson lost a number of mid-season games to injury, and despite the brief Mike White phenomena, looked much more comfortable once he returned as the starter. He showed flashes of the talent that led to his being selected second overall, and cut down on the rookie mistakes that had plagued him at the start of the season. Nine of his 11 interceptions came before his week 6 knee injury, and he threw none over their last five games. The Jets defense seemed to play better as the year closed out too, almost beating Tom Brady and the Bucs in week 17. Ultimately, the jury is still out on Saleh and Wilson, but they will undoubtedly be given time to improve, and it is only likely year two of their partnership will yield better results.
While the Jets looked on the up and up as the 2021 season closed out, the same could not be said for the New York football Giants. Culminating in the infamous 3rd and 9 quarterback sneak in week 18 against Washington, the Giants finished the season with eight consecutive losses, and dead last in most analysts’ power rankings. The finish and play call sealed the fate of head coach Joe Judge, who was fired soon after the season and replaced by Buffalo offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.
Daboll’s number one job will be to repeat what he did with Josh Allen in Buffalo, and extract the most out of quarterback Daniel Jones who is entering his fourth year. The jury is still out on Jones, who has shown flashes of great athleticism and accuracy, but coupled them with injury and turnover issues. Jones finished the 2021 season once again on the injury list, missing the final six weeks of the season. In addition to the impact his absence had on the Giants’ offensive performance, perhaps an even bigger loss came in the team’s inability to further evaluate his talent, as the team needs to decide quickly if he is the quarterback to lead them into the future.
Ultimately, the Jets have the potential to turn themselves around first, with a quarterback and coach tandem that already has a year of experience under its belt. However, that statement comes with the assumption that both Wilson and Saleh will make monumental progress soon, which is a big ask in the NFL, and something that would break the mold of Jets’ recent coach and quarterback history. While the Jets might pull themselves out of the cellar, I have a hard time seeing Salah and Wilson as the due to lead the team back to the playoffs for the first time since 2011, especially with Buffalo and New England in the division. The Giants may also take some time to rebuild if they decide to look past Daniel Jones at the quarterback position and Daboll takes some time to adjust to the head coach role; two very possible scenarios.
So will the Jets or Giants be good again first? The answer might be neither. Despite the draft leverage they each now possess, without a secure coach and quarterback combo most teams don’t make it very far, and New York football has yet to pin down a duo. Based solely on organizational history however, I choose the Giants. The Giants are a marquis football brand, and they cannot afford to spend another ten years like they spent their last. They have a history of stability and success far beyond anything the Jets can boast, and it seems more a question of if rather than when they figure themselves out. It may not be next year, and it may not even be soon, but eventually the Giants will be good again. The Jets… well they’re the Jets.
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