The 2013-14 is not over just yet, but New York Giants cornerback Terrell Thomas is already in a reflective state.
There is much uncertainty surrounding the Giants organization: which coaches will return; which players will be gone and what the front office is going to do about the team's worst season in about a decade.
Change can be good or bad, according to Thomas, who weighed the perks against the drawbacks to making major moves in terms of personnel.
"We had a little change this year and that's why we struggled a bit," he said. "We had a bunch of younger guys and a bunch of injuries, so a lot of young players had to step up. Maybe they weren't ready, but change can be good, but also change can be bad as well. Our front office does a great job of putting in the right people in the (right) position. At the same time, we've got a lot of people just coming up on contract (years), so it's going to be interesting to see what happens."
This was obviously a huge year in terms of health for Thomas, who returned to being a major contributor in the secondary following a pair of ACL injuries in both the 2011 and 2012 seasons. Thomas has had three ACL tears in all.
Thomas refused to quit, though, and never lost faith in his comeback to football. And while admittedly it's been a struggle -- both in recovery and as the Giants have faltered -- returning to the field has certainly been a bright spot.
"It's been a grind, but the one thing I've always counted on is just my faith and just being blessed to play this game again," said Thomas, who has racked up 54 tackles, a pick and a forced fumble this season. "No matter how hard it goes, I just said, 'you know what, you could be home playing Xbox, miserable like I've been the last two years.'
"This year has been fun. It sucks we couldn't get to the playoffs and had a losing record and gave ourselves a shot and didn't finish the way we wanted to, (but) for me I'm just happy to play football again."
Thomas expects to finally enjoy a normal offseason, one that doesn't involve any rehab, and return to training camp at full strength again. In fact, he expects his knee to improve to be in even better shape over the offseason.
"The knee always gets better the following year; it gets stronger," he said. "You're always battling the quad throughout the year, how to rehab and how to work it out. Fortunately my number has been called a number of times and I've stepped up to the plate, but I'm looking forward to the offseasn just to rest and be able to catch up and not have to rehab.
"I can actually go ahead and be able to work on football stuff, not just trying to get healthy enough to play football again."