It could be worse, Giants fans — you could be a Jets fan

The Giants and Jets are set to square off in Week 10. Between them, these two franchises have just three wins. Times have certainly been better for both of these organizations. But which of these fan bases should have more hope right now?

Let’s go from the top down on this. Ownership favors the Giants without question. The Jets continue to make questionable hires and have built very little in the way of tradition or culture. Their ownership isn’t overly involved while the Giants have a very proud tradition and while things haven’t gone so well of late, at the top, the Giants get the advantage and that carries an awful lot of weight in this discussion.

The Giants also get the advantage with their general manager. Dave Gettleman probably doesn’t deserve glowing praise, but without question, it is a more stable and better than the Jets situation as we speak. That being said, Joe Douglas really hasn’t had much of a chance to put his stamp on the Jets, so this could very quickly change and overall, Douglass gets an incomplete grade. The Jets do currently have about six million more cap space. However, next year, these two teams are very similar in this capacity, but the Jets have more questionable contracts that Douglas will need to deal with.

Coaching? That also goes to the Giants. Adam Gase was a curious hire to begin with. To his credit, Gase got quite a bit of competitive football out of a terrible Miami roster, but his tenure with the Jets has been disastrous, especially on his expert side of the ball. The Jets offense has been as bad as any in football under Gase. Unlike their New York rival, at least the Giants are showing improvement throughout the season in some key areas under Pat Shurmur. This was an easy decision in the Giants favor.

How about the quarterback? This might cause some waves, but the Jets get the nod here. Sam Darnold has admittedly been awful these past two weeks, but overall, he is still a better prospect than Daniel Jones. Darnold has much less around him right now. He also ended his rookie season very strong. It might never come to fruition with the Jets, as it takes a village to raise a quarterback, but Darnold is still a high-end prospect and more desirable than Jones.

Quarterback aside, the rest of the offense favors the Giants. While it isn’t great, their offensive line is light years better than the one protecting Darnold. Plus, they have a few young guys here that could improve. The Jets really have little hope with their front five right now and could pursue four new starters this offseason. Saquon Barkley trumps Le’Veon Bell by a wide margin right now and that gap becomes cavernous when considering their respective ages. How about the pass-catchers? Robby Anderson, Jamison Crowder and Chris Herndon all have value and are a decent group overall. But Evan Engram is more valuable than any of those three. Sterling Shepard is a high-quality player when healthy and Golden Tate can still contribute. Darius Slayton also looks like he has a bright future.

As for the defense, the Jets are better at safety and on the second level (when they are actually healthy) and it isn’t’ particularly close. But even though the Giants cornerbacks have been a liability in 2019, they are far better off at that crucial spot than the team in green. The Jets needs to find two new starters at this spot as well as at least one edge rusher, while Lorenzo Carter could become a star for the Giants. Outside of quarterback obviously, it is the offensive line, cornerback and edge defenders that are about the most expensive positions to acquire via the draft or free agency … and the Jets are very needy in all three spots. The big people on defense favors the Giants, as they clearly have more high-quality defensive tackle types. But we must acknowledge that Quinnen Williams could turn into a superstar on the interior in the blink of an eye and Henry Anderson is a cornerstone player, so this one was close and the Giants did get the benefit of the doubt in that they hopefully have a long-term plan for Leonard Williams.

Giants fans, this year has certainly had its ups and downs with more downs. And overall, this team is still far from where they need to be to compete in their division and in the tougher of the two conferences. But, without questions, you have it better than being Jets fan right now and going forward without question.

Matt Williamson is a former NFL and college scout. He has written for ESPN and currently hosts the Locked on NFL podcast.