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So, you really want to believe the 1-5 New York Giants are a playoff contender. Let’s talk about it.
The NFC East standings say the Giants will tie the Dallas Cowboys for most win the NFL’s worst division if they beat the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Here are the standings:
Dallas Cowboys 2-4
Philadelphia Eagles 1-4-1
New York Giants 1-5
Washington Football Team 1-5
After the Giants got their first victory on Sunday, defensive lineman Leonard Williams talked excitedly about the team’s 2020 prospects.
“I don’t know how much the team talks about it, but it’s definitely something that’s running through my head a lot. Even before we got this win today, I’d seen that the Cowboys were leading in our division and they only had two wins, and it made me feel happy and feel confident that everything is still in front of us still,” Williams said. “Even when we had no wins under our belt at the time, it still gave us some hope going forward knowing that was the case.”
Wide receiver Darius Slayton also talked on Sunday about the weak division giving the Giants hope.
“You say you are 0-5 or whatever, some people fall off the bandwagon or whatever you want to call it,” Slayton said. “Our division leader only has two wins so we’re right there in it. We just have to keep fighting, keep on stacking these wins.”
So, how good are the Giants’ chances?
- Team Rankings is projecting the Giants to win 4.3 games and giving then an 8.5 percent chance of winning the division.
- ESPN’s Football Power Index is projecting 3.9 victories, with a 4.6 percent chance of winning the division.
- FiveThirtyEight’s Elo forecast is projecting four wins for the Giants with a 9 percent chance of winning the division.
It’s nice to have something for the players and the fan base to feel hopeful about. All of this, though, is part of the reason why the Giants need to be cognizant of not doing anything short-sighted at the trade deadline that might harm the team’s long-term growth.
The Giants are in contention, sort of. Even moreso if they defeat the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night. They aren’t, though, really a contending team. Being the least-worst team in an embarrassingly awful division can’t be the goal. The Giants, hopefully, have a long-range objective that is bigger than that.