Oddsmaker has New York Giants favored in only two 2020 games

If a full 16-game schedule is played during the 2020 NFL season, how many games will the New York Giants win? It’s worth pondering as we wait for the official schedule release on Thursday night, and something we can look at in an informed way since we already know who the Giants’ opponents will be.

We even had a question on this top that came to the Big Blue View Mailbag in recent days.

Johnny48 asks: In the “way too early” predictions department, what is your best guess as to wins this season, basing it on a full schedule?

Even though I have faith in the “new regime”, these are some comments, opinions, etc. written recently on Gmen and other reputable blogs:

- They should be favored in only (1) game all year (believe it was Washington @ home).

- Have not seen anything above 26th in any power rankings.

- Most prognosticators seem to be in the 4 - 6 range.

What is a reasonable expectation?

So what is a reasonable 2020 expectation?

Our partners at Draft Kings are not exactly bullish on the Giants with their current game spreads showing the Giants favored in only two of 16 games as of right now. The Giants are favored at home against Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals and against Dwayne Haskins and the Washington Redskins.

That’s it.

Should we really expect just a two-win season for the Giants in Joe Judge’s first year as head coach?

I am not going to go game-by-game here, but I have to believe that this Giants team will do better than 2-14.

That said, I don’t think anyone should be looking for a dramatic turnaround that results in a magical double-digit victory season.

I have said many times and will continue to say that I believe the league shutdown caused by COVID-19 is a huge disadvantage for a team like the Giants with a rookie head coach. No matter how things work out going forward, the Giants will never get back the spring and summer on-field time they will lose because of the pandemic.

There is simply no way they can be as prepared to play as a team with a veteran coach, veteran players and established systems.

Before the draft, Judge was playing the “everyone is in the same boat” card.

“I think the advantage goes to whoever is best prepared from this point forward. I don’t think any established program is at an advantage over anybody else,” Judge said. “It’s how you can find a way to communicate with your players and deliver a message. Whether you’ve been in the program for years or not, everyone has changes to their system, everybody has changes to what they’re going to be doing in the offseason. They’re going to have the same challenges of communicating to their players.”

Maybe so, but if you picture getting to shore as the goal then the Giants are starting a whole lot farther out at sea than many of the teams they will compete against.

The Giants want to be better, they need to be better after winning only 12 games combined the past three seasons. Only winning two games? That would be disastrous, and I believe the Giants will be better than that.

Realistically, though, I think they would be ecstatic to finish 7-9 or 8-8 and feel like a solid foundation for the Judge tenure as head coach is in place.