NFL power rankings: Giants enter preseason near the bottom

It’s that time of the week: NFL Power Rankings. The New York Giants kick off their preseason slate Thursday night in Foxboro, Mass. (7:30 p.m., NFL Network/NBC4). Head coach Brian Daboll said recently that he expects everyone who is healthy enough to play at least some snaps vs. New England.

But what about national media? What are they saying about the Giants? As expected, they aren’t particularly high on Big Blue, deservedly so after last season.

We aggregate several different websites and their power rankings, turning the spotlight on the G-Men. Here’s what their saying this week:

NFL Football Power Index 2022: 22nd (-4.1 FPI)

The Giants currently sport a -4.1 FPI. It’s expected point margin versus average opponent on neutral field. The top-ranked Buffalo Bills, by contrast, sport a 9.4 FPI.

Touchdown Wire (USA Today): 27th

The Giants have a new general manager in Joe Schoen and a new head coach in Brian Daboll, so perhaps those two guys can right the ship for a team that hasn’t sniffed the playoffs since 2016, and hasn’t won a playoff game since they bagged Super Bowl XLVI at the end of the 2011 season.

Some coaching continuity would help. Big Blue has cycled through five head coaches since Tom Coughlin’s time ended in 2015. Ownership has tended to go with overwhelmed autocrats, and Daboll isn’t that, so there’s an improvement right there.

Daboll got this job primarily because, as the Bills’ offensive coordinator, he was able to help Josh Allen transform from a toolsy unknown to one of the game’s best quarterbacks. Now, he’ll turn his attention to Daniel Jones, who is nowhere near as toolsy, but is equally unknown as an NFL prospect. This is Jones’ fourth season, the team didn’t pick up his fifth-year option, so if things don’t go well here, expect wholesale changes in 2023. (History suggests that things will not go well). Perhaps that’s when Daboll gets his guy (whoever that may be), and the rebuilding process can accelerate.

Sporting News: 26th

The other New York team has some more offensive promise with Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka as the new collaborators and the defense keeps collecting playmakers. Whether they can climb out of the AFC East cellar depends on Daniel Jones making vs. breaking.

For The Win: 30th

Notable additions: Kayvon Thibodeaux (DE), Evan Neal (OT), Wan’Dale Robinson (WR), Tyrod Taylor (QB)

Notable departures: Evan Engram (TE), Nate Solder (OT), Will Hernandez (G)

2021 record and finish: 4-13 (missed playoffs)

New York’s immensely easy schedule could ultimately hamper plans to replace Daniel Jones. The Giants may win more games than you expect, but this is still a bad team staring up at its future — one now in the hands of first-year coach Brian Daboll.

NFL.com: 26th

I know I’m not the only one buying into an offensive resurgence for the Giants. Daniel Jones has enjoyed some inspired moments in training camp, and his cast of playmakers (Kenny Golladay, Kadarius Toney, Wan’Dale Robinson) is pretty frisky. With an improved offensive line and a finally-healthy Saquon Barkley, is it crazy to think New York could hang around in the wide-open NFC East? Yeah, yeah, talk is cheap — and so is August football. But at the very least, the G-Men have the potential to be watchable on offense in 2022. That’s a vast upgrade from where we were last fall.