With the 2024 NFL regular season in its final stretch, New York, other than Buffalo, is wishing for the season to finish today. The Buffalo Bills are the only New York State NFL team that actually looks like a professional football team. The New York Football Giants hold a record of 2-10 while the New York Jets sit at 3-9. These two teams are similarly sickening to watch, without much improvement expected soon.
New York Giants
Although the Giants began their 2024 season with limited postseason hopes, they’ve managed to perform below expectations nearly every week. Daniel Jones, a first-round pick in the 2019 draft, began the season as the starting quarterback, in the second year of his new 4-year $160 million deal. Jones struggled immensely, starting ten games and only winning two, throwing for just eight touchdowns but being intercepted seven times. He was cut from the team after a Week 10 overtime loss to the supposed worst team in the league, the Carolina Panthers. In the loss, Jones only completed 59% of his passes for 190 yards and two interceptions.
The Giants have since turned to backups Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito, each of whom has started and lost once, most recently losing 27-20 to Cooper Rush and the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving. The Giants are now last in the entire NFC, averaging just over 15 points scored per game. In the remaining games, don’t expect the Giants to come close to winning. Instead, expect them to finish the season 2-15 and draft a quarterback with the first pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Early projections expect them to select either Cam Ward out of Miami or Shedeur Sanders of Colorado. It remains to be seen whether or not Brian Daboll will maintain his coaching job.
New York Jets
The New York Jets entered the 2024 season with playoff and Super Bowl expectations. With future hall-of-famer Aaron Rodgers as the quarterback, star offensive players Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson, an improved offensive line and an elite defense led by Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner, nothing could possibly prevent them from at least finishing the season with more wins than losses. However, an 84% chance to make the playoffs after a 24-3 win over the New England Patriots in Week 3 has since plummeted to <1%. What went wrong? Everything.
A 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers has performed well below expectations, earning an 88.9 quarterback rating, his lowest ever; the offensive line has allowed much more pressure than expected; what was expected to be one of the best defenses has quickly become an average defense; even kicker Greg Zuerlein struggled, as he made just 60% of his field goals before getting injured.
The Jets have been upset by the Broncos, the Steelers, the Patriots, the Cardinals and the Colts, and are currently where they’ve lost seven of their last eight games. Jets owner Woody Johnson made multiple coaching changes early in the season before all hope was lost. Head Coach Robert Saleh was fired after a Week 5 23-17 loss to Minnesota and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich was promoted to interim coach. That same week, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett was demoted and quarterbacks coach Todd Downing began calling plays.
The Jets’ 2024 playoffs hopes are officially no longer as of their Week 13 26-21 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, but some 2025 decisions remain a mystery. The Jets may opt to give Rodgers another season, but they may also draft their third quarterback in seven years. Whatever the Jets decide to do about their quarterback, major personnel changes are expected, including a new coach and a new general manager.
It may be wise to temper all Jets and Giants expectations in the coming years. Despite a likely fancy, new quarterback coming for the Giants to excite the fans, the offensive line will remain weak enough to make any quarterback play like Tim Boyle. Similarly, no matter who is throwing the ball for the Jets next season, the constant one-yard-throws will never become first downs. Going forward, the only players who can be expected to overperform from the Jets and Giants are the punters.