This past September, there were reasonably high expectations among the New York football teams and their fans that when they reached the final weekend of the regular season, they would be looking ahead to making a run in the playoffs.
Instead, they will be dashing towards their winter vacations after falling well short of reaching postseason play. The 5-11 Giants will host the Philadelphia Eagles at MelLife Stadium on Sunday (4:25 p.m.) and the 6-10 Jets will end their campaign Sunday on the road facing the New England Patriots.
It has been an emotionally and physically painful four months for the Giants and Jets. Both of their starting quarterbacks suffered season-ending injuries. The Jets Aaron Rodgers ruptured his left Achilles in the opening game four snaps into season and the Giants’ Daniel Jones, who had already sat Weeks 6 through 8 with a neck injury, returned in Week 9 but tore the ACL in right knee.
The Jets’ offense was rendered impotent after Rodgers went out and the Giants, with backup Tyrod Taylor having suffered four broken ribs in Week 8 against the Jets, keeping him on injured reserve for four weeks, lacked consistent production.
The result is that going into their final games, the Giants hold the No. 5 pick in April’s NFL Draft and the Jets No. 8.
Giants head coach Brian Daboll was asked how he and the players will handle an off-season that is filled with uncertainty, notably the status of running back Saquon Barkley, who like last year will have his contract expire.
“Yeah, we focus on the opponent we are playing, doing as well as we can do, that’s the stuff that we’re focused on as a coaching staff and the players,” he said, deflecting from the major storyline surrounding the franchise.
“The business side of things, they’ll take care of themselves, but during the season we’re just locked into our opponent, doing what we need to do, practicing, preparing. That’s where all our focus is.”
Jets linebacker Quincy Williams had a similar take.
“No one is checked out or anything like that,” said Williams, via the Jets’ website. “The biggest thing right now is preparing and putting our best tape out there.”
The Jets will also be confronted with consequential personnel decisions. Do they draft a quarterback with their high pick in preparation for him to replace the 40-year-old Rodgers when he retires or precaution in the event of another injury?
Certainly both teams will be in complete reset mode.