right now is Dan Duggan. Dan covers the Giants as a senior writer at The Athletic.

You can follow Dan on X on Twitter at D. D. D. Duggan 21.

The Giants, of course, come in here Sunday for the season opener.

Currently, they are six-point underdogs.

I want to start with just kind of a big picture,

Dan, for the Giants in 2025. Are Brian Daible and Joe Shane in win or else mode? And if so,

what does winning or else look like?

No, it's a very interesting question.

It's actually something I wrote about on the athletic today, because I think what happens,

you know, every off-season, it's kind of swept up in the positive vibes, and there's a lot

of them around the Giants.

They figured they, you know, totally remade their quarterback room.

It's kind of like a fresh start. Now, Daniel Jones has gone. They've added some talent on defense. So everything's feeling great. But then you remember, this is a team that went 3 and 14 last year. Ownership had to put out a statement the Monday after the finale announcing they weren't firing the head coach in GM. and then, you know,

the coroner John Mara

gave a press comment

that Monday morning

basically saying, like, you know, call on to John Mara, they gave a press comment that Monday morning basically saying, like, you know, they got a winner else. I mean, he knows your words, and he didn't exactly say that, but he basically said, you know, he's run out of patience, so, you know, you can interpret that how you will. So now we fast-for, whatever it's been, you know, eight, nine months. I don't think there's like a, they have to hit X amount of wins to be back for a 50 year. But I also think, I mean, they're in year four here. This isn't year two, if I'm in year three. We're in year four. I think it's reasonable to expect some tangible results. And, you know, of course, this regime got off to that good start, the totally totally unexpected start there in year one, and it's been just sliding the other way. So, I don't know, it's nuanced, though, because you add in the Jackson Dark Factor, so if you win six games, but three of them are by him late in the season, he looks great, then I think obviously they'll be back. But if you're just kind of like back in that 5 and 12 range, 6 and 11 range, and it's dark it's in, it doesn't look like anything special, I don't know. I think that's very complicated. And I mean, they certainly can't afford another three or four win type season. I can't imagine how you justify bringing them back. So, yeah, like I would say that yes, they should be expected to win, but I do think

it's kind of a clouded picture, especially when you add in the rookie quarterback, and I know

they don't want to kind of repeat the Daniel Jones era where they fired Pat Shermer after one

year, and they think that kind of contributed to Jones not building on any of the promise he showed

early in his career. You know, it's reminding me so much of Jay Gruden's final year in D.C. was 2019.

And before the season started, it was like, yeah, he has to win.

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