Are the New York Giants about to embrace a rebuild?

Tag decisions on Saquon Barkley, Xavier McKinney show they might be

If you read between the lines of the moves the New York Giants made — or didn’t make — at the franchise tag deadline, and all of the chatter about what they might do at quarterback this offseason, there is an inference that can be drawn.

The Giants might not be thinking about 2024. They might be thinking about a long-term plan. GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll might be thinking about the dreaded ‘R’ word. Yup, rebuild, in the event I need to spell that out for you.

Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post brought up the specter of the Giants perhaps embracing a full-scale rebuild during an appearance Wednesday on the ‘Valentine’s Views’ podcast.

“I’m going to assume Joe Schoen has a plan,” Dunleavy said. ”If you have a plan and one move kind of foreshadows another move then yesterday [the franchise tag deadline day] kind of signals a rebuild.

“We’re going to let our 24-year-old safety go. We’re going to let our best offensive playmaker go. Maybe they come back to us, maybe they don’t, but we’re going to invest in the offensive line and maybe at corner.

“To me that kind of signals ‘we know we have some time here. We’re not under win-now pressure in 2024.’”

Schoen and Daboll clearly came to the Giants in 2022 thinking they had a rebuild on their hands. Schoen didn’t want to call it that, but the Giants had been tied for the worst record in football for the previous five seasons, and hadn’t won a playoff game since the 2011 Super Bowl run.

They came in talking about the long-term process of building something sustainable and how that wouldn’t happen overnight, especially with a salary cap mess to dig out from under.

Then, 2022 happened. The Giants somehow made the playoffs, and won a playoff game. Daniel Jones had the only truly good season of his career.

Rather than blowing things up and starting over with a new quarterback, which is almost certainly what Schoen and Daboll figured to be doing in 2023, they ended up re-signing Jones, franchise-tagging Saquon Barkley and making a trade for veteran tight end Darren Waller.

Schoen has freely admitted that circumstances being what they were he tried to expedite the process. In other words, he tried to skip some of the building stage and jump to the ‘maybe if we do a couple of things we can be a contender’ stage.

Then, 2023 happened. The Giants crashed back to earth. They received a harsh reality check. They aren’t a contender. They don’t have nearly enough building blocks in place. Jones’ 2022 season might have been the best it’s going to get with him at quarterback. Some of the building blocks Schoen thought he put in place over two drafts aren’t carrying their weight.

There is a ton of work to be done.

If that is going to be the case, why pay a 27-year-old running back who has likely already played his best football big money? Even one who has meant what Barkley has meant to the franchise? After all, Schoen didn’t draft him. Why pay a safety, even a good, young one like McKinney, more money than you are comfortable paying a player at his position?

What about quarterback? If you are going to rebuild, or at least not worry about 2024, why not go all-in to get a quarterback for the long haul? Maybe the Giants are “completely done” with Jones. Maybe that’s Rich Eisen hearing that from someone in Indianapolis who had had a few too many cocktails and deciding to put it out there for the attention. I don’t know.

I do think that, regardless of what you, me, Louis Riddick, Dan Orlovsky, Dave Gettleman or anyone else thinks of Jones things are trending toward a post-Jones era beginning for the Giants in 2025.

So, if Schoen thinks Drake Maye or J.J. McCarthy is the right guy to lead that era and is focused more on the future than the present, then he can justify using the sixth pick in the draft — or forfeiting whatever draft capital is necessary — to get the quarterback of the future to stake his legacy, and the franchise’s future, on.

“Coming out of Indy I thought they were going to try to trade up into the top three, not be able to trade into the top three and then have to decide if they want to wait to see if J.J. McCarthy is there at 6 or trade up to 4 or 5 to get J.J. McCarthy,” Dunleavy said. “I thought it was J.J. McCarthy or nothing out of the top four. If it was nothing, draft [Malik] Nabers or [Rome] Odunze and then use your second pick, whether that’s actually 37 or you move up to late in the first round and you pick a Bo Nix or a Michael Penix.”

With the idea that the Giants are giving off “rebuild” vibes, quarterback early — at whatever cost — might be the way to go. Dunleavy said he would “lean toward” the expectation that the Giants take a quarterback after the way they treated the tag deadline.

“If you’re signaling a new start then you probably want a new quarterback to build around,” Dunleavy said. “If you are doing that then you’re OK with the idea that two of your top assets as a franchise, a first-round draft pick in the top 10 and a $40 million contract, one of those guys is on the bench while you’re playing sub-par players at like four other starting positions because you have a premium asset that’s sitting on the bench when that premium asset should be starting at right tackle or cornerback one or wide receiver one.”

It is an argument that makes sense, and the way the Giants have thus far treated the offseason lends it some credibility.

If you think it would be foolish to give up a high volume of draft assets for a quarterback, remember 2004. The Giants traded Philip Rivers and three draft picks to get Eli Manning. They were left with only four draft picks in 2005, but hit home runs with Corey Webster, Justin Tuck and Brandon Jacobs.

The payoff for the Manning move did not come immediately, but it did come in the form of 2007 and 2011 Super Bowl titles.

Then-GM Ernie Accorsi and head coach Tom Coughlin knew in 2004 that they had time to make that move. There was no ‘win-now’ expectation.

Do Schoen and Daboll think they have that time? Or, do they think they have to do whatever they can to cobble together enough 2024 victories to still have their jobs in 2025?

Dunleavy’s take is that Schoen and Daboll believe they have time.

“I’ve gotta think they’re not [in win-now mode] if they made the moves they made yesterday,” Dunleavy said of the Barkley and McKinney decisions. “If I was under win-now pressure I’m not letting my best players walk out the door.”

We will see how it plays out, but this week’s tag deadline decisions might indicate a long-term approach. What the Giants do at quarterback could confirm it.