Previewing Philadelphia’s Week 16 matchup.
The Philadelphia Eagles (7-7) are hosting the New York Giants (4-10) at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday. In order to preview this Week 16 game, I reached out to our enemies over at Big Blue View. The excellent Emily Iannaconi kindly took the time to answer my questions about this upcoming tilt. Let’s take a look at the answers.
1. Albert Breer said he doesn’t think Daniel Jones will be back with the Giants and it could be Russell Wilson replacing him. How realistic do you think a Wilson trade is? And would it be a mistake for the Giants to pay the price to acquire him?
The question of what the Giants should do about Daniel Jones will be asked frequently this offseason. Though we cannot know for sure, I do think that we can expect Jones to be back next year. And even if he did not return back for some reason, I do not think a trade with the disgruntled Russell Wilson is the answer.
New York has the draft capital to make some team a compelling offer as they own two first-round draft picks. But a top-tier QB would likely require not only this year’s first-round picks but potentially a 2023 first-rounder. In addition to the draft capital required, quarterbacks are costly and the Giants do not have the cap space to take on expensive contracts like Wilson’s. His base salary in 2022 is $19 million and that number grows to $22 million in 2023. The 2022 salary cap is expected to be about $208.2 million and Over The Cap estimates that the Giants are already expected to be $9.118 million over that number. A trade for Wilson puts them in just too deep of a hole.
2. There are rumors that Joe Judge is safe to return in 2022. Big Blue View has written about the Giants’ desire to get off changing coaches so often. But could there be concern that Judge’s job security might be based on sunk cost fallacy? What encouraging signs has he shown?
The Giants organization really wants to be right about Joe Judge and for that reason alone, he likely gets another year in New York to prove himself. That being said, the encouraging signs are few and far between. Judge has a 10-20 record as head coach of the Giants and it doesn’t help that he inherited a struggling team. Now, the Giants have posted five straight seasons with 10 or more losses. But even still, Judge has not shown many signs of improvement either on the field in his game management and aggressiveness or in his press conferences off of it. Accountability starts at the top and ideally trickles down. But Judge remains steadfast in his belief that there are signs of improvement each week in this Giants team. The on-field product doesn’t reflect that and the frustration continues to mount for the Giants.
3 – Big Blue View wrote about how Giants vice president of football operations Kevin Abram could potentially replace Dave Gettleman. Do the Giants really have answers in-house? Or should they be seriously looking for an outside hire at GM? Any specific names or teams you’d like to see them hire from?
The Giants should cast a wide net when it comes to their GM search, meaning they should at least look outside of the organization. Kevin Abrams is the most obvious candidate and he deserves an interview as someone who has been in the organization for 23 years and been an assistant general manager for 20 years. Abrams also received an interview before the Giants hired Gettleman. But the problems with this Giants team are deep-rooted and I think it would benefit the organization to get some outside perspective. Candidates like DuJuan Daniels, Monti Ossenfort and Scott Pioli are all worth considering. Daniels was a member of the Patriots’ scouting department for 13 seasons before becoming the assistant director of player personnel for the Raiders. Ossenfort spent 15 years with the Patriots and Pioli is a five-time NFL Executive of the Year.
The Giants should consider all of their options because whomever they hire will be tasked with turning this team around from the ground up.
4 – The Giants’ outlook for the rest of this season looks bleak. What positives are NYG fans realistically looking for in the final three games? Any players for them to specifically watch?
The Giants do not have much to play for in the final three games of the season. But I think the most exciting player to keep an eye on is Jake Fromm. Backup QB Mike Glennon, in for the injured Daniel Jones, performed particularly badly when New York hosted the Cowboys at MetLife, throwing three interceptions and finishing with a passer rating below 25.0. Judge has not made it clear yet but Fromm should get the start for the Giants on Sunday. New York is clearly in the market for a backup QB and there’s no reason (yet) that it can’t be the former Bulldog.
Linebacker Lorenzo Carter is another guy to keep an eye on because he played arguably the best game of his career last week. Carter sacked Prescott twice, forced a fumble, had a pass defended and recorded three quarterback hits.
5 – Who wins this game and why? Score prediction?
The Eagles win this game, 24-10. Between injuries and players on the reserve/COVID-19 list, the Giants enter Sunday’s game very short handed. But the bigger reason Philly will win is that the Eagles have much more to play for. After defeating the Washington Football Team on Tuesday and improving to 7-7, the Eagles are in the thick of the postseason race. They need to win to keep their playoff hopes alive and that motivation alone should propel them to an easy victory over the Giants on their home turf.