Last season, the New York Giants took a significant step backward. After surprisingly making the playoffs in the first year of the Brian Daboll era in 2022, the Giants saw their record drop from 9-7-1 to just 6-11, with rampant injuries, poor offensive line play, even worse quarterback play, and general inconsistency and ineffectiveness at nearly every other position resulting in New York being one of the NFL's worst teams on both sides of the ball.
But things are looking up heading into 2024. At least, that's what second-year wide receiver Jalin Hyatt thinks.
"New year, new opportunities, new goals. For me, I always set high expectations," Hyatt said, via SNY. "Just looking at our team, looking at what we got -- for goals, I just want a team goal. We have a playoff team. That's what we want to do. That's our focus and we're gonna get there."
Drafted in the third round a year ago, Hyatt caught 23 passes for 373 scoreless yards during his rookie campaign. New York added former LSU star Malik Nabers with the No. 6 overall pick in this year's draft, and also has Wan'Dale Robinson, Darius Slayton, and free-agent signing Allen Robinson in the receiver room with Hyatt.
But the Giants still have Daniel Jones at quarterback, and he is coming off an ACL tear. If he falters, his backup is Drew Lock. New York brought in Brian Burns to upgrade the pass rush and hired Shane Bowen to replace Wink Martindale as the defensive coordinator, and it also added a pair of rookies in Tyler Nubin and Dre Phillips to solidify the secondary.
Still, it seems like a long shot that the Giants will be an above-average unit on either side of the ball, let alone both of them. And that's usually what a team needs to make a playoff run. It's one thing for Hyatt to have confidence in his team, but it's another thing for the team to actually justify it on the field.
