This Giants season is over from a competitive win and loss standpoint.
A third straight season with a 2-6 record after eight games means a third consecutive season of irrelevance for Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll.
The Giants once again have been scared off the NFL’s radar before Halloween.
Schoen and Daboll are still desperate to win more games, though, given their .347 regular season win percentage (20-38-1) as the franchise’s GM and head coach.
And Jaxson Dart, their exciting rookie quarterback, remains determined to pick this team up off the mat despite season-ending injuries to top weapons Malik Nabers and Cam Skattebo.
So the temptation for Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka is going to be to lean as heavily as possible on Dart’s promise and ability to save this season — and themselves.
But Daboll, Kafka and the Giants need to resist that temptation. They need to do the opposite.
They need to find a smart way to support Dart and compete as a team without taking unnecessary risks with their rookie quarterback’s future.
They need to continue developing him but be wise about how they deploy him. They can’t overexpose Dart and damage his confidence.
They can’t let the tent fold up on their team with Dart inside it. And they have to help the rookie get something out of this season’s final nine games other than treading water until the misery mercifully ends in January.
That means, above all, protecting Dart’s physical health with smart playcalling — something Daboll and Kafka did not do at the end of Sunday’s game.
Dart came back onto the field with 5:59 remaining and the Eagles leading, 38-13, in a game that was clearly over.
Philadelphia took its starters out on defense. Daboll and Kafka sent out their first-string offense. Then Daboll and Kafka called two designed Dart quarterback runs on the goal line.
Dart got smacked hard on his first carry by Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. Then he took more contact from Eagles linebacker Smael Mondon Jr. as he bowled into the end zone for a 2-yard touchdown run.
This put Dart at unnecessary risk for no reason, other than to make the final score look better. And the Giants did it on a day when they already had lost Skattebo to a horrific dislocated right ankle injury that required immediate surgery on Sunday night.
Dart’s mobility obviously is his biggest weapon, so he’ll use his legs in future games, beginning this Sunday when the Giants (2-6) host the San Francisco 49ers (5-3) at MetLife Stadium. But Daboll and Kafka have to be the adults in the room here.
They are going to be tempted to put more on Dart’s plate and to turn him loose. But they have to protect him from himself.
They need to run the ball with Tyrone Tracy Jr., Devin Singletary and Dante ‘Turbo’ Miller if they call him up from the practice squad.
They need to create better protection schemes than they ran in Philly.
They may need to put Dart under center more often.
They need to remind Dart that while extending plays is a strength of his, he cannot try to put on his Superman cape and take unnecessary extra shots while trying to hit a home run downfield.
That’s what happened when Eagles linebacker Jihaad Campbell had Dart’s ankle wrapped on a fourth quarter blitz and Dart stayed upright and held the ball for a throwaway.
Eagles edge Josh Uche teed off on Dart from behind and knocked out a fumble recovered by Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis. The Giants only retained the ball after a review overturned the call to an incompletion.
The Giants’ defense, led by coordinator Shane Bowen, also needs to keep these games tighter and lower scoring so the team’s weekly plan isn’t to just let Dart run around the field seeking a big play to bail them out.
Keeping Dart on the field, healthy enough to run the offense, has to be the Giants’ priority. The NFL trade deadline could become a part of the story of how the Giants support Dart best, too.
Dealing premium assets for a receiver at this juncture would seem wasteful for the organization’s future, since that would not turn this into a playoff team or anything close.
But it would be no surprise if Schoen and Daboll did that, considering their desperation, and it might give Dart a way to get to this season’s finish line in one piece.
Or maybe they’ll just elevate Ray-Ray McCloud off the practice squad on Sunday against the 49ers and see if they can help Dart weather the storm.
However they do it, the Giants need a cohesive plan. And that plan needs to be centered around getting the most out of this season for Dart while not putting him at unnecessary risk and dragging his psyche and future down with this 2025 season and this regime.