One of the New York Giants captains took aim at his coaches after a horrible loss in Week 9. Claiming they are tuning out the thoughts and advice of the team’s locker room leaders.
After such a positive showing in 2022, as the team was one of the big surprises in the NFL en route to a playoff birth, 2023 has been a disaster for the Giants. After another loss on Sunday, the team heads into Week 10 tied for the second-worst record in the NFL standings at 2-7.
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Injuries have, of course, had a major effect on their performance this year — especially on offense. And that showed up again in Week 9 as starting quarterback Daniel Jones suffered a likely season-ending ACL tear. Yet, what ails the Giants this year is far deeper than injury woes.
There are clear differences in effectiveness and execution between this year’s team and the successful group in 2022. The same could be said about some of the decisions the staff has made in terms of playcalling and on the depth chart, and it seems things have hit a head.
New York Giants captain claims coaching staff is tuning out opinions of leaders on defense
Following New York’s embarrassing 30-6 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders this weekend, ESPN Giants reporter Jordan Raanan spoke with safety Xavier McKinney, one of the team’s 10 captains, and he unloaded some of his frustrations over an apparent disconnect between the coaching staff and the locker room leaders.
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“Honestly, it sucks, but, I don’t know, man,” McKinney said about the Giants’ latest loss. “I don’t really have many words. I think that from a leadership standpoint, I don’t think they’ve done a great job of letting the leaders lead and listening to the leaders and the captains…It was one of those things where you have some of your leaders, captains from a defensive standpoint, trying to switch things up. And just not really being heard.
“I don’t know. There are other things that we could’ve done. Like I said, the execution stuff could’ve been better,” he added about failings on defense. “But when you got guys out there that are playing and seeing different things and are being vocal and communicating that with the coaches and whoever and are not being heard, it’s hard to go out there and be able to make plays and do things of that nature.”
The New York Giants schedule does not get any easier in Week 10 when they head to Dallas for a matchup with the Cowboys.