The New York Giants (2-11) return from their bye week to take on the Washington Commanders (3-10) Sunday at MetLife Stadium. Despite losing seven straight, the Giants are currently favored to win because they’re facing a Commanders team that lost eight straight, and that will be without quarterback Jayden Daniels.
Some fans may want the team to lose to enhance their chances of landing the number one overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. But the team doesn’t have that mentality. Jaxson Dart was asked what he expects to accomplish over the final four weeks of the season, his response was “Win”.
Here are three things to keep an eye on for Sunday’s game.
What new wrinkles will Mike Kafka implement into the offense?
After going 0-3 since being named interim head coach, it’s highly doubtful that the team will make Mike Kafka their next head coach for the 2026 season. But as we saw in Hard Knocks this week, he’s preparing his team to win their remaining games.
The best way to accomplish this would be to open up the offensive playbook and have an aggressive and fast-paced offense. He’s had two weeks to prepare for this game, so we should see a creative and innovative offense on Sunday against Washington’s 30th-ranked defense.
Expect the 38-year-old interim head coach and offensive coordinator Tim Kelly to utilize Dart’s physical attributes and dial up RPOs, and plays that we haven’t seen thus far in 2025. If the offense provides a spark, it will bode well for Kafka to be an offensive coordinator either with the Giants or another team in 2026.
Related: 2025 NFL Report Card: Grading All 32 Teams Before Week 15
Giants’ defense finally comes to life
There are numerous reasons why New York is 2-11 and hasn’t won a game in over two months. But the defense has taken the brunt of the blame for blowing fourth-quarter leads. Most noticeable in Week 7 when they allowed the Denver Broncos to score 33 points in the fourth quarter in their 33-32 loss.
New York has the 31st-ranked defense in the league and has allowed opponents to score at least 27 points in six out of their last seven games. The defensive woes led to the firings of head coach Brian Daboll, defensive coordinator Shane Bowen, and last week, the team parted ways with assistant defensive line coach Bryan Cox.
With the exception of Brian Burns, who is second in the NFL in sacks with 13, there have been few positives on the defensive side of the ball.
If ever there was a week for the defense to finally show signs of life, it’s this week as they face a team that was shut out 31-0 last week by the (5-8) Minnesota Vikings. In addition, the Commanders will be without quarterback Jayden Daniels, who re-aggravated his elbow injury, and they’ll be without tight end Zach Ertz, who suffered a torn ACL last week.
If interim defensive coordinator Charlie Bullen is unable to have his unit put forth a solid showing, it will be another black eye in an already disastrous season.
Will MetLife Stadium be half-empty?
The Giants’ fanbase has every right to be annoyed and disappointed at what they’ve seen from their team for the last decade and a half. The frustration is boiling over as the team has lost 25 of its last 30 games, and there doesn’t seem to be hope in sight.
Many fans are pointing to Joe Schoen as the culprit for the recent demise and are baffled that the 46-year-old general manager is still employed.
In the past, fans have voiced their displeasure by having a plane fly over the stadium with a message to ownership: Clean house or sell the team. Others have just decided not to attend games and sell their tickets.
With the chance of adverse weather conditions on Sunday, it will be interesting to see if MetLife Stadium is half-empty despite the fact that New York is favored to win its first game since October 9th.
