The NY Giants are a year behind the Eagles. How to close the gap (Opinion)

It was the last game of the horrendous 2020 season. Fans weren't allowed to attend games due to the pandemic, and for both Giants and Eagles fans, that was a good thing.

In what could have been described as an ugly Christmas miracle, the Giants had a chance to win the NFC East with a 6-10 record under new head coach, Joe Judge. All they needed was for the Eagles to beat the Washington Football team. Thankfully for Giants fans, they did not.

We all remember Eagles head coach, Doug Pederson, tanking the game in what would turn out to be his last game as head coach of the Birds. Pederson was later fired, and the Eagles cleaned house of quarterback Carson Wentz, as well. They brought in Indianapolis Colts assistant, Nick Siriani, who was saddled with a ton of salary, and were not expected to make the playoffs. They did, primarily by running the ball with quarterback Jalen Hurts, who many questioned as a starting quarterback. They're not doing that anymore.

This year, blessed with a ton of cap space, the Eagles were able to trade for and sign players like AJ Brown, Hassan Reddick, Kyzir White, James Bradberry, Chauncey Garner Johnson and most recently, Robert Quinn.

For the Giants, not winning the division turned out to be a good thing. If they had done so, it would have made it harder to fire the team of head coach, Joe Judge, and general manager, Dave Gettleman, after last year's disastrous 4-12 season.

Instead, they bring in former Buffalo Bills general manager, Joe Shoen, and Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll as head coach. The Giants, with very little salary cap money to work with, find themselves at 6-2 primarily by running the ball with Saquon Barkley and quarterback Daniel Jones, who many, including the Giants management, question as a starting quarterback.

Next year, the Giants are projected to have roughly 63.6 million in cap space, per overthecap.com. 

If they continue to follow in the Eagle's footsteps, next year could be big for Big Blue as this year's Eagles are probably going deep into the playoffs, if not the Super Bowl. It will be fun watching Joe Shoen and Eagles Vice President and General Manager Howie Roseman add to their respective rosters.

If the Giants are going to follow the Eagle's path, the first thing they need to do is find a wide receiver. If they could get one by the Nov. 1 trade deadline, it would go a long way in closing the gap between these two teams when they play each other on Dec. 11, which could be flexed to a Sunday night game.

The biggest difference for the Eagle's offense this year is the addition of AJ Brown, who had three touchdown catches against the Pittsburg Steelers on Sunday. Steelers are led by Central Jersey quarterback Kenny Pickett.

Can it be done with the limited cap space the Giants have? It needs to be. The Giants have squeezed everything they can out of their run-based offense. If they're going to truly get an assessment of Daniel Jones, as the Eagles did with Jalen Hurts, they've got to see him operate with some weapons.

Like last year's Eagles team, no one expected this year's Giants team to be this good. Based on that, they owe it to their long-suffering fans to try to make a run right now and get them the wide receiver to do it. Here's hoping they can.

If not, and the Giants continue to follow the Eagles path, next year should be great for Big Blue.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Steve Trevelise only. Follow him on Twitter @realstevetrev.

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