One of the most common questions this NFL season has been who's worse, the Giants or the Jets? Now I don't like either team so I don't have a bias in this debate. Both teams were very hyped up at the start of the season. They both had very high expectations. The Giants came from a great season at 9-8 and one playoff win. The Jets had a relatively disappointing season last year finishing 4-13. They both have great coaches and the Giants have the reigning Coach of The Year. It is a new season, and both teams have been disappointing. But the question is who's worse?

The Jets were the most hyped-up team going into this season. They acquired the ex-Green Bay Packer, and future Hall of Famer, Aaron Rodgers. They had a few off-season acquisitions but nothing close to as big as Rodgers. Not only that but they had the previous Rookie of The Year, Garret Wilson. Rodgers and Wilson were going to be one of the best wide receiver and quarterback duos in the league. The Jets had Super Bowl aspirations and a serious chance to make a run in the playoffs. But In the second play of the season's opening game, Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles. The world was shocked. Now they ended up winning that game with the backup quarterback Zach Wilson. He was the second pick in the 2021 draft. He's labeled as one of the biggest “busts” ever, which means that he didn't turn out to be nearly as good as he was supposed to be. He is yet to lead the Jets to a winning season. Now he did end up beating the bills when Rodgers got injured which was a big win for him. After that game people started to think “Maybe Zach isn't all that bad” but in week 14, Zach got benched for the fourth-string quarterback Trever Simion. Every Jets fan is still in awe about what happened. But looking at the Jet's success throughout the season hasn't been as bad as it's made out to be. They have one of the most feared defenses in the league. Amahd “Sauce” Gardner is the reigning Defensive Rookie of The Year. They have one of the best defensive lines in the league led by Quinnen Williams. This defense is one of the best, but they can't win many games due to their bad offense. But every once in a while Zach Wilson will have a great game and show great signs of improvement but then quickly revert to his old self. The Jets ended the season standing at 7-10. This was not the season Jets fans, nor players were expecting. They had so much potential at the beginning of the season. And even towards the end of the season, Rodgers was supposedly going to come back and play if they had playoff hopes. Which didn't end up happening. In the end, this was a very disappointing season.

The New York Giants are coming off of a great season last year and have high hopes to repeat their success. This team on paper looks pretty bad but New York fans always have high hopes. Their quarterback Daniel Jones has led the league in turnovers over the past couple of seasons. Their defense has been mediocre at best. In the offseason, they acquired a brand new defensive coordinator, Don “Wink” Martindale, in hopes that he would create a top-10 defense. The offseason for the Giants went well. They acquired two rookies who will be starters, Jaylin Hyatt, and Deontae Banks. They also acquired a former first-round pick, Isiah Simmons. Going into week one of the 2023 NFL season the Giants were facing the Dallas Cowboys, a division rival. This was an ugly game for the Giants and they ended up losing 40-0. This was embarrassing for any Giants fan. But it didn't stop there, they then only won two out of their next ten games. This was not the start fans were expecting. At this point in the season, there was nothing really impressive about this team. Their starting quarterback tore his ACL, the backup quarterback got a concussion, and the All-Pro running back Saquon Barkley also missed five games. It's looking bad but it's not over. A man named Tommy Devito from Cedar Grove, NJ, was named the starting quarterback. Fans now have something to root for. He led the Giants to a 3-3 record since he was a starter and gave them playoff hopes but that only lasted for a couple of weeks. This whole situation gave the Giants fans and team something to look forward to and something to be happy and talk about. Tommy won't be the starter next year or anything like that, But it gave the team the morale they needed. They officially ended the season at 6-11. This was not the season fans were hoping for and it was a huge disappointment. 

In the only matchup this season the Jets took the win in overtime. Now I watched the game and thought the Giants outplayed them. But in the end, the Jets did win. Stats from ESPN showed that the Giants finished with the 30th-best offense in the league and the 28th-best defense. The Jets finished with the fifth-best defense in the league and the 31st-best offense out of 32 teams. So statistically the Jets were better than the Giants. They also finished with a better record and beat the Giants in their matchup. The Jets had a lot of star power on their team but were constantly without a competent quarterback. The Giants only had three great players. Both teams also struggled severely from a bad O-line. The Giants finished the season with the most sacks allowed, they accumulated 85 total allowed sacks. To show some comparison the team in second only had 65. The Jets allowed 48 total sacks which isn't nearly as bad as the Giants. Overall it's safe to say that neither team accomplished a lot this season, they both had a lot to overcome throughout the season and neither team was marginally better than the other. That being said the Jets had the more successful season and were the better team, they won in their only matchup against the Giants this season, they had a better record, and they were ranked better statistically. Both teams had to respond to a lot of adversity which played a factor in their success, but in the end, the Giants were worse than the Jets. 

Works Cited

"NFL Stat Leaders." ESPN, www.espn.com/nfl/stats/_/season/2023/seasontype/2. Accessed 18 Jan. 2024.