NY Football 2025. Nowhere to Go But Up, Right?

All in With John Jastremski

For the past decade and change, there seems to be a decent amount of hope going into a football season, but the results for both the Jets and the Giants have been anything but pretty. 

Since the start of the 2015 season, the Giants have 2 winning seasons and the Jets have one in that span. 

The Jets have the longest playoff drought in professional sports dating back to the 2010 season. 

Sure, the Giants have 2 playoff appearances since 2015, but they also have a whole lot of losing seasons with a whole lot of ineptitude tied to the franchise. 

You can make the argument that collectively last season felt like a rock bottom moment for both franchises. 

The Jets hopes and dreams of being successful with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback basically over by early November. 

The Giants never got off the tarmac and put together arguably the worst season in the history of the franchise. 

Look, as we fast forward to 2025, here’s the good news. 

There is literally nowhere to go but up for both teams. 

The Giants weirdly have a good amount of optimism heading into their Week 1 matchup against the Washington Commanders. 

The franchise feels confident they have addressed the quarterback position. Russell Wilson in the short term as a player who can provide leadership, confidence and experience. 

Jaxson Dart in the long term, who will wait in the wings for his chance to be the leader of the team, sooner rather than later. 

The Giants have significantly improved their defense and if the team has a chance to be competitive this season, the pass rush must be one of the best in the league. 

For the other team in town, the biggest key to a successful 2025 boils down to the culture change implemented by new head coach Aaron Glenn. 

Glenn is by far the most fascinating figure for the Jets franchise this season. 

He is taking over a team that was sloppy, undisciplined and was an absolute mess structurally for all of last season. 

Can the Jets establish an identity of accountability throughout their locker room and can Glenn build the sort of tough minded football team that he witnessed first hand as Dan Campbell’s Defensive Coordinator?

The Jets have talent on the defensive and the offensive line. 

They will have to win ugly in order to win in 2025, but the team’s big picture boils down to whether or not they hired the right head coach. 

I am not going to be unreasonable when it comes to expectations for both the Giants and Jets this season, but I am at the very least intrigued. 

After last season and really after the last decade, you have to start somewhere. 

Let the games begin…   

You can listen to my podcast New York, New York on The Ringer Podcast Network on Spotify/Apple Podcasts every Sunday & Thursday evenings. You can watch me nightly on Honda Sports Nite following Mets Postgame on SNY.