We are just now four, very long days away from the first Sunday of the NFL season that has games that mean something. Can anyone fast forward to Sunday? I guess we will have to wait, unfortunately.
The New York Giants will kick off their 2018 campaign against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars come into this season wanting to improve off of their season last year, where they fell short against the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game.
The Jaguars are a team now predicated on running the ball on offense with Leonard Fournette and protecting quarterback Blake Bortles. On defense, they need no introduction, as they had the best defense by far in the AFC last year. The same defense is coming back together, while the offense lost a couple of weapons. Wide receivers Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns both left in free agency. We will see if they can repeat their success from last year, in Week 1.
The Giants, on the other hand, want to turnaround their misfortunes they’ve had the past few seasons. They fired head coach Ben McAdoo this offseason, and now begins the new regime under Pat Shurmur.
Shurmur is a guy with a great offensive mind but will need to focus on the ins and outs of the whole team. He will have a certain familiarity with that, as he’s been a head coach before (Cleveland Browns 2011-2012). Hopefully this go-around at a head coaching gig proves to be more fruitful than his last.
The Giants are not short of talent on their current roster. They have weapons like rookie running back Saquon Barkley, second-year tight end Evan Engram, wide receiver Sterling Shepard and, of course, star wideout Odell Beckham Jr. These are all the weapons quarterback Eli Manning has at his disposal. If Shurmur can get this offense to play to their full potential, we could see a very quick turnaround for the G-Men.
Shurmur will be able to tell what type of team he has in Week 1, as he gets a tough test against an elite Jaguars defense. The Giants are going to have to be nearly perfect on offense to have success on this group. It will be an interesting game, to say the least, as both teams will look a little different than last year (more so for the Giants).
Here are a few bold predictions I believe will happen in the Giants’ first game of the 2018 season.
