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Can the New York Giants and Jets PLAY Defense?
We’ve reached the mid-way point of the season and both the New York Giants and Jets cannot play solid defense. What exactly are the repercussions?
Prepare for the intense sports debate that only sibling rivalry can conjure. Seesaw Sports, where Dan Salem and Todd Salem throw down on the NFL, MLB, NBA and more. Only on BuzzChomp. Two brothers from New York yell, scream and debate sports.
One team, the Jets, admitted defeat on the defense, trading away former core players for a bevy of draft capital. The other team, the New York Giants, went all-in on defense this past offseason, only to fail miserable on the field thus far. Where do we go from here? This is our New York football hour for NFL week 10 and both teams are looking to the future, no matter how grey or gloomy it may be.
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We are faced with the truth that none of us want to accept. The only way through is through, so let’s feel everything and bite the proverbial bullets. Literally everyone is asking, outsiders are laughing or averting their eyes, but someone must step up to the podium and fire back. Tough questions require hard answers.
New York Giants and Jets: NFL Week 10
1. Can the New York Giants figure out their defense?
Todd Salem: All the noise and headlines with this team follow the offense and Jaxson Dart. It’s understandable. But for yet another week, the defense was the story, and not in a good way.
Facing a team without its top two wide receivers and starting quarterback, the Giants allowed 159 yards on the ground, cementing their status as the worst run defense in the NFL. They also allowed Mac Jones to begin the game 14-of-14 through the air despite, as we said, not having his top two weapons.
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It’s been a weird season for a defense which many hoped would have one of the premiere defensive lines in football. Now, I know the secondary has been decimated, which makes life harder for the line. I also know that great pass rushers are not necessarily great run defenders, so putting together an elite squad of pass rushers can open up other holes.
Even still, this front office spent big to improve the defense as a whole, including the secondary. They spent their top pick on an edge rusher and brought back veterans at linebacker. The failure of the defense is more glaring than any failures that have occurred on the offensive side of the ball. This was supposed to be a legitimately good group, and it’s just not.
There is a laundry list of reasons why it has failed. The defensive line is really good but was never built to stop the run (so it hasn’t). Dexter Lawrence has taken a step back from being the best tackle in the league. Bobby Okereke has taken a step back from being a Pro Bowl-caliber player. The secondary is, indeed, decimated, and lacked any sort of depth to begin with. Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen often resorts to simple gameplans and does not coach his players up with scheme help. All the pieces fit to bring us a bad defense.
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And things do NOT get any easier for this unit. With the possible exception of Las Vegas, all of New York’s remaining opponents have offenses that can make opposing defenses look bad. In other words, this is not going to get better; it is only going to get worse. Bowen has his work cut out for him…if he isn’t fired before the season is up.
Dan Salem: It’s ironic, because the New York Giants defense struggled with consistency in September, but then seemed to find its footing in early October. I went so far as to declare those September performances as growing pains and the usual early season woes. Not so fast! New York’s defense is actually the unit we saw in September and only looked good against a good opponent once, on Thursday night versus the Eagles. Shame on me for buying the blip as a trend.
The Giants have a subpar defense, which is going to be the death of this team and its coaching staff. New York was supposed to be getting better and promised improvement this season after last year’s debacle. Coach Daboll has groomed a potential franchise quarterback and the Giants offensive line is much better, but suddenly that isn’t looking like nearly enough.
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Daboll gets to stay, but everyone else is on the chopping block. Assuming the defense stays the same, then maybe the Giants win two more games. Maybe. They’ll be lucky to win four or five this year, which is not an improvement overall. Now its true that the vibe of the team is much better and they have a quarterback and an offensive identity. But literally everything during the 2025 offseason was about improving the defense, which has not improved. Something big is going to give.
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2. How many wins are left on the New York Jets schedule?
Todd Salem: Coming off their first win of the season and a bye week rest, New York has nine games remaining. They will be large underdogs in probably five of them, but the other four games are no guarantee in either direction.
As we always say in these situations, when it appears a weak team has a nice chance at a win, of course the opponent feels the same way about facing the Jets. Be that as it may, there are four “winnable” games remaining for the Jets in 2025:
Week 10 vs. Cleveland
Week 13 vs. Atlanta
Week 14 vs. Miami
Week 16 at New Orleans
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These games are mostly all at home and all come against very weak opponents. Atlanta is probably the best of the bunch, but even the Falcons are wildly up and down. In fact, all four of these squads rank in the bottom seven in the NFL in points per game. Ranking eighth-worst in ppg? The New York Jets.
So what I’m saying is the Jets have the offensive edge! I’m being tongue in cheek, but in actuality, New York is in the same tier as these clubs; they are not outmatched offensively by any of them. Defensively and by turnover margin the Jets certainly come up short in any comparison, but I can see them winning one or more of these four.
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If I set the over/under for remaining wins for the Jets this season as a whole at 1.5, I’d take the over. They can reasonably steal two of these, or perhaps garner a big surprise win in one of the other five games. Heck, the ease of the remaining schedule may be enough to raise this team out of the first pick in the 2026 draft. More on that, though, as we get closer to the end of the season.
Dan Salem: What a funny question, because the team isn’t good enough to win any of their games, but they also aren’t bad enough to outright lose them all either. Hence the Jets have lost five games but one score or less, but now have won a game that way as well. Just how much will this even out for them over the course of the full season?
The math says that New York will likely win two or three more games, because those two and three point losses all tend to balance out. Low and behold, the Jets have four chances to garner the mathematical victories. But truthfully their mathematical wins can come against anyone!
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You set the over/under just right, because I believe this team wins one or two more games, especially now after trading away their ‘best’ defensive players. The math is not going to even out for them and the Jets don’t want it to. Coach Glenn’s first win was an important one and I’d argue that winning this coming week against Cleveland is equally important. Off their bye versus a bad opponent, a Jets win goes a long way towards building confidence for next season. But any more wins beyond that is a net loss.
The top pick in next year’s draft will go to a team with one victory and it’s probably not going to be the Jets. How Jets of them to mess that up too! Thankfully their recently acquired bevy of draft capital will provide much needed flexibility. Winning doesn’t help the team, unless they actually put a winning streak together. How delusional do I sound? I give them two more wins, three if they’re lucky, or unlucky depending on how you view things.
Meet our Sports Writers:
Dan Salem is Lead Editor and Co-owner of BuzzChomp. He’s an award winning Actor, Director and Producer. Visit M Square Productions for his film work, or get lost in his old-school comedy on Pillow Talk TV. You can follow him on X, TikTok and Instagram. His latest film ‘Alone’ is now on Amazon.
Todd Salem is a Staff Writer and Contributing Editor at BuzzChomp. He’s also a champion of fantasy football and fantasy baseball, dominating leagues for over two decades. Comment below on his unfiltered opinions.
New York Giants and Jets Burning Questions – This Is The End
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