All in With John Jastremski

The 2024 season didn’t exactly find a way to feature a whole lot of highlights for the New York Giants. 

After all, this past year will historically go down as one of the worst seasons in the history of the storied franchise. 

In case you needed one last gut punch to cap off this football season, I present to you this Sunday’s NFC Championship Game. 

A matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders, two teams who are clearly leaps and bounds ahead of where the Giants are currently at as a franchise. 

Look, two division rivals playing in an NFC Title Game is bad enough, but let’s think about two of the biggest stars playing in the game and their connection with the Giants. 

Of course, there’s the obvious. 

Former Giant and current Eagles running back Saquon Barkley has put together a season for the ages. 

In the first year of his post Giants career, he ran for over 2,000 yards with 15 touchdowns. 

So naturally, he shined in his first playoff game for the Eagles. 

Barkley’s two monstrous runs were the difference in the game for Philadelphia in defeating the Rams by six on Sunday. 

205 yards and 2 touchdowns, not a bad way to make an Eagles playoff debut. 

The classic what could have been conversation has been well documented with Saquon for a while. The reality of the situation is that Barkley would not be putting up these numbers or talking about a chance to get to the Super Bowl if he was still a part of the Giants. 

That doesn’t mean it makes Barkley’s dominance in Philly any less tough to stomach. 

The Washington Commanders also feature a star player in Sunday’s matchup that will bring a good amount of sadness to Giants fans. 

That player would be quarterback Jayden Daniels. 

Now, Daniels never put on a Giants uniform, after all he’s only in his rookie season. 

However, for anyone who had the opportunity to watch this summer’s Hard Knocks Television show, you were given a first hand look at the appreciation both Giants GM Joe Schoen and Head Coach Brian Daboll had towards Daniels’ ability. 

In fact Joe Schoen’s son made it clear to him that Daniels should be the guy that the Giants go get. 

If only it was that simple… 

The Giants had the 6th pick in the 2024 draft. 

Washington picked 2nd. 

A couple of meaningless late season wins by Tommy Devito against the Commanders, Patriots and Packers ended up being the difference in Daniels finding his way to our Nation’s Capital. 

Daniels journey to DC has resulted in one of the best rookie seasons a quarterback has ever had in the history of the league. 

Daniels led a 12 win team, revived football in Washington DC and now has the Commanders one win away from the Super Bowl after leading his team to victory against the heavily favored Detroit Lions. 

As painful as it may be seeing Saquon Barkley dominate in Philly, it may be even worse acknowledging the fact that the Washington Commanders are going to be a major thorn in the Giants side for years to come. 

Now don’t get me wrong. 

I for one can’t wait to watch Washington and Philly on Sunday. 

I expect it to be a fantastic, well played NFC Championship game. 

I don’t expect Giants fans to share my enthusiasm.