The most injured team was it again in 2015, for the third straight year. The
defied logic -- and the odds -- by again finishing dead last in
And the Giants didn't just finish last, they blew away the field, despite the devastation suffered by teams such as the New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens and Washington Redskins.
The Giants finished with an AGL of 138.7 in 2015. That was 0.6 worse than the previous year, when they also finished dead last. The Giants had 22 players finish the season on the injured reserve or physically unable to perform lists.
The Redskins were 31st in AGL in 2015 at 119.1. So the Giants really didn't have much competition in the category after losing multiple safeties to injury in the preseason, their star defensive end in July for the first half of the season because of a fireworks accident and their left tackle to a torn pectoral muscle during spring workouts.
That's not to mention their No. 2 receiver didn't play a single snap this past season. Put it all together and it was another injury-filled mess in 2015 for a team that endured its third straight losing season.
Here is Football Outsiders' explanation:
"The Giants have had very durable quarterback play with Eli Manning's ironman streak alive and well, but almost everywhere else this team has just been wrecked by injury for three years running. This year, the Giants went into Week 1 in bad shape with left tackle Will Beatty (torn pectoral in May while lifting weights), Victor Cruz (setbacks in PCL recovery) and Jason Pierre-Paul (fireworks accident) all on the mend. The Giants placed four safeties on injured reserve before September. You knew a significant Jon Beason injury was right around the corner, and even blocking tight end Daniel Fells had the battle of his life with MRSA."
What a mess, but at least it prompted change. Banging their heads against the wall with the same strength and conditioning and medical staff would've redefined the definition of insanity.
The Giants reassigned former strength and conditioning coach
last month. They hired
from Notre Dame to take his place.
Wellman is a Ben McAdoo cronie from back in the day, when they were both at Michigan State, for a minute. McAdoo has described Wellman as a "forward thinker" and already changes have been made with an eye on increasing recovery with an emphasis placed on more consistent sleep and scheduling.
"I've had my eye on him for a while, I think he does a tremendous job,"
"He's a forward thinker and that's something that's important to me. He can still crack the whip if need be, and that's hard to find in today's league. He'll do a tremendous job."
But it's not the first time the Giants tried to make changes. Former head coach Tom Coughlin -- known for his old-school approach -- applied
over the past few years. Still, they didn't produce positive results, as evidenced by the Football Outsider AGL metric.
Maybe the Giants were too slow to the party? Maybe they weren't using the information and resources at their disposal properly? Maybe it was bad luck? Or maybe it was all of the above.
The bottom line is that the Giants received little to nothing from some of their highest-paid players. They were so shorthanded at safety by late summer they were forced to pluck veteran Brandon Meriweather off the street. Meriweather went on to start 11 games.
And the Giants once again infamously earned the dishonor of finishing at the bottom of the Football Outsider AGL rankings, by a wide margin. Even they know it's an area that must be addressed and fixed. A fourth straight year would cement the dynasty.
TALK IS CHEAP, Ep. 43: Impressions from the NFL Combine
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Jordan Raanan may be reached at jraanan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JordanRaanan. Find NJ.com Giants on Facebook.