Giants bad luck

[MightyGiants]

While bad decisions have certainly been made, I think the Giants have been arguably one of the unluckiest teams in the league.

Consider:

2010-  In the third round, the Giants draft a promising safety and special teamer, Chad Jones.  He has an off-season auto accident and never fully recovers.  Plays some snaps but as a shadow of his former self.

2015-  Giants star edge rusher JPP mangles hand in fireworks accident.  Eventually returns, but isn't quite the player he had been

2020-  Giants first-round cornerback Deandre Baker arrested for armed robbery.   He is eventually found innocent, but not before the Giants cut him.

2014-  Promising first-round running back David Wilson found to have stenosis in his neck and has to retire from football before his rookie contract is even finished

2016-  a last-minute video pushes Laramy Tunsil off many draft boards.  This left the Giants scrambling and they ended up drafting Eli Apple

2015- Legal questions kept La'el Collins (solid O-line prospect) from being drafted in round one.  This pushes the Giants to take Ereck Flowers instead.  Worse, Collins ends up signing as a free agent with Dallas essentially giving the Cowboys a free extra first-round pick.

Consider some of the drafted players with healthy college careers but became injury messes in the NFL

Saquon Barkley
Evan Neal
Daniel Jones
Joshua Ezeudu
Azeez Ojulari
Evan Engram
Weston Richburg
Justin Pugh
Shane Lemieux
Aaron Robinson

Guys whose careers were cut short by injury

Hakeem Nicks
Terrell Thomas
Jay Bromley
Owamagbe Odighizuwa (mental illness)
Sterling Shepard
Victor Cruz
Jake Ballard

Even OBJ suffered a major injury.

Have I missed any other bad luck issues the Giants have had the last decade or so?

EDIT TO ADD:  McKinney's fluke hand injury in 2022

[TONKA56]

Victor Cruz
Jake Ballard

[MightyGiants]

Victor Cruz
Jake Ballard

Thanks, I added them to the list

[EDjohnst1981]

Bad luck or selecting dumb people?

Jones - cited with careless operation of a vehicle after he lost control of his Range Rover and ran into a street pole. New Orleans police did not administer a Breathalyzer test because Jones had to be rushed to the hospital, and a blood sample could not be taken because the rookie was in surgery for most of the day. He crashed just after 0600 in the morning and was careless - sounds pretty dumb to me.

JPP - made a decision that was dumber than dumb. When he joined Tampa he put some some decent sack numbers - 12.5 in 2018, which was his best season since before the hand.

Baker - All charges dropped - perhaps we shouldn't rush to judgment on legal matters and let the due process play out. However, with the advent of social media that is increasingly difficult. It's not like he pulled up any major trees post-Giants. Bad selection

Collins - personally, I think it was a bad call not to take a late round flyer on Collins, if I remember he came out with some comments that he'll only play for the cowboys. I would have taken that gamble.

Nice list of injuries but over the course of a decade, I am sure every team will have their sob stories.

Interesting post, though Rich. I enjoyed reading it.

[Hadron]

Deandre Baker isn't even in the NFL. It was just a bad pick. Through and through. He's currently playing in the UFL after getting waived by the Chiefs (who seem to like NYG castoffs). Noted as being "lazy" in his preparation at Georgia (and cruised by on pure skill).

JPP/Chad Jones - yeah, Ed pointed out the issues with "bad luck" and the like. They were reckless/careless.

Evan Engram magically became healthy after leaving the Giants.

Owa Odighizuwa - he came out of college of with hip issues. That's part of the reason he dropped.

Tunsil/Collins - there's no telling if the Giants would've drafted either. I know that Coughlin LOVED Flowers.

All in all - the Giants did get a rough break with injuries in terms of severity (see Cruz, Terrell Thomas). However, the NFL is a violent and vicious game. Injuries are an unfortunate result.

[kartanoman]

Troy Archer (died in car accident)

Dan Lloyd (cancer, recovered)

Doug Kotar (cancer, later died)

The Irrelevant Giant, John Tuggle (cancer, later died)

Kevin Belcher (car accident, career-ending injuries)

Karl Nelson (cancer, survived)

Many "could have been" great players. Nelson won a Super Bowl. Archer would likely have made it to Pasadena as well as Tuggle and possibly Belcher.

Peace!

[miss86]

Plaxico Burress. Shoots himself in the leg, and there went another shot at a superbowl.

[MagicRat]

Plaxico Burress. Shoots himself in the leg, and there went another shot at a superbowl.

I still have nightmares about that.
We were the best team about that season.
I really thought the repeat was on.

I think I'm right in saying we'd beaten all four teams who played in the Championship games during the regular season?

[AZGiantFan]

Thanks, I added them to the list

McKinney and the ATV.

[B1GBLUE]

While bad decisions have certainly been made, I think the Giants have been arguably one of the unluckiest teams in the league.

Consider:

2010-  In the third round, the Giants draft a promising safety and special teamer, Chad Jones.  He has an off-season auto accident and never fully recovers.  Plays some snaps but as a shadow of his former self.

2015-  Giants star edge rusher JPP mangles hand in fireworks accident.  Eventually returns, but isn't quite the player he had been

2020-  Giants first-round cornerback Deandre Baker arrested for armed robbery.   He is eventually found innocent, but not before the Giants cut him.

2014-  Promising first-round running back David Wilson found to have stenosis in his neck and has to retire from football before his rookie contract is even finished

2016-  a last-minute video pushes Laramy Tunsil off many draft boards.  This left the Giants scrambling and they ended up drafting Eli Apple

2015- Legal questions kept La'el Collins (solid O-line prospect) from being drafted in round one.  This pushes the Giants to take Ereck Flowers instead.  Worse, Collins ends up signing as a free agent with Dallas essentially giving the Cowboys a free extra first-round pick.

Consider some of the drafted players with healthy college careers but became injury messes in the NFL

Saquon Barkley
Evan Neal
Daniel Jones
Joshua Ezeudu
Azeez Ojulari
Evan Engram
Weston Richburg
Justin Pugh
Shane Lemieux
Aaron Robinson

Guys whose careers were cut short by injury

Hakeem Nicks
Terrell Thomas
Jay Bromley
Owamagbe Odighizuwa (mental illness)
Sterling Shepard
Victor Cruz
Jake Ballard

Even OBJ suffered a major injury.

Have I missed any other bad luck issues the Giants have had the last decade or so?

EDIT TO ADD:  McKinney's fluke hand injury in 2022

definitely pretty bad, but i bad its not super far off from a lot of other teams