On Tuesday, Jason Garrett was fired by the New York Giants after just 26 games of service, dating back to his start date at the beginning of the 2020 season. And though there have been various issues at play, including injuries and less-than-stellar quarterback and offensive line play, it's not too hard to see why Garrett's days in New York were short-lived.
One statistic does a pretty solid job of telling you all you need to know about the Giants' offensive struggles since Garrett took over.
ESPN's Mike Clay pointed out the statistic in question, one that ranks every team by their offensive touchdown totals since the start of the 2020 regular season. Atop the list are franchises that come as no surprise, like the Buccaneers, Packers, Bills and Chiefs. The middle of the pack features up-and-down teams like the 49ers, Eagles and Steelers, with some shaky quarterback play but a good amount of talent throughout the offensive system. Getting into the lower part of the list, you have teams like the Washington Football Team, Bears and Jaguars, all of which have struggled with any form of good, consistent quarterback play and are lacking sorely in a number of departments on that side of the ball.
At No. 31 out of the 32 teams are the Jets, who would have been my guess for the most anemic offensive attack in football since the decade of the 2020s began. But with 46 offensive scores, they have four more than the team at the very bottom of the barrel: the Giants, with 42 touchdowns. 42 touchdowns in 26 games. That's not even half the amount that the top seven teams — the Bucs, Packers, Titans, Bills, Saints, Chiefs and Cardinals — have produced, and that, my friends, is a pretty eye-opening stat.
When you look at passing touchdowns, the discrepancy is even more stark. 14 teams have 44 or more passing touchdowns in that span. The Giants have only half of that number, ranking far behind everyone else (via Stathead):
Yeesh. At least they don't rank last in every offensive statistic since Garrett was brought on board... but they're pretty close in a lot of them, ranking in the bottom five in yards per play (5.1), points per game (17.2), yards per game (308.5) and third-down conversion rate (37%).
Garrett led a top-ten offense in Dallas in six different seasons, both as the offensive coordinator and head coach, so there's probably a number of factors at play here and we shouldn't put all the blame on Garrett. We'll see if and where he might be able to rebound from this horrible New York stint in the future.
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