It's... uh... not great to be a tenant at MetLife Stadium right now. The New York Giants are 0-4 with a point differential of -49, which is the second worst in football. The only team worse? That would be the New York Jets, also 0-4 and with a point differential of -66, coming off a loss to a third-string Broncos quarterback making his NFL debut in Brett Rypien.
As you could imagine, the stats tell a fairly ugly story. The two are 31st and 32nd in total offense and points per game - consider that the Giants and Jets both have fewer yards gained and points scored in four games than the Steelers, Titans, Patriots, Falcons, Packers and Chiefs all do in three. Defensively it's not as bad: the Giants are actually top-five in yards allowed and league average in points allowed, while the Jets are third-worst in points, but about league average in yards.
The good news? Unfathomably the Giants are a-game-and-a-half out of first place in the woeful NFC East (sorry Jets, you're not in AFC East contention). Still, the question has to be asked: have the two teams ever been this bad at the same time? The 2020 versions of both teams are going to put this to the test. Here's the company they're trying to avoid:
2018 - 9 wins: Sadly you don't have to go too far back to find the last time they didn't even combine to win double-digit games. Just two years ago the Giants went 5-11 in Saquon Barkley's rookie year, while the Jets were a game worse with rookie Sam Darnold under center, going 4-12. They at least weren't terrible at the same time: Big Blue started the year 1-7 before finding some semblance of mediocrity, while the Jets started 3-3 before bottoming out and losing nine of their final 10 games.
2017 - 8 wins: The combined 2018 versions of both teams were actually improvements over the 2017 versions, when the Jets went 5-11 and the Giants just 3-13, their worst season in nearly four decades. Gang Green started 38-year-old Josh McCown under center for most of the year, while also finding out former fourth-round pick Bryce Petty wasn't an answer. While just a year after going 11-5 and having the infamous Odell Beckham boat picture prior to the playoffs, everything went wrong for the Giants, who started the year 0-5 and eventually 2-10 when they fired head coach Ben McAdoo.
1996 - 7 wins: The Jets did the heavy lifting here. The Giants were a mediocre 6-10, finishing third-worst in points and worst in yards gained, costing Dan Reeves his job as head coach. But the Jets -- oh boy, the Jets -- set a franchise record in futility that still stands today with a 1-15 record. They were second-worst in the league in points allowed (they allowed at least 30 points 10 times, including in six of the final seven games) and fourth-worst in points scored. The only thing standing between them and a historic 0-16 was a 31-21 victory in Week 9 against the Cardinals.
1995 - 8 wins: The signs were there for the Jets in '95 of the impending 1996 season to come. The record declined from 8-8 in 1993 to 6-10 to, ultimately, 3-13 in 1995 in what became Boomer Esiason's final season as a full-time NFL starter. It was Rich Kotite's first season as head coach... he'd be fired after the 1996 season with a 4-28 record. The Giants were again unremarkable, going 5-11 with six losses coming by one possession.
1980 - 8 wins: The two teams had matching 4-12 records in 1980 and never got off the ground, with the Jets starting 0-5 and the Giants 1-8. Both teams, though, would rebound the following year. Big Blue was starting a young Phil Simms at quarterback, though he wouldn't blossom until after an injury that cost him all of the 1982 season, and they'd make the playoffs the next year, beating the Eagles and losing to the Super Bowl champion 49ers. The Jets, meanwhile, started 0-3 before finishing the season on a tear, going 10-5-1 and making the playoffs, where they lost to the Bills.
1976 - 6 wins: The heyday of both teams being awful was the mid-70s, where three of the four worst seasons come (at least until 2020 blows them out of the water). Whatever the opposite of "cream of the crop" is, the 1976 teams are the standard-bearer for futility. With matching 3-11 records - remember, they played 14-game seasons until 1978 - the half-dozen combined wins ties for the fewest on this list.
The Jets bookended the year by losing its first four and final four games, in the process benching Joe Namath in what would be his final year with the team. They also fired first-year head coach Lou Holtz a week before the finale, though because of the Bills (2-12) they actually finished fourth in the AFC East. The Giants were quicker to pull the plug on Bill Arnsparger, who was fired after an 0-7 start. They would ultimately start 0-9 before winning three of the final five games.
1975 - 8 wins: The Giants finished 1975 with a 5-9 record, which was their best record between 1973-77 and a three-game improvement over the year before. This despite having a bottom-four offense scoring-wise for the third time in four years. A year after finishing .500, the wheels fell off for the Jets, who plummeted to another 3-13 record (at the time the worst in franchise history). They began their coaching carousel by firing Charley Winner after a 2-7 start and replacing him with Ken Shipp. They'd hire the aforementioned Lou Holtz the next year, and obviously (see above) it didn't work out.
1973 - 6 wins: The final year of Weeb Ewbank's legendary run as the Jets' coach ended with a whimper, going 4-12 by beating both the Patriots and Colts twice as Joe Namath played in only six games because of injury. The 2-11-1 Giants saw the Alex Webster era at head coach end after five seasons, losing 11 of the final 12 games, seven of which came by at least a touchdown.
The 1973 and 1976 teams are the teams to aim for here: do you think the 2020 Giants and Jets combine for six wins? They have 24 games to get there.
1966 - 7 wins: In what is still the worst record in franchise history, the Giants went 1-12-1 in '66 behind a defense that allowed a league-worst 35.8 points per game. For context, the second-to-worst defense that year was Atlanta (31.2 PPG allowed) and third-worst was Washington (25.4, a full 10 points better than NYG). Over in the AFL, the Jets actually finished .500 at 6-6-2, though after starting 4-0-1 wound up missing the playoffs. Interestingly, without overtime being incorporated, eight AFL teams in the '60s finished the season with multiple ties (the San Diego Chargers had three in 1965!) and it hasn't happened since.
1964 - 7 wins: Off a stretch of three straight championship game appearances and five in a six-year span, the Giants crashed down to earth in a harsh way, falling from 11-3 all the way to 2-10-2. They went from leading the NFL in points scored to finishing next-to-last and from fifth in scoring defense to last after trading legendary Sam Huff the year prior. Offensively YA Tittle, Alex Webster and Frank Gifford all missed time, and after being a model franchise for four decades, they wouldn't return to the playoffs until 1981.
As for the Jets, they finished with a 5-8-1 record the second straight year, which they'd make three-in-a-row the next season. It was good enough to get them the top overall pick in the 1965 AFL Draft, where they'd take a quarterback out Alabama named Joe Namath.