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After the New York Giants’ loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 4, Rakeem Nunez-Roches addressed his teammates, speaking he said, “from the heart.”
“I was just like, ‘You know guys, don’t get discouraged. I know we’re 1-3, but I’ve been in this position where I was 1-5 with a team,'” the defensive lineman said.
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Nunez-Roches was referring to his rookie season in Kansas City when the 2015 Chiefs got off to a dismal start. They then reeled off 10 straight victories and finished 11-5, earning a wild-card playoff berth. It was a rare success story, as Kansas City became the first team to ever start a season 1-5 and win a playoff game.
“We sat down collectively as a group with our coaches, and we all kind of understood what we have and what we can do,” Nunez-Roches said. “And you know, from that moment on, each person took it upon themselves to do a little more individually to help the team.”
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Sitting at 1-4 entering Week 6, the Giants could be facing a similar reckoning this week as they prepare to visit an AFC powerhouse in the Buffalo Bills (3-2).
As it stands, the Giants would already be in rare company if they started piling up enough wins to reach the playoffs. Since 1966 (the start of the Super Bowl era), only 15 of the 257 teams that have started 1-4 ended up making the playoffs. Historically, that gives the 2023 Giants about a 5.8 percent chance to reach the postseason.
That small chance plummets even further if the Giants were to lose to Buffalo on Sunday night and fall to 1-5. Only four teams have made the playoffs after such a beginning. That’s 2 percent of the 196 teams that started 1-5. The latest team to do so was the 2020 Washington Commanders who managed to win a crummy NFC East with seven victories. With the Philadelphia Eagles already off to a 5-0 start this season, the 2023 Giants won’t be getting that lucky.
They know that if they’re going to accomplish the things they set out to this year, they’re going to have to make some big changes.
“What are we willing to sacrifice to make it work?'” Giants tight end Darren Waller recalled Nunez-Roches asking the team. “‘What are we willing to do that we’re not doing to make it work?’ So I thought he said some good things.
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In 2015, Nunez-Roches said there was a sense of urgency in the Chiefs locker room. He said there wasn’t one person alone who stepped up, rather it was a unified room.
“There was a sense of focus and a sense urgency knowing that this is now and this is precious,” Nunez-Roches said. “You can’t keep waiting for somebody to make a play. Why can’t I be the person to make that play? So you had a lot of guys who understood that whether you were young or old, right now is your moment, capitalize off that. It just made so many people hungry. You could just feel everybody’s want.”
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Nunez-Roches said he could sense that feeling in New York too. He says it’s a group of younger players, but they’re eager to learn.
“I feel that with guys here,” the lineman said. “I feel younger guys asking more and more questions and getting into their playbook and trying to figure out, ‘What can I do better here.’ That’s what you need. And that’s what you want to see.”
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The Giants have others in the building who experienced such an inauspicious start but rallied to make the playoffs. Offensive lineman Mark Glowinski was on the 2018 Indianapolis Colts that fought back from a 1-5 start to finish 10-6 and even win a playoff game. Giants offensive line coach Bobby Johnson, an assistant OL coach at the time, was in Indianapolis that season, too.
“That was probably one of the coolest kind of story(book) seasons I’ve had,” Glowinski said.
Thanks to Johnson and Glowinksi’s experience, it’s been a topic within the Giants’ offensive line room.
“Things are not going to always go the right way,” Glowinski said. “But it’s fighting through what we need to do. If it’s a little bit more detail. If it’s just a little bit more different plays that we have to run. Just working together figuring out things.”
Sunday night, in front of a national audience, is a big chance to show the NFL world they’ve started to figure things out. While the 2018 Colts rallied back from 1-5, they also weren’t sporting a -91 point differential through their first five games. So the Giants’ turnaround needs to be drastic.
Because he’s been here before, Nunez-Roches is confident the Giants can do it.
“That was my biggest message about it: It’s one thing to say that you want to do this or you want to be this type of team,” Nunez-Roches said. “But you got to go out there and actually apply it. Ain’t nobody going to give you no win. It’s the NFL. It’s hard every day.”
(Photo: Perry Knotts / Getty Images)
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