The New York Giants are going into Week 5 with a 3-1 record and sole possession of first place in the NFC East. If the season ended today, the Giants would have the third seed and host the Seattle Seahawks at MetLift Stadium.
However, the season doesn’t end today. Instead, the Giants will be facing the 1-3 Washington Commanders on the road; a game in which they’re 3.5-point underdogs (per FanDuel). And despite holding first place in the NFC East, with the chance to gain a two-game lead in the division,
few have confidence that the Giants will even make the playoffs — let alone win the division.
This is an interesting spread of responses. “No” obviously won out, with nearly 40 percent of respondents believing that the Giants will be on the couch after Week 18. And it’s significantly higher than the number of fans who believe the Giants can execute the “worst to first” leap and win the NFC outright.
However, almost as many fans believe their team will get a wildcard berth as will miss the playoffs. The Giants are (as of this writing) one of three teams in the NFC with a 3-1 record, and the only one in first place in their division. The other two are the Chicago Bears and Seattle Seahawks, who each sit behind the 4-0 Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers, respectively.
So while many more fans think the Giants will miss the playoffs than win the division, that flips
FanDuel has the Giants as relative longshots to make the playoffs, giving them just the 13th-best odds at +290. However, the Giants have a real chance to impact those odds this week.
FanDuel considers both the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys to be much more likely to win the division than the Giants. They give the Cowboys the seventh-best odds to make the playoffs, while the Eagles have the 9th best odds, though both are extremely flawed teams.
Dallas’ poor defense and inconsistent offense makes for an extremely volatile combination that can beat anyone, or lose to anyone. The Eagles are reshuffling their offensive line on the fly after the retirement of right tackle Lane Johnson and the trade of Cam Jurgens. At the same time, they’re dealing with injuries to offensive stars.
The Giants, of course, have some questions of their own to answer, largely revolving around the quarterback position. And considering that quarterback is (arguably) the most important position in sports, those are automatically big questions.
Overall, however, the Giants play in Week 4 has fans believing again. Confidence cratered after the Giants’ disastrous loss to the Los Angeles Rams which also saw the loss of Jaxson Dart. Since then, gritty wins over the Tennessee Titans and Arizona Cardinals have restored faith in the direction of the team.
Giants fans’ confidence has typically proven to be resilient since we’ve been doing these surveys. Giants fans want to believe in their team, and typically respond well to teams as long as it’s clear that there’s a path forward.
In this case, fans came into the 2026 season very confident that their team was headed in the right direction, which became almost universal confidence after their win over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1. And now, we’re right back to those levels of confidence in the direction of the team.
I suspect that the manner in which the Giants have been winning has had as much of an impact on fan confidence as the wins themselves. The Giants’ defense has been showing up on game day, holding the Titans to zero first downs in the first half of Week 3, and swarming the Cardinals offense after a slow start in Week 4. It also helps that resurgent players like safety Jevon Holland and cornerback Tae Banks have proven instrumental to their success. Likewise, the weekly improvement of Malik Nabers has to inspire some confidence as well.
Giants running back Cam Skattebo promised that the game against the Commanders will be a “slugfest” thanks to the remnants of hurricane Isaias, as well both teams’ physicality. That’s exactly the type of game the Giants have been winning this year, so we’ll see if they can do it again.
