Playoffs? An early offseason? Togetherness? What the Giants’ post-bye play will say about where they’re headed

Where the bye week falls on the NFL calendar for a team cannot change everything, but it can offer a changed perspective.

Head coaches look for it as soon as schedules are revealed in the spring. So do the players, to an even greater degree. It can be as soon as Week 5, after only four games have been played. It can be as late as Week 14, with 13 games already in the books. Usually, teams prefer to see the bye arrive as close to mid-season as possible, when there is just as much ahead as there was behind, a perfect time to readjust and reassess.

When it comes as late as it did for the Giants, in Week 13, so much has already come and gone.

They did not accomplish what was required of them to earn admission into the playoff adventure ride. A 4-8 record barely gets them into the most inclusive and optimistic postseason graphic scenarios.

The official NFL version of the playoff picture lists the seven NFC teams currently owning a playoff spot as “In The Hunt’’ and eight teams in the conference as “On The Bubble.’’ (Only the Panthers, at 1-11, have officially been eliminated.)

In that “On The Bubble’’ list you’ll find the Giants, but you’ll also find they are behind the Rams, Seahawks, Buccaneers and Saints, meaning the bubble is about the size of a dirigible if the Giants are allowed in that grouping.

The late bye means there are only five games remaining for the Giants, who surely spent some time the past week thinking about what has gone down and what is left for them this season. The finish line is in sight and it is tempting to wonder what form of motivation remained as they returned to work on Monday.

“I always joke and say I feel sorry for the guys who got their bye week, what, end of September, early October?’’ veteran cornerback Adoree’ Jackson said. “Like, that’s crazy. But at the same time, for us, I feel like I was just happy to be able to go through the stretch and be able to play a bunch of games and then be able to give my body enough time to rest, especially in this phase that we all call meaningful football.

“I know in college it was ‘No Loss November.’ Don’t want to lose in November. Going into this stretch in December, it’s the same way getting ready for playoff football. So, for us, just to go out there and put everything on tape, showcase us and then play for one another.’’

Well, it is not exactly the same for the Giants because a strong case can be made that they already forfeited their chance at “meaningful football’’ when they endured losing streaks of four and three games each in a stretch of eight games total. The Giants are not out of it when it comes to the NFC playoff race, but they are not really in it, and it is fair to believe a determined playoff push is not front and center in the minds of most of the players as they reconvened.

So, what is foremost in their minds?

“For each other,’’ Jackson said. “I feel like that’s what it is to play for. Obviously, the grand scheme and the big picture is what it may be. For us, the little picture is just playing for each other and not worrying about tomorrow, focusing on today, and understanding when you do that good things can and will happen.’’

Good things can and will happen or else they can’t and won’t happen, starting with Monday night’s game against the Packers at MetLife Stadium. The bye week break can allow players to get healthier and the coaching staff time to figure out a few things, but it is rarely a miracle-cure respite.

While this time off also gave players a chance to divert their attention away from the game, given their poor record and the likelihood of not making the playoffs, it could be a challenge for Daboll to get his players back in the right frame of mind. Beating the Commanders and Patriots heading into the bye helped brighten the mood around the team, but the next loss could send a jolt of reality back through the building.

“I mean when you look at … the parity in this league, we are two games out of the playoff hunt,’’ linebacker Bobby Okereke said. “But even still just with this, the leadership we have with the front office and Dabs — obviously, this is Year 2 — [we have an] opportunity to leave just a good building block into next season, and obviously just pride to play for at the end of the day.’’

When players allow “next season’’ to creep into their thoughts it is a sign that this season has not gone as expected. There is nothing wrong with Okereke’s sentiment. This, indeed, is Year No. 2 of the rebuild Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen are undergoing, and how far the Giants can rise out of the 2-8 record with which they started will not be insignificant. It will not be nearly as significant as formulating a playoff push, but that has not been part of this season’s narrative.

X marks the spot

Xavier McKinney is in a much better place coming out of this bye week than he was last year.

Last season, he did not abide by the marching orders given to players heading into their week off — Be careful! — and it cost him in a big way.

The Giants were 6-2 when they went into their break, during which McKinney suffered a severe injury to his left hand, the result of an accident on an all-terrain vehicle he was riding during a vacation in Cabo. McKinney nearly lost three fingers on his left hand, underwent extensive surgery and missed the next seven games. Prior to that incident, McKinney had played every snap on defense in the first eight games.

The Giants went 2-4-1 in their remaining seven games without their starting safety. He did return in Week 17 and started both playoff games, but was unable to wrap up and tackle as he was accustomed to doing.

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The Giants were within their rights, according to contractual terms, to not pay McKinney for the missed games but they did not dock him any game checks. He did lose standing in the organization, though, for what was perceived as an unnecessary risk that led to the defense losing one of its best players.

This season, McKinney is one of two Giants players to not miss a play, joining Okereke as the only two members of the defense to be on the field for all 796 snaps. He is an important piece to the puzzle and recently has made game-changing plays — something that wasn’t always a part of his performance reviews. McKinney is second on the team with 86 tackles, trailing only Okereke (team-high 113 tackles).

Still, his future is uncertain.

Last year’s bye week incident cost McKinney a chance to enter into negotiations on a new contract — the Giants were not ready to go there after the accident — and no talks have taken place this season. McKinney also did not do himself any favors this season by calling out the defensive coaching staff after the loss to the Raiders in Las Vegas, saying the communication between the leaders on the defense and the staff — defensive coordinator Wink Martindale was the target audience here — was not where it needed to be. That prompted Martindale to express how hurt he was by these comments as he took apart McKinney’s complaint in a very public way.

Can McKinney do enough in the final five games to convince the front office and the coaching staff that the team is better-served with him than without him? He views himself as a top-tier safety in the NFL, and while the Giants never take him off the field, they are unlikely to open the vault to prevent McKinney from hitting the open market.

Asked and answered

Here are two questions that have come up recently that we will attempt to answer as accurately as possible:

Why the heck did the Giants not get flexed out of “Monday Night Football” this upcoming week?’’

For the sake of the rest of the country, it would have been merciful to keep the Giants out of prime time. They are 0-4 in night games this season, losing to the Cowboys (Sunday night), 49ers (Thursday night), Seahawks (Monday night) and Bills (Sunday night) by a combined score of 108-24. The only competitive game was the 14-9 loss in Buffalo.

Keeping Giants-Packers on Monday night is not ideal, but it makes sense. The Giants have won back-to-back games and the Packers are back in the playoff chase. Plus, these are brand-name franchises with big followings.

Of course, the Bills-Chiefs game would have been much more attractive to move to Monday night, but that was not an option, as the NFL locked itself in for Week 14 by giving the Jets and Giants home games. That meant the only game that could have been flexed into Monday night was the Jets-Texans game, and that was not going to happen given the Jets’ offensive ineptitude. The Texans have an exciting young quarterback in C.J. Stroud but otherwise are not prime-time magnets.

Expecting any major changes after the bye week?

Not really. There is already a bit of a youth movement underway on offense, with rookie wide receiver Jalin Hyatt getting more snaps and second-year pass-catcher Wan’Dale Robinson on the field with increased frequency.

What will be interesting is to see what happens at right tackle when Evan Neal is deemed ready to return from a sprained ankle. That could be as soon as this week. Neal has struggled much of the season, although he was playing better in the Week 9 game in Las Vegas, his first game back from a sprained right ankle, when he hurt his left ankle and was sidelined again. Tyre Phillips has held the fort as Neal’s replacement but it does not seem as if the coaching staff will keep Phillips in the starting lineup when Neal is fully healthy.

Lest we forget, Neal was the No. 7 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft and players taken that high usually receive plenty of second and third chances.