What are you watching while the Giants are off?

Good afternoon New York Giants Fans, and welcome to your NFL Sunday!

As we all know, the Giants won’t be taking the field today after starting the week’s slate of games against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday Night Football. But while the Giants won’t be playing today, that doesn’t mean there won’t be games played in which they don’t have an interest.

Use this as an open thread for todays games and let us know what you’re watching

1p.m. Games

Dallas Cowboys (2-4) at Washington Football Team (1-5)

This is, obviously, the game which concerns the Giants the most. Considering the state of the NFC East (ie: an embarrassment to football), the division is still up in the air despite only one team having more than one win. Dallas would have been the winner on paper, but the injuries to Dak Prescott and G Zack Martin leave the Cowboys without their starting quarterback and four starters on their offensive line.

Washington is a bad team with injury concerns of their own, but they still retain their ferocious defensive front, and that could take over the game for them. A win by Dallas will help them stay ahead of the Eagles for the division crown, while a win by Washington would keep the race for the play-offs within sight for the Giants, as well as help New York in the draft order.

Buffalo Bills (4-2) at New York Jets (0-6)

Speaking of draft order, the Jets are the only team in the NFL who are objectively worse than the Giants. They also currently hold the first overall pick in the draft. If Giants fans are rooting for the team to draft Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence — or auction the rights to draft him — they’ll need the Jets to pick up a couple wins somewhere along the line.

That probably won’t happen today against the Bills, who have been well-built over the last few years and are easily the best team in the AFC East. But Giants’ fans can hope, right?

Detroit Lions (2-3) at Atlanta Falcons (1-5)

One last game worth watching with draft implications for the Giants is the one between Detroit and Atlanta. Neither of these teams are good, but if the Falcons are able to pick up a second win it would give the Giants a bit of breathing space.

There is a much better chance of the Falcons winning than the Jets.

4p.m. Games

Jacksonville Jaguars (1-5) at Los Angeles Chargers (1-4)

*Yes, I had to retype the sub-head after initially typing “San Diego”. Yes, LA Chargers still sounds weird to me.

Giants fans could watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on the Las Vegas Raiders (that’s still weird, too) to start getting familiar with Tampa Bay before next week’s meeting on Monday Night Football. But this is another match-up with potential draft implications for the Giants.

The Jags are currently tied with the Giants and reports surfaced this morning that they could bench starting QB Gardner Minshew. Minshew has always been a difficult analysis as a quarterback. While his play is exciting, its also polarizing, and while his raw stats are unimpressive (particularly in the Jags’ loss to Detroit a week ago), his advanced metrics are pretty good overall. He is unafraid to take chances and he has been relatively effective when doing so. A win for Jacksonville would likely mean Minshew keeping his job, but also remove another team from the 8-way tie of 1-win teams.

Justin Herbert has yet to get his first win as the Chargers’ quarterback, but has also been impressive to start his career.

Sunday Night Football

Seattle Seahwaks (5-0) at Arizona Cardinals (4-2)

The Giants don’t really have a rooting interest here, but this should just be a fun game overall. These are two fun teams with great quarterbacks. Russell Wilson is one of the very best in the NFL, a fact which some are only now coming to realize now that Seattle is actually letting Russ cook and throw the ball.

Kyler Murray is one of the most exciting players in all of football. Though he be but small, he is fierce, and Murray’s ability to make defenders look foolish with his legs while keeping his eyes downfield reminds of a young Russell Wilson. Likewise, Murray’s baseball background shows up big time when he is throwing out of structure. His ability to throw off-platform reminds of nothing so much as a fielder launching a baseball back to the catcher to pick off a runner at home plate. The Giants will see both of these teams later in the year, so at the very least this is a good opportunity to get a preview what New York could be in for in weeks 13 and 14.