The NFL season may still be a few months away, but the excitement is already building with the release of the 2023 NFL schedule. The Giants are hoping to build off a successful 2022 campaign and the league schedule makers have seemed to take notice.
New York’s schedule has plenty of notable tidbits in it, from the amount of time the Giants will be away from at the start of the year to the five primetime games that they’ll have over the course of the year. They’ll also have to go through a tough stretch of games early on making the start of the year crucial to any attempt by the Giants to repeat last year’s success.
The Giants are slated to face the third toughest schedule in the NFL based on last year’s standings, but ultimately the play on the field will dictate how true that really is. Here are a few takeaways from the Giants’ 2023 schedule.
A long way from home
The Giants will play six of their first 10 games on the road and won’t play at home consecutively until Week 7 and Week 8 when they host the Washington Commanders and New York Jets respectively. Big Blue will also spend an extended period of time away from East Rutherford when they host the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in Week 2 and stay out west until Thursday when they face the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night in Week 3.
The Giants went 4-4 on the road last season so setting the right tone early this year will go a long way.
Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll’s return to Buffalo
Speaking of those early road trips, Week 6’s excursion to Buffalo will be a big one for many reasons. The biggest being the Giants general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll returning to their former stomping grounds. Both had successful tenures in Orchard Park which eventually led to both men being hired by the Giants. Don’t worry Daboll won’t bite at the hundreds of questions he’ll be asked leading up to the game, but it will be a special one for both.
Additionally, that’s a pretty good football team they have in Buffalo and one of the toughest offenses the Giants will go up against. Josh Allen will put the Giants’ defense to the test and six weeks into the season could really show where New York stands. Not to mention, this will be a nationally televised game on Sunday Night Football.
Primetime Giants
Kayvon Thibodeaux famously said last season that “primetime likes me” in response to a question about his enjoyment of playing in the spotlight. Thibodeaux and the Giants will get several chances for that this season with five primetime games on the schedule for New York, including the season opener on Sunday Night Football against the Cowboys.
Four of the five primetime showdowns will come in the first six weeks of the NFL calendar. Big Blue will also get the chance to play on Christmas Day, which will draw plenty of eyeballs.
A bit of a break
The NFL did the Giants a small favor early on in the schedule with those back-to-back games out west. While being away for an extended period of time may not be so much fun at that moment, it keeps the Giants from having to make fewer cross-country trips and gives them an extended period of rest after Week 3 since they wouldn’t play again until the Monday night game in Week 4.
