Russell Wilson’s short tenure with the New York Giants may be in jeopardy after his lackluster performance on Sunday night. The 37-year-old veteran completed only 56% of his passes and threw two interceptions in an ugly 22-9 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. It was the worst performance of his career since posting a quarterback rating under 40 with the Seattle Seahawks in 2021 against the Green Bay Packers.

It got so bad that fans were not only booing Wilson after missing three straight red-zone passes, but chanted that they wanted rookie Jaxson Dart to come in. He did come in for only three snaps, handing the ball off twice and rushing one for three yards. This team is in some serious trouble if the fanbase is already turning on them.

Russell Wilson Is Too Volatile To Be Dependable

One minute, Wilson was being hailed as the potential season-long starter for the Giants after three years of poor Daniel Jones play and more years of a quarterback carousel. The next minute, the fans are booing and chanting for him to be benched for the young gun. Wilson’s collapse was a long time coming and became straight-up inevitable after his time in Denver.

Since leaving Seattle in 2021, Wilson’s productivity has taken a notable hit, especially with his legs. He’s not the same scrambler he was with in Seattle, watching his yards per attempt fall under four years in Pittsburgh from an average of six in Seattle. He’s been running the bar a bit more effectively with New York, but it’s clearly taking a toll.

He looks frazzled in the pocket, having to run away from defenders and make very poor decisions on the fly. It’s resulted in a 50% on-target rate through the first three games, slightly below the league average so far this year. But his bad throw percentage is the sixth-worst in the league, behind guys like Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes.

It is early, but there’s a clear issue here with the team’s offensive structure that might not entirely fall against Russell Wilson.

Mike Kafka’s Offense is Not Working

The offensive line issues on the team have been talked to death, but now the rage should be turned to offensive coordinator Mike Kafka’s inept structure. The elephant in the Giants’ front office is that his offense has not only been unresponsive, but it’s also detrimental to the team. Nothing that this team is doing on the offensive side of the ball is working as planned.

Following their surprise 2022 campaign, the Giants' offense finished in the bottom five in total yards for back-to-back years. They finished in the bottom five in total offensive touchdowns in 2023, and in 2024, as their offensive stars either faded or walked to other teams. It can be chalked up to a lack of a running game and a decent starting quarterback, but the team isn’t able to adapt to adversity.

There is a reason the team took Kafka’s playcalling abilities away and there’s a reason why they didn’t give it back to him until this year. Head coach Brian Daboll was reportedly unhappy with Kafka’s play selection and the structure of the offense. Under the assumption that Russell Wilson could at least help with the stability on offense, Daboll gave that power back to Kafka, and it hasn’t panned out at all.

Dysfunction in the offense and who is calling the plays is showing two things: One, Kafka is incapable of building an offense unless he has a specific level of talent on the team. Two, the makeup of the Giants’ coaching staff is not only at odds with each other, but it’s going to start hurting the development of the rookies on the offense.

Will The Young Guns Lose Precious Development?

The continuing drama in the locker room between coaches and the dysfunction in the front office pose a grave danger to the rookies on this team. Debates over Kafka and Daboll’s direction are sending this offense into an early grave this season, and present a mounting challenge for Dart, rookie running back Cam Skattebo, second-year wide receiver Malik Nabers, among others.

However, the question for the front office is how to navigate this. Do they sink the team again this year and then fire everyone at the end of the season? Do they make changes now to try and save their season before it’s too late? Whatever it is, it’s going to waste their development by going under a new coaching regime and offensive coordinator. It’s unlikely a lot of people will keep their jobs at this rate.