Coming into the 2017 season, expectations were high for the New York Giants. It made sense. After all, they were coming off a 2016 season during which they went 11-5 and made the playoffs. They had one of the best defenses in football and they added new weapons for Eli Manning to throw to in Brandon Marshall and first-round tight end Evan Engram. 

And so while the Giants weren't necessarily considered an inner-circle Super Bowl contender, they were certainly in the mix in the next tier. They had the seventh-best preseason Super Bowl odds, behind only the Patriots, Seahawks, Packers, Steelers, Falcons and Cowboys. 

Of course, things have not played out as planned. Seven games into the season, the Giants are 1-6 and look like one of the worst teams in the NFL. Sure, they have been beset by injuries of late, but GM Jerry Reese believes there are other explanations for why the Giants are where they are. 

Yikes. That's not exactly a strong defense of the talent on hand, the coaching staff, or his own job of putting together a roster. There are a lot of holes on the team, first and foremost on the offensive line, but Reese's point about the Giants just not playing with the same fight they did last year is well-taken. 

A defense with as much talent as they have shouldn't be performing the way it is (27th in yards allowed, 17th in points allowed, 22nd in DVOA), and before all the injuries, the offense should have been able to at least competently move the ball even with poor blocking up front. Teams like the Seahawks and Texans have overcome worse offensive lines to be average or better offensively. 

Then again, maybe we shouldn't be surprised the Giants are in this situation. When they parted ways with Tom Coughlin two years ago, they kept almost everything else in place. They even replaced Coughlin with his own offensive coordinator. Despite the fact that owner John Mara said the roster was to blame for the team's struggles, they even kept Reese in place to continue molding the roster. They took a step forward last year after signing a bunch of big-ticket defensive free agents, but now they appear to be right back where they started. If the season continues on this path, there have to be more substantive changes in the management and coaching positions this time around.