How Giants are approaching bizarre late bye in lost 2025 season

The only missing pieces to this farewell scene were the black garbage bags.

There were Giants players, at the conclusion of a team meeting, gathering a few of their belongings, exchanging pleasantries with their teammates and then heading out the door. Their bodies surely felt as if they had just completed a long, hard season, and thanks to their bye week coming as late as possible — after 13 games — there was much more behind them than in front of them.

Winter had already arrived on this Tuesday afternoon — it was cold and raw outside — and it sure felt like another miserable Giants season had come to an end. It sure felt that this was “Baggie Day,’’ when teams clean out their lockers at the end of a season, stuff their belongings into large garbage bags and part ways, many never to return.

This was not that day, but it sure felt like this bunch needed a break. It sure felt like this was the end of something and not a late respite from something.