Giants are only concerned with fulfilling their own high expectations

Expectations in the NFL are like a volatile roller coaster. They can be exhilarating when met or exceeded. And they can make you sick when things aren’t so easy.

When Brian Daboll was hired to replace Joe Judge as the Giants’ head coach in 2022, the team was in the midst of a five-season slump that included just 22 wins against 59 losses.

So the expectations for Daboll’s first season out of the Giants locker room weren’t exactly what you’d call high.

However, there were the Giants, who finished 9-7-1 and won a wild-card playoff game at Minnesota, earning Daboll NFL Coach of the Year honors. It was the Giants’ first postseason game in 2016 and their first playoff win since the 2011 Super Bowl season.

Such success was not expected by anyone, least of all Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen, who were embarking on a complete culture reboot and roster dismantling and were poised for a slow and steady climb to respectability.

The immediate and surprising success proved to be something of a curse, however, as the bar was raised to a level that the 2023 Giants could not match.

This has Giants fans wondering what the expectations should be for the team this season.

Starting cornerback Daniel Jones has recovered from the torn ACL that ended his season prematurely in ’23. There’s also the loss of running back Saquon Barkley, the team’s best offensive player, and the addition of Brian Burns. And the offensive line, with some additions and better health, is expected to be better.

So what to expect from the Giants this year?

“I don’t think people’s expectations are very high outside of this building,” wide receiver Darius Slayton told The Post after Tuesday’s practice. “Because of our record last year (6-11), people probably don’t expect it to be much different this year.

“But I don’t put too much thought into what people expect from us. Whether people say we’re the best team in the NFL or the worst team, you’ve got to overcome that. Either way, you have to be balanced and have your own expectations within the building and try to live up to them.

Slayton, one of the oldest players on the roster in his sixth season with the Giants, added that he’s “definitely excited about this year because we have a lot of talent — a lot of young talent.”

To illustrate the state of the roster, linebacker Azeez Ojulari, drafted in 2021, is the only player on the roster not drafted, signed or re-signed by Schoen.

Much has changed in the more than two years of the Daboll-Schoen regime.

“You just focus on this year,” Daboll said when asked about expectations. “This will be my 24th season. I was part of 15 winning seasons, eight losing seasons. One season he won a Super Bowl, the next year he (didn’t) make the playoffs.

“It’s really what you do every year. I said it after the first year, (and) I’ll say it again after the second year. We have a new team, new people in the building and we will work as hard as we can to be as good as we can be. It’s a new year. We have a lot of work to do.”

Tight end Daniel Bellinger said one of the keys to managing expectations for this year is not dwelling on what happened last year.

“There’s nothing we can do about the past,” Bellinger told The Post. “There’s nothing we can do about the injuries we had (last year). It’s all gone and now we just have to focus on what’s in front of us and capitalize on the mistakes we made last year and make sure we don’t do them again.

“Of course there is outside noise online and on social media. We see it. We are aware of that. But for me, and for us, it means being able to block all that out and focus on what we can control within. As a team collectively, if we’re not achieving our highest goals, we have to do something about it.”

That was exactly the point of Ojulari, who said: “We have to get back to being that playoff team that we were (in 2022). We know how we were before…and we want to get back to winning games and make the playoffs. We have expectations to win.”

Wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson said the key to managing outside expectations is “not really worrying about them.”

“They’re not in the locker room and they’re not with us every workday,” Robinson said. “We have our own expectations of what we want to look like.”

What is this?

“We just expect to win,” Robinson said. “About as simple as that.”