Tisch: Kraft says Giants would have won Super Bowl

Giants co-owner Steve Tisch was happy with the team's return to prominence this season, but thought they might have wasted an opportunity to win another Super Bowl.

His opinion, interestingly enough, was buoyed by some intel from Patriots owner Robert Kraft himself.

"I could not have been happier," Tisch said of his team's 2016 season, via NJ.com. "But would I have liked to have gone deeper in the playoffs? Of course. Would I have liked to have ended up in Houston, absolutely. Especially because Bob Kraft, after the Super Bowl, told me, 'You would've beat us.' That made me feel good. That was a nice compliment."

The Giants had a far better defense than the Atlanta Falcons, even though Dan Quinn had his unit playing top notch for half of the Super Bowl. It remains to be seen whether or not Ben McAdoo's offense would have been able to score with the Patriots this time around.

Kraft was probably just being nice, but I wonder what about last year's Giants team would make him say that? The Giants were arguably deeper at defensive back and defensive line, though Atlanta did maximize their talent defensively down the stretch and see some young stars emerge from the fold.

While it doesn't really matter -- this is, after all, a theoretical matchup between two teams that did not even play one another in the 2016 regular season -- I would find it interesting if Kraft was somehow speaking on behalf of Bill Belichick, or speaking after hearing something similar from the Patriots head coach.

The Giants and Patriots have developed into great postseason rivals thanks to two thrilling Super Bowls in the last 10 years. Hopefully we will get one more with Eli Manning and Tom Brady still around.