Coaching Staff
Head Coach: John Harbaugh
Offensive Coordinator: Matt Nagy
Defensive Coordinator: Dennard Wilson
Special Teams Coordinator: Chris Horton
2025 Summary (W-L Record: 4-13)
The Giants have been more or less a dysfunctional franchise since firing Tom Coughlin after the 2015 season. In fact, their 55-109-1 W-L record since then is the 2nd worst in the NFL during that span.
Last year was just as dysfunctional as any in the last decade. The Giants won just 4 games, turned the act of blowing leads into a consistent habit, fired their head coach in midseason, got rid of their defensive coordinator just a few weeks later, and couldn’t seem to get their 3rd-overall pick to show up for every single meeting and walk-through.
Par for the course over the last decade.
Order needed to be restored in this organization. Which is why they pursued an established head coach like John Harbaugh, who not only has a Super Bowl ring but knows how to get a group of men to play sound football in all three phases.
I’m not sure how much can be taken from last year’s team performance since the Giants will be so different this season. The one good thing that seemed to come from a disastrous 2025 was that they appear to have found their quarterback of the future in Jaxson Dart. Although he still has plenty to work on:
Jaxson Dart Has a Bright Future, But He Needs to Clean Up These Two Areas of His Game
Jaxson Dart’s rookie season was a promising one for the Giants. He finished with an impressive 24 total touchdowns and just 7 turnovers and showed potential from his first start to his last.
Key Additions
FB Patrick Ricard
WR Darnell Mooney
WR Calvin Austin III
WR Odell Beckham Jr.
WR JuJu Smith-Schuster
WR Malachi Fields (3rd Rd, 74th Overall)
TE Isaiah Likely
RG Francis Mauigoa (1st Rd, 10th Overall)
G Daniel Faalele
DL D.J. Reader
DL Shelby Harris
DL Leki Fotu
DL Sam Roberts
LB Tremaine Edmunds
LB Arvell Reese (1st Rd, 5th Overall)
CB Greg Newsome
CB Colton Hood (2nd Rd, 37th Overall)
S Jason Pinnock
Key Losses
WR Wan’Dale Robinson
TE Daniel Bellinger
RG Greg Van Roten
C Austin Schlottmann
DL Dexter Lawrence
DL D.J. Davidson
DL Rakeem Nunez-Roches
LB Bobby Okereke
LB Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles
CB Cordale Flott
S Dane Belton
Biggest Questions Entering 2026
Can Jaxson Dart take the next step?
In breaking down Dart’s 2025 all-22 tape, it was clear that he has a great feel for how to play the position and can make things happen with his off-schedule ability:
However, every area that can be considered a strength also needs more refinement.
He is one of the most interesting quarterbacks to keep an eye in the NFL this year because he is capable of taking off and becoming a star. But he is also capable of stagnating due to some bad habits and his overall style of play.
On the one hand, it’s encouraging that his offensive coordinator, Matt Nagy, was the Chiefs offensive coordinator in 2017 when Patrick Mahomes was a rookie.
Dart has a similar nature to a younger Mahomes in that he wants to break the structure of the play and tends to get into sandlot mode too often. That tendency needs to be reeled in.
At the same time, how much credit can be given to Nagy for Mahomes’ development when he wasn’t with the Chiefs during Mahomes’ first year as a starter (2018)? And when he moved on to take the Bears head coaching gig, he wasn’t able to develop Mitch Trubisky (the 2nd overall pick in the same draft as Mahomes) into a franchise quarterback.
At this point, you can make an argument in either direction for Nagy being the right guy to help Dart make the leap. Only time will tell.
What will the receiving corps look like?
This is one of the biggest questions with the Giants offense. The hope is that their best wide receiver, Malik Nabers will be in the lineup as his normal explosive self for the entire season. That seems to be a huge IF right now given the new information about a recent 2nd procedure on his knee and the current uncertainty that he’ll be ready for Week 1.
Even with Nabers back, the Giants have a lot of questions at #2 and beyond. They signed a ton of wide receivers this offseason (Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin III, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and even Odell Beckham Jr.!), and they traded up to take Malachi Fields in the third round. The Giants also still have Ol’ Reliable Darius Slayton on the roster as well.
This could end up being a really good wide receiving corps. But no one can tell you exactly who will be the #2 receiver, #3, and beyond. It will be one of the major stories of the Giants’ 2026 season.
What will the offensive approach be?
This gets us to their offensive approach. We know that Harbaugh wants his offense to have a hard-nosed blue-collar element to it. He’s going to run the football both with their running backs and with Jaxson Dart (he didn’t shy away from that with Lamar Jackson in Baltimore).
The Giants have also given us a few hints this offseason that they want to major in the run game. They used their 10th overall pick on tackle Francis Mauigoa, who they’ll likely move inside to right guard. Maui will certainly bring a physical element to this O-line.
One of the most interesting (and telltale) moves that the Giants made this offseason was the addition of former Raven and defensive-tackle-turned-fullback Patrick Ricard.
In Baltimore, Ricard was used regularly in the run game as a 300-pound lead blocker who could move defenders with ease:
He’s basically like a 6th offensive lineman who operates out of the backfield. And the Giants brought him over for one purpose…to run the football.
New York also signed former Raven tight end Isaiah Likely, another indicator that the Giants’ offense might resemble Baltimore’s and lean on bigger personnel.
For instance, last year the Ravens utilized “21” and “12” personnel at the 3rd-highest rate in the NFL according to SumerSports. They used the lowest rate of “11” personnel (3 wide receivers).
If the Giants take that same approach and only need 2 receivers the majority of the time, that might easy some of the unknowns mentioned above with their receiving corps.
Still, as physical as the Giants might want to be, much will depend on the health of their backfield. Will Cam Skattebo be ready for week 1 and effective in his return from a gruesome leg injury? Will Dart be able to keep himself on the field and out of the concussion tent? Availability, as well as how good their receivers look, will likely determine much of the Giants’ offensive approach.
How big of a hole will the interior D-line be?
On paper, the Giants defense looks legit. They’ve got very good talent at all 3 levels. However, their interior D-line is a huge question mark.
The loss (via trade) of arguably the best nose tackle in the game won’t be an easy one to handle. And even before Dexter Lawrence was dealt to the Bengals, he still wasn’t enough on his own to make up for the lack of depth they had inside.
That no doubt contributed to the Giants having perhaps the worst rushing defense in the NFL last season (31st in rushing yards per game, dead last in yards per attempt and runs of 10+ yards allowed).
The Giants added a stable of defensive tackles this offseason (D.J. Reader, Shelby Harris, Leki Fotu, Sam Roberts). None are anywhere near as impactful as Lawrence. However, depth is definitely one of the most important components of a good D-line, and the Giants set out to make sure they at least had a good rotation to work with.
But opponents will definitely test the waters here. If offenses can find success running the ball inside, they can neutralize what should be a dangerous pass rush.
How will the Giants use Arvell Reese?
Reese is a complete freak of nature. He’s explosive, flies around the field, and could have been selected at the top of the draft to be solely an off-the-ball linebacker or an edge rusher:
Giants brass has indicated that they’ll pair Reese as a stacked backer with new free agent signing Tremaine Edmunds.
That makes some sense given the firepower the Giants have at edge rusher (Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, and Kayvon Thibodeaux). However, new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson doesn’t have to make him a static player. And I hope he doesn’t.
I’d love to see him used in similar fashion to how Micah Parsons was earlier in his career when Dallas aligned him in a variety of different positions (off the ball linebacker, edge rusher, inside blitzer, and even as a spy in select situations).
Perhaps Wilson can put Reese off the ball inside on early downs and let him track down ball carriers in the run game or drop out into coverage. And then once you get into more obvious passing situations, they can line him up on the edge. They can have him stand up over the center. They can have him blitz.
We can see an absolutely dangerous NASCAR 4-down pass-rushing package with Reese, Carter, Burns, and Thibodeaux. Perhaps something similar to what the Super Bowl XLVI Champion Giants had in 2011 with Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, Jason Pierre-Paul, and Mathias Kiwanuka:
They’ll be able to create mismatches all across the offensive line. Let’s hope they take advantage of Reese’s versatility and use him in a multitude of ways.
2026 Outlook
The bottom line is that this team has all the ingredients they need to get back to “Giant football.” Physicality on both sides of the ball. Emphasis on the run game. A dangerous pass rush. And a head coach who knows what the hell he’s doing.
It’s no surprise that they seem to be everyone’s favorite pick to have the biggest turnaround this season.