What to make of the New York Giants? On one hand, the coach and GM have no idea what they are doing. On the other, Abdul Carter and competence at QB will make this team better than the embarrassment they have fielded the last few years. They are still the worst team in the division, but they won’t be gunning for the top overall pick this season.
It Starts at the Top
The Giants have been a trainwreck for years, but nothing was worse than the very public embarrassment they suffered last season. Through Hard Knocks, they agreed to a behind the scenes look into their decision-making process that gave everyone an up close view of the botched Saquon Barkey situation. Their biggest fear was their beloved star going to their biggest rival the Eagles, which he did, and had the season of a lifetime. Despite this and the 3-14 season that featured an end of year win that took them out of the running for the #1 overall pick, both Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll were retained. In their 51 games as a tandem, they are 18-32-1.
The plan for the 2026 Giants should have been simple, continue being bad. Another round of crappy QB roulette would have made Giants fans groan, but the prospect of another bad season isn’t so bad when you have a shot at a generational QB. It isn’t just Arch Manning at the top of the prospect list next year, it’s LaNorris Sellers and Cade Klubnik too, plus whoever else distills over the next 5 months. The Giants need a QB desperately.
Instead, Joe Schoen went Leroy Jenkins on the Giants. Not only did he bring in a bit of competence in Russell Wilson, but he set sail for the future by trading up for Jaxson Dart. The Wilson signing is problematic in its own right. Granted, there is a good shot he is cooked, but he might just be capable of slinging the ball to Malik Nabers enough to win some games. It won’t be many games, but it will probably be enough to take the Giants out of the top 5 picks. The Dart selection may set the franchise back several years though.
The Draft
The two main developments from the draft for the Giants are Abdul Carter and Jaxson Dart. The Giants of the next 5 years depend completely on those two.
There isn’t much to say about Carter other than he will be good for a long time. He was seen as the most sure thing talent in this draft and the Giants were lucky to be so bad that he was available. It is the Giants though, so nothing can simply be perfect. Their pass rush rotation right now is very solid with Carter and Brian Burns. Of course, that leaves 4th year EDGE, and no friend of Philly, Kayvon Thibodeaux. Are they going to pay him too or give up on the former #5 overall pick? Again, Carter was a no-brainer and the right choice, but this means their other recent high draft pick will either be leaving or overpaid to be the third rotational rusher.
The QB situation in this year’s draft was unlike any that I can remember. Cam Ward was a mile out front, but Shadeur Sanders could have gone in the top 5, not top 5 rounds but top 5 picks. He didn’t. After Ward and Sanders there was a mess of guys at QB3, all with 3rd round or later grades from most scouts. The Giants made the decision to move back into the first round to select Jaxson Dart out of Ole Miss. Was this some kind of panic move? God forbid someone overdraft a QB before they did. I am convinced this was done entirely because his name is Jaxson Dart. They weren’t going to convince themselves that that name “Tyler Shough” was their guy.
I am not down on Dart the prospect as he has looked at least not incompetent in the preseason. He might be a solid QB. Is he going to be elite? More than likely not. All they did was disqualify themselves from one of those 3 guys at the top of next year’s draft. I am not saying that Giants fans shouldn’t be excited for Dart, but they would have to agree that nabbing an offensive lineman in order to protect Arch Manning or a different top prospect would have been the better play. Now the team is almost forced to build around Dart and give him every chance to be “the guy” for the next few years. This seems an awful lot like the Daniel Jones situation all over again.
The Team
The Giants are devoid of talent. After Malik Nabers, who is their best player on offense? You might want to say LT Andrew Thomas, but not only did he miss most of last season due to injury, but he still isn’t 100% yet. Without Thomas, the Giants are going nowhere fast because the rest of the offensive line is still comically bad.
On defense, the team should be solid considering the previously mentioned EDGE committee and Dexter Lawrence in the middle. The team picked up free agent Javon Holland for the secondary for almost the same price they didn’t pay Xavier McKinney the previous season. That secondary is just good enough to make Giants fans confused as to why they are giving up so many touchdowns.
Even with the few glimpses of high end talent on this team like Carter, Thomas, Nabors, and Lawrence, there is no depth to support it. Obviously if any of them go down it will be a problem, but even healthy, there are too many leaks in the dam around them.
Prediction
What is the best-case scenario in North Jersey? Is it Russell Wilson being good? Probably not. Is it Wilson being bad so Dart comes in? Let’s say Dart comes in and performs well enough for Schoen and Daboll to keep their jobs, is that a good thing? Having a good QB beats everything, but it is really hard to map out what a successful season looks like for the Giants. Maybe the best case is really the worst case, everyone sucks and everyone is fired. Arch Manning is a NY Giant under a new decision-making regime and all the old heads who jumped ship the last few years come back.
The worst possible outcome is probably the most likely. Imagine Russell Wilson starts out decent, going 4-4 but it looks horrible, and the fans call for Dart. Their poor decision makers decide that they can’t make the fans any more upset and acquiesce to their demands. Dart comes in and the vets are mad that he ruined what they had going and he struggles at first. He eventually becomes competent and the Giants go 7-10 on some fluke wins. Now they give Schoen and Daboll a contract extension and give the keys to Dart. They are fired a year later when Dart plays himself out of a job.
Philly Front Office 
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