The Giants are walking into Lincoln Financial Field with a very different kind of pressure this time around.
For years, that building has been a nightmare for New York. The Giants haven’t beaten the Eagles there since a 15-7 win on Nov.
27, 2013. Philadelphia has owned the division for much of the last stretch, taking the NFC East title three of the last four seasons, reaching two Super Bowls and winning one.
Meanwhile, the Giants went 11-38 from 2023-2025.
Now the roles are flipped. At the midpoint of the 2026 season, the Giants are the ones sitting on top of the NFC East at 4-2-1, and they enter Sunday as the betting favorite.
The Eagles, somehow, are the team trying to stop the bleeding after six straight losses and a last-place spot in the division. It’s a stunning turn, and it leaves one simple question hanging over this game: can the Giants actually handle prosperity?
That’s the test good teams pass. This is the kind of game they’re supposed to win.
One of the biggest reasons the matchup feels so strange is the state of the Giants’ backfield. Tyrone Tracy is on injured reserve with a hamstring injury, and Cam Skattebo missed Monday’s practice with a hamstring issue of his own.
Head coach John Harbaugh said Skattebo is “day to day up to the game.” As of now, the Giants still haven’t pulled off a trade for Jonathan Taylor, Derrick Henry, Tony Pollard, Breece Hall, or any other running back.
That leaves the depth chart looking thin in a hurry. Devin Singletary, who has 18 carries this season, may be the last man standing from the original backfield on Sunday.
Gregory Desrosiers is set to make his first NFL appearance after being signed off the Los Angeles Chargers practice squad. Phil Mafah, a practice squad back, has five NFL carries.
Eric Gray, who was released in cuts to the 53-man roster and then brought back to the practice squad, has six fumbles in 81 career touches.
The other major subplot is J.J. McCarthy, who has given the Giants exactly the kind of spark that gets people talking bigger than they probably should this early.
Since replacing Jameis Winston in the fourth quarter of a Week 6 loss to the New Orleans Saints, McCarthy has put together five excellent quarters. That’s enough to get fans and media members buzzing about McCarthy vs.
Jaxson Dart as a possible future quarterback conversation for the Giants. But there’s still a long road ahead before New York gets anywhere near that kind of decision.
McCarthy has been efficient, and he’s been winning. He is 7-4 as a starting quarterback and has won five straight starts.
But the pattern is obvious: he hasn’t been asked to carry too much in those games. That was true at Michigan, too, where his national championship run came with a lot of control and not a ton of burden.
The Week 7 win over Houston was the most he has had to do in a victory so far. He completed 20 of 28 passes for 252 yards, both career highs in a winning effort. Even then, the workload was still manageable.
The warning sign is what happens if that changes. McCarthy has only been asked to throw 30 or more passes twice in his career, and both of those games ended in losses. In those two outings, he went 36 of 74, a 48.6% completion rate, with two touchdown passes and four interceptions.
The passing charts tell their own story, too. Against the Texans, 27 of McCarthy’s 28 throws came outside the hash marks, with most of them outside the numbers.
That pattern has shown up across all 11 of his NFL starts. The question now is whether opponents can take away those preferred throwing lanes, squeeze the Giants’ passing game toward the middle of the field, and force McCarthy into a heavier load than he’s had to handle so far.
In Other News...
Giants Trade Deadline Push Just Got A Lot More Complicated
The trade deadline is getting closer, but the Giants are running into a familiar front-office problem: not enough draft capital to make a clean deal. New York has already sent away its fourth- and fifth-round picks this year to land Malachi Fields and J.J. McCarthy, and that has left Joe Schoen and John Harbaugh working with a thinner set of chips as they try to identify help that fits both the roster and the budget.
For a team that could still use a boost before Nov. 10, the challenge is not just finding the right player. It is finding a trade partner willing to work within the Giants' limited resources, and that has made the search more complicated than it looked a few weeks ago. The front office has acknowledged the constraints, and now the question is how creative it can get without overpaying for a move that has to make sense well beyond this season. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Suddenly Face A Deadline Decision That Could Shape The NFC East
The Giants have spent the early part of the season holding the top spot in the NFC East even while injuries have thinned out key parts of the roster, and the timing could hardly be more delicate. With Philadelphia and Washington both still ahead on the schedule, every roster move now carries a little extra weight, especially for a team trying to protect an unexpected lead in a division that rarely stays settled for long.
One of the more intriguing possibilities is whether New York will look to add help before the Nov. 10 trade deadline, with running back Jonathan Taylor among the names tied to the conversation. The appeal is obvious for a team trying to stay ahead in a tight race, but the price tag could be just as important as the fit, and the Giants have already seen how difficult it can be to land premium talent when the asking price gets steep. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Suddenly Linked To A Move Fans Never Saw Coming
The trade deadline chatter around Baltimore has started to spill into New York, with the Ravens reportedly weighing whether to deal running back Derrick Henry before Nov. 10. For the Giants, the mention is notable because it points to a player with a long track record of changing games and a team that could be looking at roster help as the deadline approaches. New England has also been floated as a possible landing spot, but the Giants are among the clubs now being tied to the discussion.
John Harbaugh has already acknowledged that Baltimore could make moves before the deadline, and that alone has kept the speculation alive. For the Giants, the connection is part football fit and part familiarity, which is why the idea has surfaced so quickly even without any confirmation of a deal. For now, it remains just that, but it is the kind of rumor that can reshape the conversation around a team in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]