The Giants’ 2026 offseason is drawing plenty of praise, and the latest round of national chatter keeps circling back to the same themes: a revamped roster, an upgraded middle of the defense, and a young quarterback whose talent comes with some obvious rough edges.
NFL.com handed New York an A+ in its offseason grades for every NFC team, pointing to the arrival of Harbaugh after his departure from Baltimore as the move that kicked everything into gear. The Giants didn’t stop there. They added four players who were with the Ravens last year, including breakout tight end candidate Isaiah Likely, and also brought in linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, cornerback Greg Newsome II, and defensive tackles DJ Reader and Shelby Harris.
The draft only added to the buzz. New York came away with Reese at No.
5, Mauigoa at No. 10, cornerback Colton Hood at No. 37, and wide receiver Malachi Fields at No. 74.
Gennaro Filice ranked the Giants’ class second among all 32 teams, and NFL.com’s view was that the team improved across the board this offseason.
One of the clearest reasons for the optimism is the linebacker group. ESPN highlighted the Giants’ work at inside linebacker as the most underrated move by the team, specifically the addition of Edmunds and the selection of Arvell Reese fifth overall out of Ohio State.
Even though many projected Reese as an edge rusher at the NFL level, the Giants see him as an inside linebacker. With Reese and Edmunds both listed at 6-foot-4, New York now has two long, physical bodies in the middle of the defense.
ESPN also noted that the setup should be an upgrade from last year’s starting combination of Bobby Okereke and Micah McFadden, with McFadden now in a reserve role despite being a proven NFL starter.
Jaxson Dart is also becoming a major talking point, and not just because of what he can do with the ball in his hands. Jameis Winston recently described the young quarterback’s approach as “inspiring” when asked about Dart before his second year in New York.
“He’s so confident,” Winston told Giants Huddle. “His obsession with learning every single day and challenging his teammates and challenging his coaches, it’s so inspiring.”
The numbers, though, show there’s still a lot for Dart to clean up. In PFF’s 2026 QB Annual, he was labeled his own worst enemy in the pocket.
PFF’s Allowed Pressures section separates ordinary pressure from QB-fault pressures, which are charged to the quarterback when his own pocket management or decision-making helps create the pressure. In 2025, Dart had the highest QB-fault pressure rate among qualifying starters, with 39.1% of the allowed pressures he faced coming from his own decisions rather than protection breakdowns.
CBS Sports also placed Dart in Tier 3 among starting quarterbacks ahead of the 2026 season, calling the group “Promising Prospects.” The piece described Dart as someone with impressive physical gifts and equally impressive determination, while also noting that John Harbaugh is again responsible for helping him maximize that talent and avoid unnecessary hits, which CBS Sports called Dart’s Achilles heel.
In Other News...
Tremaine Edmunds Might Be The Giants Fix Fans Stopped Believing In
The Giants went into the offseason knowing the middle of their defense needed more than a tweak. Last seasons run defense lived near the bottom of the league, and the signing of Tremaine Edmunds was aimed at giving the unit more size, experience and reliable tackling in a spot where opponents had too much room to work.
Edmunds is expected to be the steady starting point New York has been missing, but the rest of the linebacker room is still sorting itself out. Micah McFadden is fighting for his role, Arvell Reese still has to earn snaps, and the Giants are banking on Edmunds to bring some order to a position group that has not offered much of it lately. [Read more 🡒]
Jaxson Dart Just Entered A Debate Giants Fans Will Love
A recent NFL Media mock draft built around each players 2026 outlook gave Giants fans a little jolt of validation, because Jaxson Dart was treated like a quarterback whose stock is rising fast enough to belong in a conversation with established names. The exercise was not about where players were drafted originally, but about how they are viewed now, and Darts inclusion in that kind of discussion says plenty about the buzz he has already created.
Jalen Hurts is the other half of the debate, and the contrast is what makes it interesting for New York. Hurts has a Super Bowl ring, but he is also drawing fresh scrutiny around leadership, long-term viability and whether he is more of a system quarterback than a true team-elevator, while Dart is being framed as a young passer with legitimate upside and the kind of maturity that has helped his reputation grow quickly. For Giants fans, it is the sort of quarterback conversation that feels less like idle chatter and more like a sign that their own future at the position is starting to get noticed. [Read more 🡒]