The Giants are heading into 2026 with a lot of moving parts, and one of the quieter competitions on the roster may end up being one of the most revealing. Under new head coach John Harbaugh, New York is trying to reshape a team that spent too much time near the bottom of the NFC, and the kicking game is part of that overhaul.
This summer, Ben Sauls and Dominic Zvada will battle for the job. It’s a competition that matters more than it might first appear, especially for a coach like Harbaugh, who spent years with Justin Tucker in Baltimore and knows exactly what a reliable kicking operation is supposed to look like. He’s not going to accept inconsistency in New York.
Sauls is the only one of the Giants’ four kickers from last season still on the roster. He arrived last November after spending time with the Steelers and Falcons as an undrafted rookie out of Pittsburgh. The Giants turned to him after Graham Gano, Jude McAtamney and Younghoe Koo struggled during the year.
In three games, Sauls made three of four field-goal tries and hit all seven extra points he attempted. That was enough to keep him in the mix, but not enough to lock anything down.
Zvada brings a different profile. He started at Arkansas State before transferring to Michigan ahead of the 2024 season. Across his college career, he made 72 of 87 field goals and missed just two of 142 extra points, finishing at 82.8 percent on field goals.
He also arrives with the stronger leg, which is part of the appeal. The Giants want power, sure, but they want accuracy with it. That’s the real test here: whether Zvada can pair that leg strength with the kind of consistency Harbaugh is looking for.
The buzz around Zvada already showed up early in camp. As the Giant Insider Podcast and Newspaper posted on July 31, 2026: “Dominic Zvada....a 57-yarder in day two of practice.
The leg is there to be one of the best long game kickers in football.”
That kind of leg will get attention, but the job won’t be decided on one bomb in practice. Every rep matters, every miss matters, and both kickers will likely get chances in preseason games. Sauls is the one under the most pressure because he’s trying to hold onto a job he only picked up late last season, while Zvada is the challenger with the bigger leg and, at least on paper, the higher ceiling.
The Giants are giving Sauls a real shot, and that makes sense. But Zvada should enter the summer as the slight favorite. If he looks the way the Giants hope he will, this battle may not stay close for long.
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