September is here, and the New York Giants are staring down a tough early read on where they really stand.
After a busy offseason, the buzz around the roster has already started to thin. Calvin Austin III’s season-ending knee injury and the recent running back drama have only made that optimism harder to hold onto, and the expectation is that John Harbaugh’s team could be headed for another double-digit loss season.
ESPN’s post-preseason power rankings didn’t bury the Giants, but they didn’t exactly lift them up, either. New York came in at No. 24, which left them last in the NFC East and fourth-worst in the NFC, behind only the Saints at No. 25, the Falcons at No. 26 and the Cardinals at No. 30.
That placement makes some sense on paper. The Giants have something a lot of the teams below them still don’t: a potential franchise quarterback sitting at the top of the depth chart. The same can’t really be said for the Raiders, who came in at No. 27 and have questions swirling around Fernando Mendoza, or the Jets at No. 29, who probably aren’t counting on Geno Smith to still be their starter by 2028.
The NFC East, meanwhile, still feels like a division that could be there for the taking. But the rest of the picture hasn’t made it any easier to sort out. The Cowboys at No. 15 are always a wild card in preseason projections, and a lot of the confidence around the Commanders at No. 20 has shifted into a debate about Jayden Daniels and whether he can truly be a franchise quarterback.
Then there are the Eagles, who landed all the way up at No. 5.
That ranking is eye-catching, but Tim McManus reported that Jalen Hurts “looked faster this summer when breaking from the pocket or executing designed runs,” and that still doesn’t quite sell the case for Philadelphia being a top-five team. At the very least, there’s skepticism there until Hurts shows that last year’s issues - on the field and, allegedly, in the locker room - were a one-off.
For the Giants, the bigger question is what a successful season even looks like. Dart’s health will matter in any answer to that, especially after trainers checked him for a concussion in last month’s preseason opener before he passed the test and went right back into the game.
Given how frustrating the Giants’ 2025 season was, No. 24 at least feels like a small step in the right direction. But the next two weeks should tell the story quickly: either Harbaugh’s group starts climbing ESPN’s rankings, or it settles in as another bottom-10 team.
In Other News...
Giants Added A Massive New Lineman With More Upside Than Expected
The Giants made a quietly interesting addition up front, sending a 2028 seventh-round pick to Baltimore for defensive lineman C.J. Okoye before moving him onto the 53-man roster. At 6-foot-6 and 365 pounds, Okoye arrives with the kind of frame that naturally turns heads, and his path through the International Pathway Program has already given him a different kind of NFL background than most young linemen.
Okoye spent much of the 2025 season on the Ravens active roster, and the Giants are betting there is more to work with than the usual depth-piece profile. He has flashed enough as a rotational defensive lineman to warrant a closer look, even if his game still comes with clear areas to refine, which makes this a classic low-cost gamble on size, traits and untapped upside. [Read more 🡒]
Malik Nabers Just Put The Giants In A Tough Week 1 Spot
Malik Nabers is sounding better by the day, but the Giants still do not have a clean answer on their top receiver's availability for Week 1. Nabers said his surgically repaired right knee feels good with two weeks left before the regular-season opener, and he has made clear that he wants to be fully healthy before he gets back on the field after surgery to repair a torn ACL and meniscus, plus a follow-up procedure to address scar tissue.
Head coach John Harbaugh had already left open the possibility that Nabers could be ready for the Dallas Cowboys, which only sharpened the anticipation around his status. For now, though, Nabers is not giving the Giants the certainty they would like, and the next stretch of practices will go a long way toward showing whether he can truly return in time or whether the team will have to wait a little longer for its most important pass catcher. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Practice Squad Decisions Just Clarified Their Week 1 Roster Plan
The Giants filled out part of their early-season depth chart by adding four players to the practice squad, a group that brings a little bit of everything to the back end of the roster. Wide receiver and kick returner Charlie Jones gives the team another option in the return game, cornerback Elijah Jones adds to the secondary, and offensive linemen Kingsley Eguakun and Darian Kinnard bolster the trenches as New York keeps building out insurance behind its Week 1 roster.
The mix says a lot about how the Giants want to cover themselves in the opening weeks, especially with special teams, cornerback depth and offensive line flexibility all accounted for. The full practice squad is now set, and while these moves do not change the headline names on the active roster, they help clarify the teams thinking as it pieces together the first wave of in-season protection against injuries and weekly roster churn. [Read more 🡒]