John Michael Schmitz is running out of runway in New York.
The Giants’ center enters 2026 in the final season of his rookie deal, and the team still doesn’t know whether the 2023 second-round pick is part of the long-term answer or just holding the seat warm. Three years in, the production has landed in the same uneasy middle ground: good enough to keep playing, not good enough to stop the questions.
That matters even more now with Jaxson Dart heading into Year 2 and a new John Harbaugh staff stressing physicality up front. The middle of the offensive line has become the key variable, and Schmitz is the player sitting right in the middle of it.
The Giants drafted him 57th overall to be a stabilizer, the kind of center who could anchor the interior for years. Instead, they’ve gotten a starter who has been functional without ever really breaking through.
His rookie contract is a four-year, $6.37 million deal, and his $4.33 million cap hit in 2026 is manageable for now. But once he reaches free agency in 2027, the Giants will have to decide whether he’s worth paying at market rate or whether they need to find his replacement.
That’s the tension here. A Day 2 pick was supposed to solve the position. Instead, the front office is staring at a decision that feels very much up in the air.
The numbers back up that uneasy read. Schmitz finished 2025 with a 60.8 overall PFF grade, 29th out of 40 qualified centers.
He posted a 60.9 pass-blocking grade and a 63.3 run-blocking grade, and he gave up 14 total pressures, one sack, and one hit. Those are the marks of a usable starter, not a player you build around.
His career arc has followed a familiar shape: rough start, real jump, then a plateau. After a brutal rookie year, he improved in Year 2, then leveled off in Year 3 instead of pushing into the upper tier at his position.
Season PFF overall Pass-block grade
2023 41.4 26.9
2024 61.4 50.2
2025 60.8 60.9
The pass protection growth is real. Schmitz went from a 26.9 pass-blocking grade as a rookie to 60.9 last season, which is a major step forward. But the overall grade sitting in the low 60s for a second straight season is exactly the kind of thing that leaves a coaching staff wanting more.
That’s especially true under a new setup. Harbaugh has turned the offense over to coordinator Matt Nagy and the line to new position coach Mike Bloomgren, and the spring message has been about more physicality and more versatility across the front.
Schmitz is at the center of that shift in every sense. He’s the one setting protections, and he’s doing it in front of a young quarterback who needs the pocket to hold.
The 2025 interior of Jon Runyan, Schmitz, and Greg Van Roten took its share of the blame for the line’s struggles, and the new staff has already moved the guard spots around him. That leaves Schmitz with a straightforward but unforgiving assignment: raise his floor while the pieces around him keep changing.
The Giants can live with an average center for one more season if he’s still on a rookie contract. They can’t treat him like a cornerstone unless he starts playing like one. Camp opens at The Greenbrier on July 28, and that’s when the clock on his make-or-break year really starts ticking.
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