Giants fans don’t need John Harbaugh to come in and deliver a parade right away. What they want first is simpler than that: they want the Giants to look like a real team again.
That is the same kind of reset Tom Thibodeau gave the Knicks in his first season, when he helped them bounce back, play hard, and become a tough out in a way nobody had seen coming. The Giants are not being asked to win Harbaugh a second Super Bowl this year. They are being asked to compete in a brutal division and to show the kind of fight that makes a team worth watching.
Thibodeau’s Knicks finished fourth in the conference, then lost to Trae Young and the Hakws in five games. Still, that first year mattered.
It changed the mood. It made people believe something had been planted.
Harbaugh sounded like a coach seeing the same kind of early signs after the Giants’ work against the Dolphins on Thursday, even if Miami is expected to be one of the worst teams in the league this season.
“Our guys were strong in practice. We were getting stronger in practice. I saw that from every single player on the field.”
That’s the kind of line coaches love because it says the right things about effort, buy-in and direction. It also fits the bigger picture around the Giants right now.
From West Virginia on, the sense has been that this group looks legitimate again after falling apart last season, first under Brian Daboll and then under Mike Kafka. Nobody is pretending to know how many games that turns into once the regular season starts, especially with the Eagles, Cowboys and Commanders in the same division.
But the early tone is different.
The Giants’ trip to South Florida sounded like a good one by any measure. Jaxson Dart, in particular, had what was described as his best day of the summer.
He completed 17 of 21 passes and reportedly hit some deep balls that stood out. He was picked off once and took some sacks, but he came away encouraged.
“There were times we had a few mistakes, but were able to battle back and clean things up the next play or next rep. We were able to hit some big shots down the field, which I was really happy about,” Dart said.
Dart’s first season with the Giants gave fans plenty to grab onto. He played 14 games, threw 15 touchdown passes and only five interceptions, and brought energy to a team that often looked lifeless.
He also had moments that made supporters hold their breath in the open field. That’s the deal with a young quarterback: the upside is obvious, but the certainty isn’t there yet.
For now, Brian Burns, Abdul Carter and Arvell Reese may be the more reliable bets to become full-blown stars. Dart has talent, flair and personality, and he just turned 23 in May.
He can still become the guy. He just isn’t there yet.
That caution sounds a lot like something Bill Parcells would have said. Harbaugh is not being asked to become Parcells or Tom Coughlin in one season, and no one is handing out a championship label in August.
But if the Giants can get back to a winning record and build on that, it would resemble what Thibodeau did with the Knicks after David Fizdale and Mike Miller had left them at 21-45. Thibs took over and got them to 41-31.
At the time, nobody knew it would lead all the way to the Canyon of Heroes. It was enough that the direction had changed.
The same logic applies here. Even if everything goes right for Dart and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy’s offense, even if Malik Nabers stays a streak of light and Cam Skattebo turns into more than a flash in the pan, the Giants may still need the defense to carry the heaviest load.
There may be more star power on that side of the ball if this thing really takes off. And as Parcells always said, power wins.
Harbaugh doesn’t need to be Lombardi in his first season, or Parcells, or Coughlin. For now, Giants fans would settle for the same kind of first impression Thibodeau made: just be tough, just be real, and just give them a team that looks like it belongs.
In Other News...
Giants Suddenly Have A Real Darnell Mooney Trade Decision
The Texans loss of Jayden Higgins to a torn ACL has opened up another receiver-market question, and it lands on a Giants roster that has quietly built real depth at the position. After their offseason additions, New York suddenly has more usable pass-catchers than spots to feed them, with Darnell Mooney and Braxton Berrios among the names in the mix.
That is why Mooney has become a player worth watching as the Texans look for a replacement and the Giants weigh whether to turn a surplus into future value. He is on a one-year contract, which gives New York some flexibility, and there has already been trade interest from other teams, so this is no longer just a hypothetical for a club that could use the roster math to its advantage. [Read more 🡒]
Jameis Winston Put Himself At Center Of Giants Camp Chaos
A routine joint practice with the Dolphins turned into an afternoon the Giants would rather forget when a brawl broke out and Jameis Winston found himself at the center of the initial altercation. From there, things escalated quickly as players from both sides traded punches, forcing the kind of practice interruption teams usually only want to see in preseason highlight clips, not in a camp setting meant to sharpen timing and communication.
John Harbaugh said the Giants handled the fallout the same way they would during a game, with players who threw punches facing disciplinary action. The episode adds another layer of camp scrutiny around Winston and a Giants team still trying to keep its focus on football, even as tempers boiled over in front of both staffs and a number of players ended up sitting out the rest of practice. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Are Already Earning The Kind Of Respect Fans Wanted
Before Miami and New York got into their preseason work, the Giants found themselves getting the kind of outside respect that has often felt overdue. Dolphins rookie head coach Jeff Hafley was complimentary of John Harbaugh during the joint practice, pointing to the Giants coachs reputation for building a strong team culture and the kind of steady leadership that has defined his long run in the NFL.
Hafleys praise mattered because it came from a coach with his own NFL background, not from someone simply paying polite lip service in August. Harbaughs resume with the Ravens has already put him in the conversation among the leagues best, and even the Hall of Fame discussion tends to follow him for the same reason: sustained success, credibility in the locker room and a program that has long been viewed as a standard for how to do things the right way. [Read more 🡒]