The Giants have spent the first five weeks of the 2026 season taking hits that would flatten most teams. Jaxson Dart is gone for the year.
Brian Burns is gone for the year. And somehow New York is still sitting at 3-1-1 with a game-and-a-half cushion in the NFC East.
That’s not an accident. After a 4-13 mess in 2025 that got Brian Daboll fired midseason, the organization needed a total reset, and general manager Joe Schoen treated it that way. The biggest swing was the one that changed the tone of everything else: hiring John Harbaugh as head coach.
Harbaugh brought a résumé that already spoke for itself - 18 seasons, 180 wins, 12 playoff appearances and a Super Bowl championship - but the real proof has been in how the Giants have responded when the season threatened to go sideways. On Sunday, down 27-13 in the fourth quarter on the road, New York ripped off 14 straight points to force overtime.
Since 1970, the Giants had been 0-230 when trailing by 14 or more with under eight minutes left. After Sunday, they’re 0-230-1.
That tie matters because the division race is right there in front of them, and Harbaugh has already shown he isn’t rigid about how to get there. He’s adjusted on offense without Dart and has let Dennard Wilson rethink how the defense attacks the quarterback. Not everything has hit, but the bigger point is obvious: this staff is chasing wins, not ego.
The same kind of judgment showed up when the Giants let Wan'Dale Robinson walk for a massive deal in Tennessee. Robinson put up 1,014 yards and 92 catches on a 4-13 team last year, but that production came on 140 targets in an offense with nobody else healthy to throw to. Tennessee gave him $70 million over four years with $38 million guaranteed, and through five games there, he has 22 catches for 176 yards on a 0-5 team that can’t really threaten downfield.
New York used that money differently. Part of it went to Isaiah Likely, and the early return has been huge.
Likely has already outproduced Robinson with 33 catches, 284 yards and four touchdowns. Add Malik Nabers getting back to himself, and Famous Jameis suddenly has two clear targets to lean on.
Likely’s arrival may be the most complete hit of the bunch. The Giants paid him like a top option even though he had spent four years backing up Mark Andrews in Baltimore, and that came with plenty of skepticism.
A month in, though, it looks like a home run. Against the Commanders, he caught 11 passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns.
He and Nabers also became just the second WR/TE duo in NFL history to each post 11-plus catches, 90-plus yards and a touchdown in the same game. He isn’t being used like a traditional tight end, either; the Giants move him all over the field and let his size and speed create problems all over the formation.
Up front, New York also made a sharp move after trading Dexter Lawrence to Cincinnati for the No. 10 pick, Francis Mauigoa. Losing a player like Lawrence always stings, but the Giants answered by signing DJ Reader to a two-year, $12.5 million deal to fill the space.
The stat line is modest - 13 tackles in five games - but that’s not the job. Reader is there to occupy blockers, and the grading tells a better story.
His 87.6 overall grade ranks third among 132 interior defenders, and his 81.6 run-defense grade is also third.
The last big swing might end up being the most intriguing one of all: Arvell Reese at No. 5 in the 2026 draft. A lot of people assumed the Ohio State standout was an edge rusher, which made the pick look strange with Burns, Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux already on the roster.
Even Nabers questioned it on Micah Parsons’ podcast. But the Giants drafted Reese to play off-ball linebacker, where he had already lined up early in his Buckeyes career.
Five weeks later, that choice looks sharp. Reese picked off a pass and made nine tackles against Arizona to win NFC Rookie of the Week, then followed that with nine more tackles and his first career sack against the Commanders.
Paired with Tremaine Edmunds, he’s helped turn a linebacker group that used to be an easy joke into one of the league’s most physical units. PFF has already put the 21-year-old on its NFL First-Quarter All-Pro Second Team.
For a team that just a year ago felt stuck in the mud, these offseason bets are already changing the shape of the season.
In Other News...
Giants Turned A Messy Sunday Into Exactly What Fans Needed
A chaotic Sunday could have left the Giants scrambling, but instead they walked away with something far more useful for the bigger picture: a tie against Washington that kept them in first place in the NFC East. Even with Jaxson Dart sidelined, the offense found enough late rhythm to turn what looked like a lost afternoon into a result the team could live with, especially in a division race where every half-step matters.
The Giants have had to navigate the quarterback shuffle with J.J. McCarthy now in the mix and Jameis Winston serving as the backup, so staying afloat while waiting for the position to settle has become part of the challenge. For a team trying to hold its ground without its franchise quarterback, the tie was more than a messy finish - it was the kind of survival result that can keep a season from drifting while the depth chart sorts itself out. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Are Surviving Brian Burns Absence One Risky Way
With Brian Burns sidelined and other key defensive injuries piling up, the Giants have leaned into a far more aggressive plan under coordinator Dennard Wilson. New York has dialed up pressure at a much higher rate, and the early results have at least kept the defense afloat, with seven sacks over the past two games and a 1-0-1 record to show for it.
The tradeoff has been obvious, though: the pass rush has come alive, but the run defense has been vulnerable. The Giants have still surrendered a heavy amount of rushing production, and the cost of sending extra bodies at the quarterback leaves them exposed when opponents can stay on schedule on the ground. It has been enough to survive so far, but not enough to make the whole operation feel settled. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Have A Center Problem Their Former Top Pick Still Can't Fix
The Giants are still sorting through the same troublesome spot in the middle of their offensive line, and the latest turn keeps John Michael Schmitz on the sideline for now. Bryan Hudson is set to get the start at center in the upcoming game, a move tied to his recent play and one the coaching staff is treating as a week-to-week decision rather than a long-term verdict.
John Harbaugh made clear the shuffle is not meant to close the door on Schmitz, who remains in the teams plans even while he works from the backup role. For a unit that has been searching for steadier play up front, the center job is still unsettled, and the Giants are leaving themselves room to keep adjusting if the next look does not bring the answer they want. [Read more 🡒]