A quarter of the way into the 2026 NFL season, John Harbaugh has the Giants sitting in a spot few saw coming. New York is 3-1, alone atop the NFC East for the first time since 2020, and the first-year head coach has kept the team moving even after the hits started piling up.
That matters because the Giants have been dealing with plenty. Jaxson Dart lasted less than five quarters before a season-ending knee injury.
Brian Burns is out. Malik Nabers has been noticeably banged up.
None of it has stopped New York from finding ways to win, and Harbaugh’s imprint is all over that resilience.
The Giants’ start is enough to put Harbaugh near the top of the early first-year head coach rankings, trailing only a handful of others who’ve also made a strong first impression. Here’s how the list shakes out after four weeks.
At No. 1 is Klint Kubiak of the Las Vegas Raiders, who have already matched their 2025 win total. They’ve done it without arguably football’s most prolific tight end and a true unicorn, Brock Bowers, for two games, and without a snap yet from No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza. Even more impressive, the Raiders have leaned on an opportunistic defense that leads the league with nine takeaways.
Todd Monken lands at No. 2 after helping the 3-1 Browns play with a confidence Cleveland hasn’t shown in ages. The schedule hasn’t been brutal, and the one true heavyweight on it, the Jacksonville Jaguars, beat them soundly. But Monken has pushed the youth movement forward, even sending accomplished, highly paid Jerry Jeudy to reserve duties in favor of rookie wideouts Denzel Boston and KC Concepcion.
Harbaugh checks in at No. 3, and the case is straightforward: the Giants have survived adversity and won anyway. The team has handled the loss of Dart, Burns and a limited Nabers while staying composed in the key moments. Their ability to keep the ship steady has been the difference, and bell cow Cam Skattebo has publicly said as much.
Jesse Minter sits fourth with the Baltimore Ravens, who keep looking like one of the Super Bowl LXII favorites. Baltimore is loaded with Pro Bowl- and All-Pro-caliber talent, but Minter still deserves credit for pressing the right buttons as the Ravens keep rolling. The looming question is how he handles a potential absence for Lamar Jackson, who has a sprained ankle.
Joe Brady comes in at No. 5 after Buffalo promoted him from offensive coordinator to play-caller this offseason. Left guard Alec Anderson called him the "fun uncle," and the Bills have generally played loose and productive football around Josh Allen. The one real blemish is a home loss to the New England Patriots, and Buffalo still has defensive issues to clean up.
Kevin Stefanski is sixth with the Atlanta Falcons, though the first two games were hard to judge because Cooper Rush and Jack Strand were the quarterbacks. Once Michael Penix Jr. took over, though, the picture got clearer.
Even without James Pearce Jr. and Jalon Walker, Atlanta has been disruptive up front, ranking second in pressure rate while blitzing at one of the league’s lowest clips. Bijan Robinson has powered the ground game, too.
Mike LaFleur is seventh with the Arizona Cardinals, who have been messy but at least competitive. Arizona has trailed by a touchdown or less late in two of its three losses, and the Cardinals have moved the ball and produced at least one turnover in every game. That’s more than can be said for some of the teams below them.
Mike McCarthy lands at No. 8 with the Pittsburgh Steelers, where the mood has been ugly. The primetime shouting match with Aaron Rodgers said plenty about the state of that relationship, and the roster around them doesn’t offer much upside. The Steelers have been stuck in the same mediocre lane for too long, and McCarthy isn’t changing that yet.
Robert Saleh is ninth with the Tennessee Titans. Cam Ward hasn’t made meaningful progress toward becoming the player the Titans hoped for when they took him first overall in 2025, and while the defense does force punts at a strong rate, the secondary has been a problem. A lot of Tennessee’s offense has come with the game already out of reach.
Jeff Hafley rounds out the list at No. 10 with the Miami Dolphins, whose season has been ugly on both sides of the ball. They score the fewest points per drive at 1.24 and allow the fourth-most at 2.66. Right now, Miami looks like a team with very little going for it, and Hafley has had no luck stopping the slide.
In Other News...
Former Giants Draft Pick's Disappearance Remains A Painful Mystery
Sam Beals career with the Giants never really got the chance to settle into a normal rhythm. Drafted in the 2018 supplemental draft, the cornerback was slowed by injuries, opted out of the 2020 season and was waived in 2021 after limited playing time and legal issues. For a player once seen as a long-shot swing for help in the secondary, the story has taken a far heavier turn in the years since he left the roster.
In July 2025, Beal disappeared after a phone call to his girlfriend, and his abandoned car was later found near the oceanfront in Virginia Beach. Law enforcement in both Michigan and Virginia are still investigating, and the case has left behind a painful uncertainty for everyone who followed his career. For Giants fans, it is another reminder of how quickly a football journey can veer far from the field. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Suddenly Have A Backfield Problem They Can't Ignore
The Giants ground game has become a concern John Harbaugh no longer sounds willing to downplay. After another stretch without the kind of explosive runs that usually change field position and open up an offense, the team is looking at a rushing attack that has yet to deliver the burst it needs. The problems have not just been about production, either, with ball security issues already shaping how the backfield is being managed.
Those fumbles have started to affect player usage in a noticeable way, including Devin Singletarys recent inactivity, and that only adds more pressure on a unit trying to find a rhythm. The offensive line has had its own uneven moments, while rookie linebacker Arvell Reese has flashed enough to stand out on the other side of the ball. And with trade chatter swirling around Khalil Mack, there is at least one more storyline hanging over a roster that suddenly has a backfield issue it cannot afford to let linger. [Read more 🡒]
John Harbaugh Has Giants Fans Believing In MetLife Again
The Giants have given their home crowd something it had not seen in a long time under John Harbaugh, opening the season 3-0 at MetLife Stadium and looking far more competitive than they did a year ago. It is the kind of start that matters in a place where the atmosphere has often depended on whether the team can give fans a reason to stay invested, and it has come with a clearer energy around the locker room as well.
For a franchise that celebrated the 40th anniversary of its 1986 Super Bowl team during this stretch, the timing only sharpened the contrast between the past and the present. Harbaugh has become the first Giants head coach to start this strongly at MetLife, and the bigger question now is whether this early home-field surge can become something sturdier as the season goes on. [Read more 🡒]