The New York Giants are on a much-needed bye this week, but that isn’t stopping the flow of news.
The 2026 trade deadline is approaching quickly and the Giants remain in the conversation despite not playing this week. The 4-2-1 Giants are in control of the NFC East and while they might not be surprised by their success, the rest of the NFL media landscape is coming around to the fact that the Giants are a real factor in the post-season conversation.
We’ve already had reporting that the Giants are approaching
the trade deadline with an aggressive mentality to seize their opportunity to separate themselves as an NFC contender. In fact, the Giants are considered the 9th most likely team to make the playoffs at +130 (per Fanduel). They still trail the Dallas Cowboys (+108), but have closed the gap in perception. It’s a remarkable rise from being seen as the second-least likely NFC team to make the playoffs when the season started.
John Harbaugh and Joe Schoen each tried to convince the Tennessee Titans to trade All Pro DL Jeffery Simmons, but were ultimately rebuffed. The Giants are also believed to be one of the teams pursuing star running back Jonathan Taylor.
This week we asked which position Giants fans would like their team to pursue on the trade market. And while they likely would have approved of a trade for Simmons (if not the price), few fans want the team to go after a running back.
Almost as many fans want the team to trade for a defensive tackle as the next three options put together.
D.J. Reader has been fantastic for the Giants, returning to form in Dennard Wilson’s defense and has quietly been excellent this year. Shelby Harris has been a solid player next to Reader, and we’ve seen flashes incremental improvement from Darius Alexander as well as flashes from Bobby Jamison-Travis and C.J. Okoye. However, the defensive line could still benefit from more depth and talent.
The top options of Simmons and DeForest Buckner are off the board. And while it’s possible that the Giants could pry a surprising player loose somewhere, someone like Colts’ nose tackle Grover Stewart stands out as a potential low-cost addition to the defensive line.
It isn’t much of a surprise that almost a quarter of fans would rather the team hold their water than make a move. The Giants were burned badly when they attempted to short-circuit their rebuild process following the unexpected success of the 2022 season. Coaching decisions aside, it’s took a couple years to get back on track for a team that mistakenly believed that it was in “win now” mode.
Of course, it’s also been widely reported that Harbaugh has believed since the very beginning that the Giants were better than their 2025 record said they were. One of the reasons why he chose the Giants over the Titans or Dolphins is that he believed they have a roster in place to be competitive in 2026.
My personal take is that the 2027 NFL Draft promises to be a deep and talented one at several positions of need for the Giants. I’m in favor of using the trade market to add talent if the opportunity cost is in the Giants’ favor and it doesn’t hamper their ability to build the roster for the future. To me, that means using late picks that are unlikely to ever have much impact, or more premium picks if the return is a player who is young enough to be a multi-year contributor and likely to be more impactful than a player than a drafted player.
Fewer than 1 in 10 fans, however, want the team to trade for a running back. That runs at odds with John Harbaugh’s desire to add a star “bellcow” to his backfield.
Sinking significant resources into the running back position has been a chancy proposition historically. Highly drafted running backs seldom prove “worth it” to the teams that draft them, and high-cost free agents typically only succeed within the structure of a team that’s ready to maximize their potential.
We’ve had solid performances from the Giants’ backfield this year, notably against the Dallas Cowboys, Tennessee Titans, and Houston Texans. And considering the trio of Cam Skattebo, Devin Singletary, and Tyrone Tracy (IR) are capable of being a solid grinding unit, the argument is that the Giants don’t need a Ferrari to go get the groceries.
The counter to that is that John Harbaugh wants one.
It’s also possible that a back who is better able to maximize runs, create on the margins, and turn good runs into explosive runs will have a greater than expected impact on the offense. The hope is that acquiring Taylor (or a player like him) would have a similar impact on the Giants’ offense as Christian McCaffrey and Kenneth Walker III have had on the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs (respectively).
On the flip side, it’s surprising to me (personally) that very few fans are interested in acquiring a wide receiver.
There’s a tendency among Giants fans to regard receivers as luxury pieces and generally prefer the team to not invest premium resources in the position. So in that regard, I’m not surprised they aren’t in favor of trading for a receiver. However, the Giants’ non-existent depth at the position is a real concern, and the prospect of a “Malachi Fields, Darnell Mooney, Jalin Hyatt” receiving corps isn’t exactly thrilling.
There’s also the fact that while the Giants don’t faced stacked boxes all that often (20.4 percent of runs, 21st in the NFL per NextGenStats), they also don’t face light boxes that often. The Giants have only run against a light box on 30.3 percent of the time, which is 25th in the NFL.
My position is that not only would adding a primary receiving weapon help insulate the team against a potentially devasting injury, it would do more to enable the Giants to force opposing defenses into more favorable rushing match-ups.
But regardless of what the Giants do at the trade deadline, fans are confident.
Giants’ fans have largely been confident in the direction of the team since the season started. And while it’s taken some hits over the course of the year, it’s rebounded and risen with every win. We aren’t quite up to the high after the win over the Dallas Cowboys, but the Giants underdog win over the Texans has a similar feel.
So while fan confidence took a definite hit after the loss to the Saints, it bounced right back up.
That’s to be expected, because even though the Giants had to go to overtime (again), they soundly outplayed the Texans. It’s tough to see fans being down on their team after a great win, particularly heading into an opportunity to get healthy before two divisional games.
