Good morning, New York Giants fans! Here are the stories as the Giants get set to host the New Orleans Saints.
Let Jameis Winston cook? Why Giants should ditch run-heavy approach and let QB air it out | The Athletic
The Giants may have stumbled into the world Winston is most comfortable in during the second half of Sunday’s 27-27 tie with the Commanders. Partly due to the game flow — the Giants were trailing by two scores for most of the second half — and partly due to a need to shake things up after a woeful first half, the coaches opened up the passing game and went up-tempo with a no-huddle offense.
The Giants’ best playmakers are wide receiver Malik Nabers and tight end Isaiah Likely. It makes more sense to run the offense through that duo rather than the underwhelming running backs corps of Cam Skattebo, Najee Harris and Tyrone Tracy Jr. Now, 33 combined targets like Nabers and Likely had Sunday may be excessive. But it’s not a coincidence that the offense took off when Winston started feeding that duo in the second half.
John Harbaugh defends surprising Giants call to play for OT instead of a win | New York Post
Kicking the extra point to pull within seven points seemed to make the most sense, but the analytic assessment is to go for the 2-point conversion to boost the chances to win the game in regulation. The thinking is the trailing team will need 15 points to win the game, so go for two after the first touchdown and if you do not get it, go for two after the second touchdown.
“I think generally speaking, theoretically, you go for two,” Harbaugh said Monday. “Then you see if you have to go for two twice, give yourself a chance to win the game in regulation. But the way the game was going, I just decided I wanted to put it into overtime. I didn’t want to take the chance on the 2-point conversion. I thought overtime would give us the best chance. Plus, it’s a road division game, so the tie isn’t the worst thing for the road team. So, I just feel like all in all, I made that decision to go for one and put it in overtime if it came down to two scores.”
Isaiah Likely: Halftime dialogue, Jameis Winston’s open ears fueled Giants’ OT push | USAToday.com
Likely said the feedback loop with Winston centered on trust in leverage and winning individual plays. He added that Winston responded by placing the ball in their hands and expecting them to produce.
“Great feedback at halftime. Player dialogue, coaches’ dialogue, and really just getting behind your brother,” said Likely. “You know, Jameis was open ears. He understood that the job in the second half was to get us back in the game and that’s exactly what he did…Jameis is one of those, when he’s clicking, he’s clicking. I feel like he showed that fire in his eyes coming into the huddle every time, knowing that when there’s plays to be made, he can make a play.”
Top 10 best NFL free agent acquisitions through Week 5 | CBSSports.com
7. Giants TE Isaiah Likely. Contract: Three years, $40 million with $26 million guaranteed. Despite losing starting quarterback Jaxson Dart with a season-ending knee injury in Week 2, the New York Giants remain in first place in the NFC East division through five weeks with a 3-1-1 record. Free agency acquisition tight end Isaiah Likely is a big reason why New York has been able to maintain any semblance of a coherent passing game despite fill-in quarterback Jameis Winston ranking second-to-last in the league in completion percentage at 57.6%.
Likely’s four receiving touchdowns are tied for the fourth-most in the NFL and rank as tied for the most among tight ends leaguewide. His 19 receiving first downs are the most among all tight ends through five weeks this season. With No. 1 wide receiver Malik Nabers still finding his footing in 2026 after returning from a torn ACL, Likely has been a godsend for the Giants’ passing game.
Jameis on building chemistry in the pass game
Can John Harbaugh’s Giants sustain winning while walking NFL tightrope? | New York Daily News
Harbaugh noted that he and his coaching staff have been able to pivot week-to-week so far to find new ways of concealing weaknesses and highlighting strengths of their shorthanded and evolving roster. They are without Dart, edge rusher Brian Burns, wide receiver Calvin Austin and defensive tackle Roy Robertson-Harris already, among others, after all.
“We as a coaching staff do a great job of kind of finding our identity in some of these different areas, and we will,” Harbaugh said.
As Giants’ pass rush pressure improves, Jayden Daniels’ showing raises concerns | NJ.com
Still, it’ll be fascinating to see how Carter and the Giants’ defense handle Daniels the next time they see him, in Week 10 at MetLife Stadium. Daniels on Sunday ran nine times for 103 yards, with touchdowns of 26 and 38 yards. Carter knows this is something the Giants must fix.
“We’ve just got to be more disciplined in our rush lanes,” he said. “We talked about it all week. So honestly, if that happens in the game, it’s on us as a front. We really got to be better at caging him and stopping our rush [to not over pursue]. We’ve got to be better at that next time we see them for sure.”
Radio call of Nabers touchdown last weekend
NFL Insider Explains Why Giants Really Traded for J.J. McCarthy | SI.com
“They do wanna see whether or not someone drafted that high and that young is capable of being a backup or even a starter at some point,” Schultz said, adding that there could be more sightings of McCarthy on the field “in certain situations.”
But not as a starter, at least not for the immediate future.“That would really surprise me,” Schultz said. “If Jameis were to play really badly in a couple of weeks in a row and they lost two in a row, I think it’s a different conversation. I don’t really expect that to happen. Not only did they sign Jameis, but they extended him, and they gave him real money in a two-year extension. And that was, I think, a manifestation of how they feel about him, knowing that if he did need to start and play, he could win them football games.”
From Big Blue View
- The Giants may need to change how they think about offense
- NFL power rankings: Nick’s picks for how teams stack up before Week 6
This week’s opponent
- Saints look to turn things around entering Week 6 | NewOrleansSaints.com
- How Does the Saints’ Latest Loss Affect Season Outlook? | Yahoo! Sports
- Jonas Sanker emerges as a bright spot in Saints’ loss to Vikings | Canal Street Chronicles
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