NFL rosters are far from set at this stage of the offseason, but free agent signings have slowed to a trickle, and things probably won’t pick up again until cutdown days to get rosters from 90 to 53 players begin after the final pre-season games. Thus what you see on the New York Giants’ roster now is probably pretty close to the pool of players from which the 53 for the 2026 season will be constructed.
Most of the interest in free agency centers on the acquisition of new players, but the disposition
of players who became free agents at the end of the 2025 season is interesting in its own right. It’s something of a Rorschach test for how the team views its own players vs. how other teams view them, and it’s also a pretty good snapshot of how good a team is right now.
Below is a chart comparing the Giants’ 2026 free agent situation to that of all of the 2025 season NFL playoff teams based on the Over The Cap free agency tracker:
I would like to try to make the case that the patterns in these numbers are a reasonable guide to the state of each team at the moment. For example:
- The Giants entered the offseason with a huge number of free agents, more than any of the playoff teams and fewer than only Miami and Washington, two other bad teams last year.
- The final four teams are just the opposite, having gone into the off-season with many more players already under contract than the Giants.
- Three of those four teams have remarkably stable rosters. The Seahawks, Broncos, and Rams have only 1, 4, and 6 free agents still unsigned at the moment, compared to the Giants’ 14, and having only 6, 3, and 6 leave for other teams vs. the Giants’ 11. The Jaguars didn’t make it past Round 1, but they have a similarly stable roster now and only five unsigned free agents. Ourlads projects Seattle to have exactly the same starting roster on both offense and defense as last year’s Super Bowl champion except for Zach Charbonnet replacing the departed Kenneth Walker III. By comparison, they project 9 new starters for the Giants on offense and defense.
- The Patriots are the exception, having re-signed only two of their free agents, let 11 leave, and with 12 still unsigned anywhere. This may be the sign of a team that overachieved given their overall talent weaknesses because they were hidden by a great young quarterback…until the Super Bowl.
- Buffalo, to me, is another example of the same thing. They overachieve because of the superhuman feats of their quarterback, but the overall talent level of the team is not very good and so they wind up not re-signing many of their free agents, and no other team wants them either (17 remain unsigned).
- We can see other teams with a similar problem. The Chargers are top-heavy with Justin Herbert and a few other players but they don’t have the depth needed to get over the hump. The Steelers are similar but they don’t even have their long-term answer at QB and their overall talent level is diminished. Both teams have a plethora of unsigned free agents that no one else apparently wants either.
The list of the Giants’ remaining free agents is interesting. Most are marginal players: Chris Board, Victor Dimukeje, Demetrius Flanningan-Fowles, Neville Hewitt, Da’Quan Felton, TJ Moore, and Anthony Johnson Jr. It’s hard to imagine any of them being added to the roster at this point. A step up from them are more recognizable players such as Tomon Fox, Bryce Ford-Wheaton, and Jamie Gillan, not that I expect any of them back either. Then you have veterans Graham Gano, Russell Wilson and Greg Van Roten. Gano’s career is certainly over, Wilson surely will not be back, and at this point it seems Van Roten won’t either, although I ask: If Francis Mauigoa isn’t ready to start at right guard in Week 1, wouldn’t you rather have Van Roten than any of the Giants’ other options?
That leaves Bobby Okereke. I’m not surprised the Giants are not bringing him back; after a great first season in Wink Martindale’s defense it was all downhill after that. Still I’m surprised another team hasn’t taken a chance on him.
