There’s some disagreement among the NFL chattering class about the prospects for the New York Giants’ 2026 season. It depends on what a given pundit thinks of Jaxson Dart (on the field), what impact the recent political brouhaha might have on the locker room, how much the defense is going to be affected by the departure of Dexter Lawrence, and how soon Malik Nabers will return to the lineup and how effective he’ll be. Overall, though, people seem to think the arrow is pointing up because of the hire
of John Harbaugh as head coach (even though he seemed to have worn out his welcome in Baltimore, where fans seem ecstatic about him being replaced by new head coach Jesse Minter).
We don’t yet know how good Harbaugh and his staff will be for today’s NFL reality, but we do know that he and GM Joe Schoen have made some pretty big changes in the roster that seem to have improved the overall talent level. That said, sometimes one key injury (or unforeseen circumstance) can derail an entire season when there is not quality depth on the roster. Let’s look at a few instances from the Giants’ distant and recent past that sometimes spelled doom and sometimes were absorbed without the team missing a step, and then ask where if at all the 2026 team is most vulnerable.
1990: Phil Simms
The 1990 Giants team may have been the best one of the Super Bowl era, and possibly the best one of my lifetime (I was around for the 1956 NFL Championship team but wasn’t aware of football at that age). They got off to a 10-0 start and Phil Simms was having the best season of his career. Then he broke a bone in his foot in Week 15 against Buffalo and was out for the rest of the season. Backup Jeff Hostetler, who had only started two games in his career prior to that and whose only significant action in 1990 had been replacing Simms in a mid-season game against the Cardinals after Simms had taken a big hit and leading the Giants to a late victory, took over. The Giants lost that Buffalo game, and Hostetler wasn’t much more than a caretaker in the final two games, passing for only 190 and 123 yards, but the Giants won both games. It was more of the same in the playoffs, as the Giants beat Chicago and San Francisco mostly on the backs of the defense as Hostetler passed for only 112 and 176 yards. Then came the Super Bowl rematch with Buffalo, where Hostetler passsed for a season high 222 yards and a TD, and as importantly, did not fumble in the end zone after a big hit by Bruce Smith. Hostetler never got a true chance as a Giant but went on to become a much more accomplished QB with the Raiders.
2026 Giants: Much of the excitement around this year’s Giants is focused on the hoped-for continued development of Jaxson Dart. That said, the Giants showed last year that their offense could function perfectly well with backup Jameis Winston at the helm. The defense was the reason the Giants lost Winston’s starts. Winston did everything but stand on his head to get the Giants a couple of wins while Dart was out, and should Dart miss any time this year, there is every reason to think that the offense will still be able to operate if Winston has to take the field again.
2008: Plaxico Burress
Many fans thought that the 2008 Giants team was even better than the 2007 team that won the Super Bowl. Early on, it looked that way as the Giants got off to a 10-1 start. Then Burress accidentally shot himself, ending his season and ultimately his Giants career. The Giants managed to win the next week without him, but they were exposed as a team without a No. 1 receiving threat, as the aging Amani Toomer, Steve Smith, and Domenik Hixon, all of them good receivers, could not thrive when they had to face the opponent’s best cornerbacks. That team lost 3 of its last 4, accumulating fewer than 200 passing yards in all but one of those games even though Eli Manning was entering his peak years. Then they went down meekly to the hated Eagles in Round 1 of the playoffs, unable to score a touchdown the entire game and unable to put a point up at home in the fourth quarter with the season on the line.
2026 Giants: Actually, this question already looms for the current team, with WR1 Malik Nabers not only recovering from last year’s right knee injury but now having had to undergo a second one to “clean up” scar tissue. When he will be ready to play, and how close to his previous uncoverable self he will be when he does return, are unknown at this point. The Giants made many additions to the receiving corps during the offseason, with free agents Isaiah Likely, Darnel Mooney, and Calvin Austin III, and by trading up to draft Malachi Fields. None of them are Nabers, though, so if the Giants have to make things work with this group plus Darius Slayton and Theo Johnson, it remains to be seen how effective their passing game will be. The good news is that the Giants did not lose all those games last year after Nabers went down because of the offense. Dart and Winston were still able to operate competitively. The defense is primarily why they went 4-13.
2023 (and 2024, and 2025): Andrew Thomas
The Giants entered the 2023 season full of hope after their surprising run to the playoffs in 2022 and their thrilling first round playoff win in Minnesota. Their opening game at home vs. Dallas (uh-oh, just like this year) got off to a somewhat promising start as they drove into field goal position. Then the attempt was blocked and returned by Dallas for a touchdown. That play completely turned around the Giants’ season, and not just because of the reversal of fortune in going down 0-7 instead of being up 3-0. On the return, left tackle Andrew Thomas suffered a hamstring injury pursuing the returner. He wound up missing the next seven games. In the interim, the Giants insisted on using second year player Joshua Ezeudu as their starting left tackle, a position that he seems clearly unsuited for despite the arguments of Joe Schoen and the coaches. This was effectively the end of Daniel Jones’ career as Giants’ starting quarterback. Jones was relentlessly pounded by pass rushers coming off his left side, eventually going down with an injury in Miami. Things got so bad that ex-Giant Justin Pugh got “straight off the couch” and into the starting lineup, sometimes at left tackle, for a nationally televised game in Buffalo. Things didn’t really improve until Tyre Phillips took over at left tackle in mid-season. By then Jones was beaten down and out of action, and it was up to Tyrod Taylor and Tommy DeVito (who both played well in general, speaking of Giants backup QBs who were pressed into action after an injury to the starter) to run the offense. Jones never really recovered from that beating he took as long as he was a Giant.
2026 Giants: Thomas missed the last few games of 2025 with a hamstring injury. This spring, he is working back from that, continuing his rehab from his previous lisfranc injury, and now apparently has a shoulder injury as well that has the Giants ramping him up slowly during OTAs. Yikes. In principle the Giants’ depth at tackle is better now. You can’t replace an elite player like Thomas, but Jermaine Eluemunor filled in adequately if not well for five games when Thomas got injured again in 2024. Rookie Marcus Mbow was up and down at left tackle for five games in 2025; Carl Banks thinks he has promise. He’s probably option No. 1 if Thomas isn’t ready to start the season. There’s also rookie sixth round pick J.C. Davis, who is actually listed as the second-string left tackle on several unofficial depth charts out there in the NFL ether, but I don’t want to see him trying to block Quinnen Willliams or Rashan Gary in his first NFL game.
2023 (and 2024, and 2025): Graham Gano
Are we starting to see a pattern here? The Giants during the Joe Schoen era have been inexcusably remiss in their backup plans at several positions. None have created more embarrassment than the kicking situation. Graham Gano, once an elite NFL kicker, missed 9, 7, and 12 games in the past three seasons due to assorted (herniated disc, hamstring, groin, and knee) injuries. It’s amazing how many Giants losses over this time were affected by their inability to execute basic field goal and even extra point attempts. You can argue that the Giants’ downward spirals the past two seasons were the direct result of the team snatching defeat from the jaws of victory via kicking failures. In 2024, the Week 2 loss in Washington was caused as much as anything by Gano’s injury on the opening kickoff that made it impossible for the Giants to do anything except attempt 2-point conversions. Last year, what would have been maybe the Giants’ most impressive win of the season, on the road in Denver, crashed not only because of the passive Shane Bowen defense but because of two missed extra points by Jude Mc Atamney. Add in Gano’s failure to make a fairly easy 35-yard field goal with 24 seconds left to ice the game against the Jets in 2023, and Mason Crosby’s missed 54-yard field goal attempt late that season with 34 seconds left that would have beaten the Rams, and it would be comical if it wasn’t so ridiculous.
And it was only the missed kicks – it was how the lack of confidence in and ability of their kickers changed their offensive strategy, beyond just the comedy of continual 2-point conversion attempts in Washington in 2024. Where the Brandon Aubreys of the NFL were allowing the Cowboys only to get to the 50 to consider a FG, the Giants wound up going for it on fourth down or punting unless they could get the ball to the opponent’s 30.
2026 Giants: In prin-n-n-ciple, things look better for the coming year. Ben Sauls did a nice job when he took over the kicking duties late in 2025. He went 8-for-8 on field goals, though none were 50 yards or more, and he was 8-for-8 on extra points. The most likely starting kicker though is former Dolphin and one-time All-Pro Jason Sanders, signed as a free agent. Sanders made 26 of 28 extra points last season and 58 of 59 the year before, as well as 37 of 41 field goal attempts, including 12 of 14 from 50+ yards.
The verdict
Never say never…these are the Giants, after all. But the team does look to have all the bases covered for 2026 at the moment. Certainly individual position groups are uncertain in overall quality. Schoen has thrown numbers at the defensive line after the departure of Dexter Lawrence rather than trying to recreate what he gave them at his best. They now have more outside pass rushers in principle than they know what to do with, if I count half of Arvell Reese as a pass rusher. The secondary may or may not have even one elite player in it, although there is hope that rookie Colton Hood will be a plus and that Dennard Wilson’s scheme will make the rest of the defensive backs more effective. Linebacker, though, actually looks, dare I say, deep (including the other half of Reese)? The offensive line sort of does now too (even though I would have preferred them to re-sign Greg Van Roten for one more year). Likewise for the running back room….and now they have a fullback, too. The receiver positions certainly have numbers, if not one standout go-to guy until/unless Nabers returns and shows he can play at his rookie level. That said, the 1,000 yards that Wan’Dale Robinson gave them last season may or may not be easily replaced if Nabers isn’t ready to go in Week 1, and perhaps that is their Achilles heel (not tendon) going into the season.
My gut feeling, though, is that this 2026 Giants team will not go down the toilet if any one key player gets injured. Of course, this is the Giants, so never say never. It’s always possible to add a chapter to their “New Ways to Lose” book.
