When and where: Week 9 at home, Week 18 in New Jersey
Key additions: HC John Harbaugh, LB Tremaine Edmunds, WR Darnell Mooney, half of the Ravens roster
Key subtractions: DT Dexter Lawrence, WR Wan’Dale Robinson, LB Bobby Okereke
Last season: Brian Daboll, who was not fired a year ago for appearances, was fired
The question for this team: Is John Harbaugh a magician?
John Harbaugh is here and he is going to fix everything. Never mind that he’s coming off his worst season in a decade, and possibly his career.
Never mind that he only won 4 playoff games in his last 13 years. Never mind that he thought he was taking Todd Monken with him only for Monken to take the Browns job, leaving him to turn to Matt Nagy. Never mind that he is leaving one of the better run teams from top to bottom to one of the worst.
Because John Harbaugh is here and he is going to fix everything! There’s a lot that needs to be fixed.
In 9 of Harbaugh’s 18 years in Baltimore, the Ravens had a top 3 scoring defense. The Giants were 26th in 2025 and haven’t had a top 3 finish in a decade. Harbaugh traded not just his best defensive player but one of the better interior defensive linemen for 1 (one) draft pick.
The Giants signed 22 players in free agency, almost all to one year contracts, and most of those to minimum deals. And in addition to signing five former Ravens, the Giants also signed 11 players who Harbaugh coached against last year.
In June the Giants brought in JuJu Smith-Schuster, Braxton Berrios, and Odell Beckham for workouts, which seemed like a joke. They signed all three. The Giants have speed run to the “sign guys the coach has heard of” phase of poor roster construction.
The Giants also did the classic “it’s a new era” move and replaced their long snapper.
Harbaugh does bring competence to the Giants, something they haven’t had in a decade. But you don’t give a coach top of the line salary to achieve competence. You don’t drag out contract negotiations, with details leaking out daily, just to get competence.
For 2026, competence will be progress. A four or five win improvement would be significant, and give Harbaugh even more reason to sign some more former Ravens or guys he coached against in 2027. But for all their moves it’s not clear that the Giants even improved their roster. They haven’t significantly improved their skill position players to help Jaxson Dart, their defense has not only not significantly improved it has possibly gotten worse, and their playcallers are uninspiring.
The Giants are putting a lot of faith in the magic beans of John Harbaugh.
Ben McAdoo was fired in his second season, Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge after their second seasons, and Brian Daboll should have been fired after his third but John Mara didn’t want to seem reactionary and fire him in the offseason, instead firing him during the season.
How long does Harbaugh last?
