New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh believes his new team has the talent to compete immediately in 2026.
That may well be true, and the roster in place is one of the main reasons why they Harbaugh chose the Giants out of his many suitors. But if the Giants want to be legitimate competitors for the post-season, they’ll need more than break-out campaigns from their young players.
If the Giants want to play like the team they believe themselves to be, they’ll need several of their established veterans
to return to former levels of play.
It was frustrating to watch talented players regress last year. But can they flip that script and deliver exciting bounce-back seasons?
WR Malik Nabers
There is, of course, concern regarding when Nabers will return to action following the surgery to repair his injured knee, as well as how effective he’ll be once he retakes the field. That’s the realm of the Giants’ doctors and trainers.
My concern, meanwhile, is if Nabers is primed for a bounce-back from the season he was having before his injury. The injury itself complicates matters, and he might not return to full speed until the second half of the year. But even if he isn’t as explosive as he was when healthy, he can play better.
Nabers only started four games last year, totaling 18 receptions for 271 yards and two touchdowns. Of those, nine catches, 167 yards, and both touchdowns came against the Cowboys putrid defense. Otherwise, he caught nine passes on 22 targets (40.9%) for 104 yards, and was 1 for 5 (20 percent) on contested catches.
However, the stage could be set for him to rebound from that forgettable start, even while he returns from injury.
The biggest factor will be the development of Jaxson Dart in Year 2. While Dart doesn’t have anything like Russell Wilson’s experience (yet), however he has far more tools. Dart isn’t the same kind of athlete as Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen, but his twitch and power as a runner are to be respected. That, in turn, simplifies and slows the defense as they have to account for Dart, creating opportunities and voids for players like Nabers to exploit.
Quarterbacks coach and Passing Game Coordinator Brian Callahan could also play a role. His reputation was tarnished by his failure as the Tennessee Titans’ head coach, however he is still a descendent of the Shanahan/McVay coaching tree. The “New West Coast” school understands how to use spacing and route concepts to help skilled route runners find open space. They also understand how to use motion to help further simplify the defense. The Rams and 49ers are among the top teams in using pre-snap motion, and the Ravens were up there as well.
Nabers will be returning to a new offense that should employ every tool to scheme separation, with a mobile quarterback who excels at layering the ball down the field with touch and precision. He will, obviously, have plenty of work to do on his own to do in returning to full strength, but the stage is set for him to excel when he returns to the field.
CB Paulson Adebo
The Giants signed Adebo last year with lofty expectations. They wanted him to stabilize a young secondary, lock down one side of the field, and take the load off of Deonte Banks so the 2023 first rounder could develop without the pressure of shadowing top receivers.
It didn’t work out that way.
Like most of the Giants’ defense, Adebo regressed last year. He was a very promising young cornerback with excellent man coverage upside and elite ball skills prior to breaking his femur in 2024. And while Adebo wasn’t bad last year, he certainly didn’t live up to expectations.
That said, the Giants’ coaching change should help him in multiple ways.
First and foremost, the Giants are expected to use a more positionless front under Dennard Wilson. The Baltimore style defense is expected to use the versatility and extreme athleticism of Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Abdul Carter, Arvell Reese, and Tremaine Edmunds to dictate terms and ratchet up pressure on the opposing offense. That can only benefit an opportunistic corner like Adebo, as passers are forced to make bad decisions under duress.
Second is the coaching duo that could be the secret weapon for the Giants’ secondary as a whole in Donald D’Alesio (Secondary/Defensive Passing Game Coordinator) and Addison Lynch (Cornerbacks).
D’Alesio comes to the Giants via the Kansas City Chiefs (2021-2024) and Baltimore Ravens (2025), while Lynch spent the previous three years with the Denver Broncos under Vance Joseph.
Both the Chiefs and Broncos have excelled in developing defensive backs, as well as making use of aggressive coverage schemes. Both teams also paired their aggressive coverage with similarly aggressive pressure schemes to get the ball out quickly. If we also assume that the new coaching staff will have (much) greater attention to detail and accountability than the previous staff, it will help the secondary as a whole. Better coaching should improve the entire secondary, and a more cohiesive structure with better situational execution by the players around him could allow Adebo to play up to his potential.
WR Darnell Mooney
Mooney has the potential to be a productive receiver in the NFL, eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark back in 2021 and coming close again in 2024.
In 2025, however, he had the worst season of his career. While he still saw 72 targets, he only caught 32 for 443 yards and 1 touchdown. His 44.4 percent catch rate and 6.9 percent drop rate were both the worst of his career, but the good news is that he has several factors working in his favor. Mooney isn’t coming off of a significant injury like Malik Nabers, but that injury is an opportunity for Mooney, as he’ll likely get more reps with Jaxson Dart while Nabers works his way back from injury. The two also share a similar profile as undersized receivers who are at their most productive when they can split time between the outside and the slot.
Mooney should also benefit from improved quarterback play with Jaxson Dart, as compared to Mitchell Trubisky, Justin Fields, Kirk Cousins, and Michael Penix. And as with Nabers, Mooney could benefit from Shanahan/McVay influences in the passing attack.
The presence of Matt Nagy could also be a big benefit to Mooney. Mooney’s best season came in 2021 under Nagy, and the Giants’ offensive coordinator knows how to best use the receiver. There’s also a good chance that Nagy was a strong voice in bringing Mooney to the Giants as a replacement for Wan’Dale Robinson. Nagy comes from the Andy Reid tree of coaches, which should give some similarity to Mike Kafka under whom Robinson thrived last year.
Mooney has brushed the 1,000-yard mark before, and it might not be that much of a surprise to see him do so again this year, or at least rebound nicely from a bad 2025 season.
EDGE Kayvon Thibodeaux
Thibodeaux has always been a frustrating player. Nobody can say that he’s a bad player, or even a real bust — he has too much of a knack for making game-changing plays in big moments for that. He’s probably the Giants’ most well-rounded edge defender, with the ability to rush the passer, defend the run, and drop into coverage as well as do so from a 2 or 3-point stance.
However, he has yet to consistently live up to his potential and draft pedigree.
Thibodeaux was coming off of an 11.5-sack season two years ago, and there was a reasonable expectation that it would become the norm with Brian Burns drawing attention away from him. Instead, Thibodeaux regressed like so many other defenders over the last two years. The good news is that while Thibodeaux wasn’t producing last year, he was playing well under Charlie Bullen, who is one of the few holdovers from the previous staff.
The other good news is that the Giants will (likely) be returning to a more “Baltimore” style defense in 2026. Thibodeaux was drafted to play in a similar defense under Wink Martindale, and a return to a more aggressive scheme should work well him.
Even when he wasn’t producing elite numbers, Thibodeaux has excelled at beating good offensive tackles. His underlying metrics have suggested that his production will come. It could be that injury, a poor scheme under Shane Bowen, and the defense’s regression overall prevented Thibodeaux from turning his high-quality wins into regular production. The arrival of Dennard Wilson, the accompanying schematic shift, and (hopefully) a rebound from the secondary could be what Thibodeaux needs.
S Ar’Darius Washington
Ed suggested Jevon Holland or Dru Phillips as players to round out this list. However I’m not sure either is a real candidate. Phillips started 2025 in a sophomore slump, however he rebounded during the season and was playing to the standard he set as a rookie by the end of the year under Charlie Bullen.
Holland, meanwhile, played well last year, even if it wasn’t appreciated by the media at large.
He had career lows in completion percentage against (51.4%), passer rating allowed (71.0), touchdowns allowed (1) and missed tackle rate (3.1%). His yards per target allowed (6.8) and yards per completion allowed (13.3) were both good and in line with his play from the previous year, In fact, his rate numbers were comparable to Xavier McKinney’s, and I suspect we’d be talking about him far differently if he didn’t have two interceptions (one pick six) called back due to penalties that didn’t impact the play.
Instead, I want to talk about a free agent signing that is flying under the radar in Ar’Darius Washington.
Washington had his breakout season in 2024 with the Baltimore Ravens. That year he started 10 of 17 games, racking up 2 interceptions, a strip-sack, eight passes defensed, 64 tackles (five for a loss), and allowed just 4.9 yards per target. He was all over the field as a safety/corner hybrid and was a real factor in the Ravens’ defensive success in 2024.
Then he ruptured his Achilles a year ago on May 13th, 2025. He managed to defy the odds and return before the end of the 2025 season, playing in the Ravens’ final four games. We shouldn’t be surprised that he struggled and just wasn’t the same dynamic player he was less than a year after such a significant injury.
Now, more than a year removed from the injury, Wasington is set for a true bounce back season. He’s already very familiar with John Harbaugh, Dennard Wilson, and Donald D’Alesio from his time in Baltimore. He knows the philosophies, language, and culture of the defense they want to install, which gives him a head start. His versatilie skill set and tenacious play style also gives Washington a clear role as a versatile nickel who can wear a variety of hats in a positionless defense that seeks to use versatility to impose terms on the offense.
Washington may only be 5-foot-8, 180 pounds, but he could be in for a big season.
