Many things have changed about the New York Giants since the 2025 season ended. What is the single best decision made by the franchise? We put that question to Big Blue View contributors. Read their responses, and feel free to chime in with your own choice in the comments.
Chris Pflum
Hiring Dennard Wilson
I suspect “John Harbaugh” will come up quite frequently in my colleagues’ answers, and for good reason. However, I want to go in a bit different direction because even if Harbaugh hadn’t fallen into their laps,
they probably would have hired Kevin Stefanski and still be in capable hands.
And I don’t think folks want to read the same answer again and again.
I was considering “Drafting Arvell Reese” or “Not blowing up the roster”, but I think those are both downstream of the coaching decisions. So instead I’m going to vote for Dennard Wilson as the best move this off-season. The Giants had a number of talented and exciting options to choose from at defensive coordinator, and Wilson was actually a bit of a let down when the decision to hire him was announced. However, the more I’ve learned about Wilson, the more sense he makes and the more excited I am. We already knew that the Giants tried to hire Wilson after the messy divorce between Brian Daboll and Wink Martindale. Wilson’s experience in Baltimore’s defense suggests that he would call a a similar scheme that would immediately fit the personnel acquired to run Wink’s hyper-aggressive scheme.
The results at Tennessee, where he was (ironically) trying to fit a scheme around personnel acquired for the Mike Vrabel/Shane Bowen defense, where disappointing.
Wilson has coached under some of the brightest defensive minds of the last 15 years in Gregg Williams, Todd Bowles, Vic Fangio, Jonathan Gannon, and Mike MacDonald. He knows what great defense looks like and has seen plenty of aggressive and multiple defenses win. He also has a very strong track record of getting the most out of secondaries and has already made some (potentially) smart decisions in hiring Donald D’Alesio, Addison Lynch, and retaining Charlie Bullen. The Giants’ defense is absolutely stacked with highly drafted players who have thrived in aggressive schemes before. Wilson, and his position coaches, could be the right staff to get them to play up to their potential. If they do, this unit has sky-high potential, and reaching that would go a long way toward turning this franchise’s fortunes around.
Tony DelGenio
Trading Dexter Lawrence
It was difficult to see Dexy leave after the great seasons he had as a Giant, but between the injury that seemed to still affect his play last year and his attitude, which suggested that he had checked out mentally as a Giant, it was time for him to go. The fact that they were able to get the No. 10 pick for him had two beneficial effects: Directly, it enabled the Giants to draft Sisi Mauigoa and potentially add a dominating inside presence to the offensive line, and indirectly, it gave them the freedom to implement “best player available” strategy when Arvell Reese unexpectedly dropped to them at No. 5. They’ll miss his presence inside – D.J. Reader and Shelby Harris are nice additions, but they can’t replace 2022, 2023, and 2024 (until his injury) Dexy. They may, though, do a better job against the run than 2025 Dexy, while the Giants may be able to compensate for the loss in pass rush elsewhere.
In case you were expecting me to say John Harbaugh, my thinking is this: Harbaugh was a great head coach in Baltimore. He hasn’t gotten his team to the Super Bowl since the 2012 season, though, despite having one of the most talented teams in the NFL every year. I wonder whether in today’s NFL, Harbaugh has what it takes to get another ring. I’m confident he’ll make the Giants a good team. Will he be able to do what his former defensive coordinator Mike McDonald did in Seattle – in only two years?
Nick Falato
Hiring John Harbaugh
The New York Giants have opened a new chapter in their long, illustrious football legacy, one that combines proven veteran leadership with a young core nucleus of talent. The chapter title highlights the biggest off-season acquisition: the hiring of former Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh. The veteran coach brings a Super Bowl win to a total of 193 wins over his NFL career, while managing one of the more successful franchises in recent history. He coached Baltimore since 2008, and his long tenure came to an end after kicker Tyler Loop missed a field goal in Week 18, sending the Pittsburgh Steelers to the playoffs over the Ravens.
Harbaugh’s availability coincided with the Giants’ firing Brian Daboll, and the marriage between Harbaugh and the Giants organization made sense for plenty of reasons, one being the presence of an exciting young quarterback in Jaxson Dart. The manner in which the Giants operate has and will fundamental change under the guidance of Harbaugh, and that — to me — is the best decision made by the Giants since the end of the 2025 NFL season.
David Hartman
Hiring John Harbaugh
I’ll take the team’s biggest offseason headline for this one: Hiring John Harbaugh to be the new head coach. I really liked the Giants’ draft, but drafts are crapshoots. Just ask Kayvon Thibodeaux and Evan Neal. So I’ll go with the most important move they made.
Fans have a tendency to forget the past when it’s bad. Folks, the last decade has been miserable and if ever a team needed a full scale top-down culture change, it’s this team, right now. The Giants have won six or fewer games in eight of the last nine seasons. They haven’t had a positive point differential since 2016.
Harbaugh brings a professionalism and CEO-type leadership style that should pay dividends for New York. Sure, there were rumblings of discontent in Baltimore. But they were winners, year in and year out, and they were a well coached, disciplined team. Big Blue needed that this offseason, more than they needed another receiver, corner, linebacker, or defensive tackle.
Valentine’s View
Hiring John Harbaugh
Of course the answer is hiring John Harbaugh.
On a recent episode of the ‘Valentine’s Views’ podcast, Jeff Warren of The Philadelphia Sports Table, hit on a big part of the reason:
“You want a relevant coach. You want a relevant leader. You want relevancy within the division and that’s what he has brought in terms of the head coaching position,” Warren said. “He’s had a lot of skin in this game for a while, and he has been a relevant head coach. Again, hasn’t been to a Super Bowl in a while, but he has won a Super Bowl and understands talent around him. And I think he’s gonna help [GM] Joe Schoen in that regard. And I think we’ve already seen it with the Giants during this offseason.”
The Giants have been through Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge, and Brian Daboll since forcing Tom Coughlin out the door. In retrospect, none of those men were ready to be head coaches. None of them were truly up to the task.
Harbaugh brings relevance. He brings credibility. He brings true leadership the Giants have not had since Coughlin.
When the coaching carousel began, there was only one coach on it who you knew had a real chance to change the direction of a rudderless organization. Harbaugh. The Giants put on a full-court press, went out of their comfort zone by chaning their organizational structure, and got their man.
Harbaugh’s presence doesn’t guarantee winning seasons, playoff berths, or Super Bowl titles. It does, though, give the Giants a better chance at those things.
