These meaningless final games of the season for losing teams that are about to move in a different direction don’t offer much in the way of insights for the future. We’ll do a quick look at Pro Football Focus grades for the New York Giants’ 34-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys anyway just to see who left a good final impression on the people at 1925 Giants Drive who will be trying not to throw the baby out with the bathwater in re-tooling the roster for the 2026 season.
Offense
PFF grades
First, the offense as a whole:
Many players sat out Sunday – e.g., only 15 players on offense saw the field. A few played well, no one played great, a few played poorly. A microcosm of a season in which elite players and performances were few and far between.
First, the passing (with a reminder that one of these passes was by Gunner Olszewski):
Jaxson Dart played pretty well though not spectacularly. That’s been pretty much par for the course the last third of the season or so. He’s working behind an offensive line missing two starters, his one elite receiving target has been missing since a quarter of the way through his first start, his second best target did not play yesterday, and the Jimmys and Joes he did have to throw to are not very impressive. What we can say is that he handled the infrequent blitzes admirably, and although he was bothered by pressure and had one turnover-worthy pass, he also had two TD passes, both of them considered big-time throws. The TD pass to Tyrone Tracy was a beautiful thread-the-needle throw after escaping pressure, and the back-handed shovel pass to Daniel Bellinger that became another TD was Mahomes-esque. The Giants are set at quarterback for 2026 with Dart and Jameis Winston. All they need to do is bring in a QB3 for emergencies.
Next, the pass blocking:
One of the positives to come out of the 2025 season is that the Giants finally fixed their pass blocking. It wasn’t a top five unit, but it was at worst in the top half of the NFL and at times it was knocking on the door of top 10. Credit goes to Carmen Bricillo; I hope that whoever becomes head coach keeps him. Hopefully Andrew Thomas returns fully healthy in 2026; he was playing at a borderline All-Pro level before his injury. I also hope that the Giants re-sign Jermaine Eluemunor; Eluemunor is not a Pro Bowl-level right tackle but he is the best we have seen at that position for the Giants in a long time. Yesterday he had another clean stat line. Marcus Mbow shows promise, but he is definitely not ready to step in as a starter. Yesterday he gave up 4 QB hits and 2 hurries. The interior linemen generally played well, though not spectacularly, this season. Greg Van Roten defied Father Time and had a good season, only giving up 3 sacks all year; I’d love to see him return in a backup role behind a draftee. Jon Runyan Jr. had a similar season, with only 2 sacks surrendered all year. Austin Schlottman filled in admirably for John Michael Schmitz after his injury; he did not give up a sack in four starts.
Now the receivers:
The chart above summarizes the dire state of the Giants’ receiving corps. The only two full-time wide receivers who played yesterday had 2 of the 3 lowest grades. Darius Slayton had a terrible year. He had chemistry with Daniel Jones and also with Tyrod Taylor; he hasn’t developed chemistry with Dart yet, although maybe that is because he was robbed of several explosive TDs by bad interference calls, including a 70-yarder yesterday. I am fully on board with the Giants using the No. 5 pick on Carnell Tate or Jordyn Tyson, and signing a significant free agent WR as well as bringing Wan’Dale Robinson back. Dart deserves a multiplicity of potential targets next season. That said, Tyrone Tracy really came on this season after becoming the starting RB, and receiving is definitely an important part of his game. And props to Gunner Olszewski, who has actually been involved in some of the Giants’ biggest pass plays of the season, on both ends.
Now the running backs:
Tracy has really established himself as a viable part of a two-headed rushing attack with Cam Skattebo. Devin Singletary actually played well when called upon this year but is likely to be a cap casualty. Dart seems to have found the sweet spot between running recklessly and not running at all; yesterday he ran 5 times, 3 of them scrambles and 2 designed.
Finally, the run blocking:
The Giants got pretty good run blocking yesterday from Greg Van Roten, TEs Chris Manhertz and Daniel Bellinger, and Austin Schlottman, considering that Dallas played its stout first-string defensive linemen. Marcus Mbow had a rough day however; he needs to build strength. Jon Runyan also was poor in run blocking. A true run-grading IOL needs to be a priority for the Giants this off-season.
Snap counts
- Dart and the entire OL played the entire game except for Eluemunor, who gave way to James Hudson for one snap as a going-away present.
- Slayton, Isaiah Hodgins, and Olszewski played most of the game, while Dalen Cambre got in for a few snaps.
- Tracy and Singletary split snaps roughly 2:1 as has been typical since Skattebo’s injury.
- Likewise, Bellinger and Manhertz split snaps roughly 2:1 as the Giants played mostly 11 personnel with Theo Johnson busy attending Knicks games.
Defense
PFF grades
First the entire defense:
Overall the defense played pretty well yesterday. We of course did not see the full-up Dallas offense for half the game, and I think we know that the existing Giants secondary, linebacking corps, and interior defensive line are not up to the task and need to be improved in the off-season by any means possible. And that means spending some free agent money in the right places, since the Giants only have 2 draft picks on Days 1 and 2.
Let’s look first at the pass rush:
Another really good game from Abdul Carter. He has really come on in the second half of the season. The rest of the pass rush had a fairly quiet day, although Dexter Lawrence had 2 hurries and Brian Burns concluded his standout season with a hit and a hurry. One of the Giants’ biggest question marks is whether Lawrence was just limited by his previous elbow injury and can return to his form of previous years next season, or whether we have seen his best and will not see it again going forward.
Now the pass coverage:
These numbers don’t mean much since Prescott, Lamb, and Pickens only played half the game. Paulson Adebo did have a good game, though, allowing only two short completions and having one forced incompletion. The Giants’ first-round kick returner, Deonte Banks, gave up 42 yards on 2 completions.
Finally, the run defense:
For a change, the Giants scored relatively well overall on run defense…although they did give up 143 yards. They only had two missed tackles on the day. Still, the worst performances were from the two starting linebackers, Bobby Okereke and Darius Muasau. Dru Phillips took a big step backward in run defense this season, as did Dexter Lawrence, who used to be one of the league’s best run defenders.
Snap counts
- Safeties Dane Belton and Raheem Layne played the entire game.
- Paulson Adebo played almost every snap, Dru Phillips about 3/4 of the snaps, Deonte Banks about half the snaps, and Rico Payton almost half the snaps, with Jarrik Bernard-Converse and Korie Black making cameo appearances.
- Bobby Okereke played almost every snap, and the rest of the linebackers, in descending order of playing time, were Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, Darius Muasau, and Neville Hewitt.
- Abdul Carter played almost every edge snap (remember how fans complained about his lack of PT in Week 1?), Brian Burns about 2/3 of snaps, Chauncey Golston a little less than half the snaps, and Tomon Fox a few snaps.
- Darius Alexander was on the field more than three-quarters of the time, Roy Robertson Harris exactly three-quartersof the time, and Elijah Chatman a bit less than one-third of the time, with Casey Rogers seeing 4 snaps as well. Dexter Lawrence had a season low (by far) 15 snaps.
