The New York Giants have renewed optimism this year, with John Harbaugh, an 18-year NFL head-coaching veteran with a Super Bowl ring to his credit, coming in to right the ship.
The Giants are coming off three losing seasons, going 13-38 and starting 2-7 in each year.
Conor Orr, a former Giants beat reporter now a national writer for Sports Illustrated, is predicting things won't change much under Harbaugh, at least right away. Orr projects Big Blue will get off to a worse start in 2026, winning just once in their first nine games this fall.
The only win that Orr sees the Giants pulling off is Week 4 at home versus the Arizona Cardinals. It gets better from there, however, with five wins over the final nine games for an overall record of 6-11.
This
is a projection that breaks my heart, though, ultimately, I think the Giants will be good in time. John Harbaugh needs to fine-tune his coaching staff after a mad scramble to piece together an offense coordinated by Matt Nagy, who remained in the conversation to become Tennessee’s head coach long enough to stay available for Harbaugh’s offensive coordinator job once Todd Monken earned the Browns’ head coaching gig. Then, we have DC Dennard Wilson, whose stint with the Titans yielded the 25th- and 28th-best units in the NFL in terms of EPA per play allowed, respectively.
One thought that another NFL coach placed in my mind that I cannot shake about this iteration of the Giants: I love what they could do on third down as a defense with all those edge rushers. I just don’t know how they’ll get there.The big question for the Giants is whether a team that finished with the worst success rate in the NFL against the rush, then traded Dexter Lawrence II instead of attempting to mend fences, can improve drastically by importing 32-year-old D.J. Reader and a 28-year-old Tremaine Edmunds. I am more concerned about this than I am about the development of Jaxson Dart and the Giants’ offense. With a lead, this Giants team can be punishing. We saw 2025 interim defensive coordinator—and current Giants outside linebackers coach—Charlie Bullen experiment with some Broncos-type fronts that highlighted the Giants’ suite of edge rushers and were effective, though without a lead, made the Giants susceptible to the run. That’s why I have the Giants performing better toward the end of the season, when Harbaugh can identify some players who will be part of the post–Brian Daboll era team and, in the process, rip off a few wins that leave us believing 2027 will be the year. Don’t miss the Eagles blowing one to Harbaugh in the season finale, costing Philadelphia a shot at a playoff berth.
The Giant fans can take some solace in the fact that the team's two most successful coaches in the Super Bowl era, Bill Parcells and Tom Coughlin, who both led the franchise to two Super Bowl titles, got off to slow starts to their Giants coaching careers.
Parcells went 3-12-1 in his first season at the helm (1983), and Coughlin went 6-10 in his first year (2004). Parcells only had one losing season after that, 1987, a season marred by a work stoppage. Coughlin ended his 12-year stint with the club with three losing seasons.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: NFL insider predicts 1-8 start for New York Giants
