This week, all week long, we're taking a negative look at each of the teams in the NFC East, in detail. On Monday we roasted the Dallas Cowboys. Today we'll poke fun at the New York Giants.

To note, we will not be talking about the positives of any of the Eagles' NFC East rivals, because, well, that's no fun. This will be 100 percent vitriolic. And yes, we'll get to the Eagles as well at the end of the series.

1) John Harbaugh is overrated

Following their 4-13 season in 2025 during which former head coach Brian Daboll was fired, the Giants' initial head coaching search was looking bleak, until the Ravens surprised the NFL world by firing John Harbaugh. The Giants moved quickly, and after a little bit of a power struggle (we'll get to that in a moment), were able to lock him down.

Harbaugh is 63 years of age, the second-oldest head coach in the NFL, behind only Andy Reid (68). In 18 seasons as the Ravens' head coach, Harbaugh had an impressive career regular season record of 180-113 (0.614). During his Ravens tenure, Harbaugh only had three losing seasons, one of which was in 2025, when the Ravens went 8-9 during a season in which the rest of the AFC — and particularly the AFC North — was relatively weak.

Harbaugh also had a winning record in the playoffs in Baltimore. He was 13-11 (0.542), a record that was powered by the Ravens' 4-0 Super Bowl run during the 2012 season, Harbaugh's lone championship season. 

Ultimately, Harbaugh will bring a base competency to the Giants that they did not have with their last three stooge hires of Daboll, Pat Shurmur, and Joe Judge. 

The Giants could win more regular season games than we are used to seeing. Maybe. But also, in a weird way, this feels a lot like a hire geared toward "base competency." And certainly, the Giants' impulse to raise their floor after a decade of awful football is understandable. But this older iteration of Harbaugh probably has a limited ceiling, given his teams' shortcomings in their most meaningful games over the last decade.

Since his Super Bowl win, despite employing a clear-cut top 5 type quarterback in Lamar Jackson for eight seasons and usually having a contending roster otherwise, Harbaugh somehow only won four playoff games in 13 seasons, and never more than one in a season. He was 4-7 in playoff games during that span. There have been 14 teams since 2013 that have won at least that many, and 12 that have won more:

1. Chiefs: 18
2. Patriots: 16
3. Seahawks: 11
4. 49ers: 11
5. Eagles: 10
6. Rams: 10
7. Bills: 8
8. Packers: 7
9. Buccaneers: 6
10. Broncos: 6
11. Texans: 5
12. Bengals: 5
13. Colts: 4
14. Saints: 4

That's almost half the league.

In summary: One Super Bowl win, a long time ago, followed by regular season success before falling flat in the playoffs while employing an elite quarterback. 

Hmmm... that sounds familiar. A quick comparison between Harbaugh and Mike McCarthy.

• Harbaugh: 180-113 (0.614) regular season, 13-11 (0.542) playoffs, 4 playoff wins since winning the Super Bowl in 2012.

• McCarthy: 174-112-2 (0.608) regular season, 11-11 (0.500) playoffs, 5 playoff wins since winning the Super Bowl in 2010.

Harbaugh is considered some great coach, and McCarthy a joke, but they're basically the same guy.

2) Joe Schoen is still the GM, lol

As noted above, the Harbaugh hiring came with a bit of a power struggle. Typically, Giants head coaches have reported to the team's GM. Harbaugh, however, was able to negotiate a deal that allows him to report directly to ownership, and not to GM Joe Schoen. 

And, well, who can blame him, as Schoen's four-year tenure with the Giants has resulted in a cumulative record of 22-45-1 (0.331), a cumulative point differential of -347, all kinds of swings and misses in the draft and free agency, and an extremely embarrassing season of Hard Knocks. I wouldn't report to that guy either if I were Harbaugh.

My perception is that Giants fans are generally happy that Harbaugh will have a louder voice on personnel decisions than Schoen, which is understandable, since Schoen is clearly in over his head as a GM. But that doesn't make Harbaugh a good GM. And in his first season in that role, a lot of what he did was sign a bunch of guys who played for him in Baltimore.

Meanwhile, for some insane reason the Giants signed Schoen to a multi-year extension. How exactly did he earn that? My assumption was that he Waylon Smithers'd himself into that deal.

Good for him! He found a way to keep his title and provide for his family. 👏

Bad for Giants fans who were hoping that the team would hire a real GM, instead of this idiotic setup where the fake GM plays the role of sycophantic assistant to the aging head coach who only knows players he formerly coached.

3) Matt Nagy stinks

Harbaugh then hired Matt Nagy to run his offense. Ewwww. Here is how Nagy's offenses fared the last six years in either a head coach or offensive coordinator role:

Dude had Patrick Mahomes and couldn't finish better than 15th in points in three years! How is he still a coordinator in the NFL?!

Meanwhile, the new defensive coordinator is Dennard Wilson, who worked for Harbaugh as the Ravens' defensive backs coach in 2023, before landing a defensive coordinator job with the Titans (2024-2025). The Titans finished 30th in points allowed and 20th in yards allowed in 2024. They finished 31st in both points and yards allowed in 2025. Obviously, the Titans do not have a ton of talent, but... 😬.

Since Harbaugh is a "CEO head coach," those guys will be outright running the offense and defense.

4) Jaxson Dart is an injury waiting to happen

When Jaxson Dart was in college, he got a reputation as a fierce competitor, which partly stemmed from his willingness to take hits while trying to maximize his yardage on runs. And, well, he took some big hits, like here:

You can only play that way so long in the NFL before you wind up injured. And Dart showed right off the bat in the preseason that he was going to play hard.

In the Giants' win over the Eagles last season, he even launched into a defender with his head on a run near the sideline. I'm sure some fans love this, buuuuuut that's not gonna be very smart over the long haul.

Dart was actually evaluated for concussions in five of his first 10 NFL games. And sure enough, he would be officially concussed after a scramble against the Bears.

Upon his return to the field, did Dart learn any lessons about protecting himself?

He did not.

If he doesn't learn to avoid hits, he's going to miss a lot of games.

Dart also made a highly questionable decision off the field this offseason, when he introduced one of the least popular presidents in United States history at some event. Not sure if it was to open the algae pool at the Washington Monument, or a $600 million ballroom funded by taxpayers, or a party at Epstein Island. I dunno, who cares what it was. Milli Vanilli must not have been available, so they instead they found a quarterback with a career 4-8 record.

Anyway, second-year edge defender Abdul Carter publicly objected to it, and then a lot of people objected to Carter's objection, and soon enough all discussions about the Giants immediately devolved into your typical moronic political Facebook post around election time.

To be continued, maybe...

5) Malik Nabers can't run

I mean... (via Jordan Raanan):

That does not look like a guy who is playing football anytime soon. The Giants' subsequent signings of has-beens like Odell Beckham and JuJu Smith-Schuster represent the Giants' alarm that Nabers won't be ready for the start of the season.

And if indeed Nabers misses a chunk of the season, who is the WR1? Like, that's a serious question. They don't even have a WR2 on that roster.

6) Cam Skattebo: Fun player, limited effectiveness, short shelf life

During a Week 6 win last season in primetime, the Giants bullied the Eagles, and Cam Skattebo ran for 98 yards with 3 TDs. That win over Philly must've been super satisfying for Giants fans, who have watched the Eagles own the Giants for a decade, not just for the win, but also for the way they won, with a rookie QB/RB combo doing most of the damage.

As a result of that game, the title of most overrated player in the NFC East is being passed this offseason from Frankie Luvu to Skattebo.

I mean, I get it. When I was a little kid, my favorite player was Christian Okoye, AKA "The Nigerian Nightmare," who did little more than try to run over defenders. But guys like Okoye -- and now Skattebo -- have major flaws.

To begin, he's the slowest starting running back in the NFL. Here's every starters' 40 times (Ashton Jeanty omitted because he never ran any kind of official 40):

1. DeVon Achane, Dolphins: 4.32
2. Bhayshul Tuten, Jaguars: 4.32
3. Jahmyr Gibbs, Lions: 4.36
4. Jeremiyah Love, Cardinals: 4.36
5. Kenneth Walker, Chiefs: 4.38
6. Breece Hall, Jets: 4.39
7. Jonathan Taylor, Colts: 4.39
8. Saquon Barkley, Eagles: 4.4
9. James Cook, Bills: 4.42
10. TreVeyon Henderson, Patriots: 4.43
11. Chase Brown, Bengals: 4.43
12. J.K. Dobbins, Broncos: 4.45
13. Jacory Crosky-Merritt, Commanders: 4.45
14. Travis Etienne, Saints: 4.45
15. Omarion Hampton, Chargers: 4.46
16. Bijan Robinson, Falcons: 4.46
17. Quinshon Judkins, Browns: 4.48
18. D'Andre Swift, Bears: 4.48
19. Chuba Hubbard, Panthers: 4.48
20. Christian McCaffrey, 49ers: 4.48
21. Jadarian Price, Seahawks: 4.5
22. Tony Pollard, Titans: 4.52
23. Derrick Henry, Ravens: 4.54
24. Javonte Williams, Cowboys: 4.55
25. Bucky Irving, Buccaneers: 4.55
26. Jaylen Warren, Steelers: 4.55
27. Aaron Jones, Vikings: 4.56
28. Josh Jacobs, Packers: 4.6
29. David Montgomery, Texans: 4.63
30. Kyren Williams, Rams: 4.65
31. Cam Skattebo, Giants: 4.65

Skattebo had one rush of over 20 yards on the season. That was a 24-yard run against Dallas. He is never going to be a player who consistently pops big runs.

But also, although he dishes out punishment as a runner, he also takes a ton of big hits. Asked on NFL Network if he would change his style of running after suffering a season-ending injury last season, Skattebo said, "I'm going to get back [to] running people over."

Because, well, of course that's how he's going to play. He runs a 4.65 and doesn't really have elusive traits otherwise. He's a downhill runner who looks for contact. He can't play any other way, and as such, he's always going to be at a higher risk for injury at an already very taxing position.

Also-also, mark my words, this dude is going to start coughing up the football a lot in Year 2 if he's not more careful. Put on any highlight of him and you'll see that he does not cover up the ball with two arms when (a) running through the line, and (b) while trying to break tackles. Running through the line is a danger zone for ball punchouts, and when he tries to break tackles, opposing defenses are going to start coaching the second or third guy in to rip the ball out.

It's worth noting that Skattebo did fumble a game away last season against the Saints when he had the ball punched out while running through the line.

Anyway, we're talking about a guy here who averaged 4.1 yards per carry, which was good for 34th out of 49 backs with at least 100 carries, and people are talking about him like he's the second coming of Earl Campbell.

Good short yardage guy? Absolutely. But if you want this kind of guy to be a three-down back, expect to punt a lot. And if you want to be irrelevant in your fantasy football league this year, go ahead and take him in the third round.

8) These dumbasses only win when it's time to wreck their draft positioning

With two games remaining in the 2025 season, the then 2-13 Giants were facing the Las Vegas Raiders, who were also 2-13. The Raiders knew the assignment, as they placed Maxx Crosby, Brock Bowers, and Jeremy Chinn on injured reserve in advance of that game. The Giants went all out to win, which they did, 34-10.

And then in Week 18, the Giants beat the Cowboys in a completely meaningless Week 18 game, 34-17.

Two-game winning streak to close the season, WOOHOOOO! 🥳🎉

Of course, if they had lost those two games, they'd have had the No. 1 overall pick. They probably wouldn't have selected Fernando Mendoza, but they'd have had like a half dozen teams — the Raiders, Jets, Cardinals, and Browns, at a minimum — bidding on that pick in a one-quarterback draft. The Giants probably could've moved down a couple spots, still landed Arvell Reese, and maybe also an extra 2027 first-round pick. But they're too stupid.

That's nothing new. The last three seasons, the Giants are 9-36 Weeks 1-16. They're 4-2 Weeks 17-18.

Despite consistently wrecking their draft positioning the last few years, the Giants' original pick has landed in the top 6 in seven of the last nine drafts.

• 2018: 2
• 2019: 6
• 2020: 4
• 2022: 11
• 2021: 5
• 2023: 25
• 2024: 6
• 2025: 3
• 2026: 5

You'd think they'd have some good players, but even then they've mostly swung and missed.

9) Additional roster holes

I guess we should just round up the Giants' roster holes here? Cool...

• WR: The Giants' receivers other than Malik Nabers and their 2025 stats:

Giants WRs	Rec	Yards	YPC	TD
Darius Slayton	37	538	14.5	1
Darnell Mooney	32	443	13.8	1
Calvin Austin	31	372	12.0	3
JuJu Smith-Schuster	33	345	10.5	1
Isaiah Hodgins	10	115	11.5	1
Braxton Berrios	6	37	6.2	0
Jalin Hyatt	5	35	7.0	0
Ryan Miller	2	34	17.0	1
Beaux Collins	2	25	12.5	0
Xavier Gipson	2	6	3.0	0
Dalen Cambre	0	0	0.0	0
Odell Beckham (out of the NFL)	0	0	0.0	0
Malachi Field (rookie)	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Dramatic movie scene, with Schoen talking to Giants scouts: "Guys, you're still trying to replace Wan'Dale Robinson. Now I told you we can't do it. But what we might be able to do is recreate him. Recreate him in the aggregate. Robinson had 92 catches last season. We're looking for a dozen receivers who total at least 92 catches."

• RB: Again, Skattebo just ain't a three-down guy for a 17-game season. (By the way, he thinks he's going to have 300 carries for 2000 yards, lol.)

• iOL: John Michael Schmitz is looking like a second-round bust, and Jon Runyan had a tough season last year. Rookie 10th overall pick Francis Mauigoa played OT in college and is moving to RG in the pros. Personally, I think he's better suited at guard than tackle in the pros, but it's still a projection to put him there and the Giants' success rate at drafting offensive linemen is brutal.

• iDL: Again, after trading Dexter Lawrence, the Giants signed a bunch of warm bodies off the street.

• CB: Because they whiffed on Deonte Banks in the first round of the 2023 draft, the Giants were forced to overpay Paulsen Adebo in free agency last offseason, and he stunk. This offseason the Giants also signed Greg Newsome, who somehow only had 2 pass breakups on 73 targets last season.

• K: The Giants have had kicker issues for years, and this moment from last season was an all-timer. 

This year they're having a competition between undrafted rookie Dominic Zvada and second-year kicker Ben Sauls. 😬

10) One owner is cheap; another is a pathetic sex creep

The Giants have long thought of themselves as a "classy" organization, and I'm not entirely sure what that was even based on in the first place. But Good Lord, their ownership sucks.

To begin, John Mara is cheap. Always has been, always will be.

It just occurred to me recently that he was pretty clearly one of the owners who bitched last offseason about the Eagles' salary cap strategies via the use of "void years." 

The full tweet, so you don't have to click: 

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said owners had a lengthy discussion at the league meetings about the salary cap system — how well it’s working, whether teams are operating within its intended spirit, and what changes might be needed in the next round of collective bargaining with the players’ union.

In short: Owners are already looking ahead to potential changes to keep the system fair, competitive, and free of loopholes.

So what does that mean? Well, a major competitive advantage the Eagles have is the way they structure player contracts. They get use of players now, get charged for their services on the salary cap later. They are essentially stretching the current salary cap to its extreme limits, and then paying for it down the road when the salary cap is a lot higher. (Here's a much more thorough explainer, for anyone interested.)

They are able to do so by converting base salaries into bonuses, which can be spread out across future years (AKA "void years"). But that practice requires a willingness from the owner to pay cash upfront. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie is willing to do that to help Howie Roseman pay as many good players as possible, while many other owners around the league are not.

The Eagles and the other teams who employ this strategy aren't geniuses. They just have owners who want to win and are willing to plunk down cash to help make it happen.

Mara is most definitely an owner who does not want to plunk down cash upfront. He has a history of policing "the salary cap's intended spirit," as evidenced by his prosecution of Washington's and Dallas' manipulation of an uncapped season in 2012.

"I thought the penalties imposed were proper," Mara said via ESPN when Dallas and Washington were docked $46 million in cap space after they both spent a lot of money on players during the weird, uncapped 2012 season. "What they did was in violation of the spirit of the salary cap. They attempted to take advantage of a one-year loophole, and quite frankly, I think they're lucky they didn't lose draft picks."

I've seen Schoen say that he is "hesitant to use void years," which is laughable. Schoen and every other GM in the NFL would love to have the freedom to spend to the outer limits of the cap like Roseman has been doing in Philly for years. Schoen stinks as a GM, but he's not so dumb that he can't see the benefit of structuring contracts the way the Eagles and many other teams do. More accurately, Mara would like to win if convenient, but he is a cheap owner who doesn't want to have to plunk down cash like some of the more winning-obsessed owners around the league, and Schoen is almost certainly covering for him.

Beyond this boring money stuff, there's also the issue of the Giants' infamous artificial turf, which Giants players, Jets players, and visiting players universally hate. They want to play on grass. Calls for Giants and Jets ownership to move to grass have intensified over the last couple of years after a spate of serious injuries, notably Aaron Rodgers' non-contact ACL tear on the first drive of the season in 2024, and Malik Nabers' non-contact ACL tear in 2025:

In response, Mara has claimed something to the effect of, "Yeah, well, grass is actually worse," lol.

For as bad of an owner as Mara is, at least he's not as bad as his partner, Steve Tisch, who was set up with various women by Jeffrey Epstein, at a time when Epstein was already a registered sex offender. Details here. Spoiler: It's bad.

Technically, Tisch isn't an owner anymore, I suppose, as his shares of the team were transferred into a trust for his kids, although he is still listed on the team's website as the Chairman of the Board.

Classy.