Big Blue View
Since 2016, when the end of the Tom Coughlin era began, the New York Giants have had six different head coaches (including interims), four primary quarterbacks, all kinds of different coordinators, and no overriding philosophy beyond President/CEO/Owner John Mara insisting at the end of every season that things need to be better in the upcoming year.
Which hasn’t happened often enough. The post-Coughlin Giants have had two winning seasons — 2016 and 2022 — and overall in the last decade, their 55-109-1 record and .336 winning percentage is the NFL’s second-worst, ahead of only the New York Jets.
Gotham football, everybody!
In any event, the Giants fired head coach Brian Daboll last November after a 2-8 start to an eventual 4-13 finish, and interim head coach Mike Kafka was set aside in favor of longtime Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh. Jim’s older brother put up a 180-113 regular-season record in 18 years with the Ravens, with a 13-11 postseason record and a victory in Super Bowl XLVII over Jim’s San Francisco 49ers. In this regard, Harbaugh would seem to bring more stability than any Giants head coach in a long time, because the Ravens have been one of the NFL’s bastions of continued success in this millennium.
Harbaugh knows that he’s in for a bit of a rebuild, but he’s also been conditioned to expect a certain level of success and improvement over time.
“It’s a profound honor to be entrusted with the responsibility of coaching the New York Football Giants — one of the most iconic franchises in all of sports,” Harbaugh said in his introductory presser. “I wanted this job to be on the biggest stage in the biggest sport. I know the challenges. I understand the expectations. I know the fans are hungry for a winner. We are here with one mission — to become, to earn the right, to be called the world champions in New York, and that’s what we plan to do.”
If that’s to happen, Harbaugh will need more than the expected performances from the Giants’ star players — he’ll also need major bumps from those players whose potential remains under the radar.
Here are your Hidden Gems for the 2026 New York Giants — one underrated veteran, one underrated free agent acquisition, and one underrated draft pick.
“We’re going to be playing nasty. We’re going to play physical. We’re going to play violent. We’re going to live on the edge, play on the edge, but we’re not going to hurt the team. We’re going to be suffocating to the point we impose our wills on people. The players are going to buy into that mindset. It all starts from a mindset. We’re going to play the New York brand of football, and that’s violent defense.”
That’s what new Giants defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson said back in April, when asked what kind of defense he would put on the field.
Philosophically, this would represent a serious...
