Big Blue View
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.
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...
