Big Blue View
Many things have changed about the New York Giants since the 2025 season ended. What is the single best decision made by the franchise? We put that question to Big Blue View contributors. Read their responses, and feel free to chime in with your own choice in the comments.
Hiring Dennard Wilson
I suspect “John Harbaugh” will come up quite frequently in my colleagues’ answers, and for good reason. However, I want to go in a bit different direction because even if Harbaugh hadn’t fallen into their laps, they probably would have hired Kevin Stefanski and still be in capable hands.
And I don’t think folks want to read the same answer again and again.
I was considering “Drafting Arvell Reese” or “Not blowing up the roster”, but I think those are both downstream of the coaching decisions. So instead I’m going to vote for Dennard Wilson as the best move this off-season. The Giants had a number of talented and exciting options to choose from at defensive coordinator, and Wilson was actually a bit of a let down when the decision to hire him was announced. However, the more I’ve learned about Wilson, the more sense he makes and the more excited I am. We already knew that the Giants tried to hire Wilson after the messy divorce between Brian Daboll and Wink Martindale. Wilson’s experience in Baltimore’s defense suggests that he would call a a similar scheme that would immediately fit the personnel acquired to run Wink’s hyper-aggressive scheme.
The results at Tennessee, where he was (ironically) trying to fit a scheme around personnel acquired for the Mike Vrabel/Shane Bowen defense, where disappointing.
Wilson has coached under some of the brightest defensive minds of the last 15 years in Gregg Williams, Todd Bowles, Vic Fangio, Jonathan Gannon, and Mike MacDonald. He knows what great defense looks like and has seen plenty of aggressive and multiple defenses win. He also has a very strong track record of getting the most out of secondaries and has already made some (potentially) smart decisions in hiring Donald D’Alesio, Addison Lynch, and retaining Charlie Bullen. The Giants’ defense is absolutely stacked with highly drafted players who have thrived in aggressive schemes before. Wilson, and his position coaches, could be the right staff to get them to play up to their potential. If they do, this unit has sky-high potential, and reaching that would go a long way toward turning this franchise’s fortunes around.
Trading Dexter Lawrence
It was difficult to see Dexy leave after the great seasons he had as a Giant, but between the injury that seemed to still affect his play last year and his attitude, which suggested that he had checked out mentally as a Giant, it was time for him to go. The fact that they were able to get the No. 10 pick for him had two beneficial effects: Directly, it enabled the Giants to draft Sisi Mauigoa and potentially add a...
