Big Blue View

The New York Giants finally feel good about their offensive line heading into the 2026 season. The biggest long-term question on the line is the left guard position currently manned by Jon Runyan Jr., who will be a free agent after the 2026 season. If we assume that none of the Giants’ current reserve interior linemen are able to beat Runyan out and make him a cap casualty — or establish themselves as an obvious heir — the left guard position is an obvious need for 2027.

Talk to any New York Giants fan these days and you sense the excitement. The hope. The optimism. There has been some of that during a difficult 13-year stretch, but not like what you feel now. NFL analysts who dare to predict that the downtrodden Giants might go from worst to first in the NFC East, or at least be good enough to compete for a playoff berth, are not scoffed at the way they would have been in recent years. Their opinions are given validity. The reason for the change? John Harbaugh.

Somehow we’re almost half way through the month of July, which means that the New York Giants 2026 training camp is in sight. And with the start of training camp we get a return of real football news and start to see the 2026 Giants take shape. New head coach John Harbaugh laid down the team goal of winning the NFC East in his introductory press conference. Winning the division is, of course, every team’s goal. But for the Giants, that’s seemed like a distant hope.

The ideal scenario at cornerback for the New York Giants would seem to have Colton Hood, a rookie second-round pick, earning a starting job opposite Paulson Adebo. Greg Newsome II and Deonte Banks took nearly all of the first-team reps at that cornerback spot in the spring. Each performed admirably, but comes with obvious blemishes. Newsome, 26, was a 2021 first-round draft pick by the Cleveland Browns. The first three seasons of his career were solid, but the last two have been concerning.

Douglas Furth asks: Ed, You did an article this week about realistic expectations and it seemed reasonable on its face. But it seems to me (without having done a scientific study on the subject) that teams don’t improve incrementally over several years. Rather what seems to happen more often is that bad teams reach a tipping point and get a lot better.

A recent ranking from ESPN has raised an issue that splits New York Giants fans — should Big Blue traded away two of the league’s top seven defensive tackles? The former Giants stars in question— Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence — were named No. 1 and 7, respectively, on a list compiled using input from NFL executive, coaches, and scouts.

New York Giants fans are rightly concerned about whether or not the team has enough quality on the interior of the defensive line. That’s why newly-released rankings from ESPN of the top 10 defensive tackles in the NFL have to be painful. Two former Giants stars, Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence are on that list. Williams, in fact, was named No. 1 on a list compiled using input from NFL executive, coaches, and scouts. Lawrence, coming off a down season, still checked in at No. 7.

It’s a group that needs to be pushed to reach the next level, too. That was made clear by interim manager Mikey Varas after Saturday’s lifeless defeat to rival Canada. “The mentality is on the players. They know it,” he said after the 2-1 friendly loss. “We speak the truth to each other. I love those guys, but they know that mentality to fight, to run and to sacrifice, I can’t do that for them.

When Arvell Reese dropped into the Giants lap, John Harbaugh immediately declared that he would be used as an inside linebacker. BBV’s Chris Pflum pre-draft evaluation centered on edge defender and not a linebacker. Pflum went back into Reese’s tape to evaluate him purely as a linebacker. He concluded: The Giants will have to be careful to avoid putting too much on Reese too soon and force him to wear too many hats.

Quarterback is loaded! I’ve been playing fantasy for 30-plus years and can’t recall this much quality and depth at the position. Look down the rankings and you’ll see what I mean. There are names well past QB12 that are very appealing starters for fantasy. All that depth means you can wait longer on QB, even in 2-QB formats like Superflex, if you choose to pass on the elite options at the position. It also means it’s not difficult to grab two good starting QBs in a Superflex format.