John Harbaugh Has the Giants Believing Again. Now Jaxson Dart Has to Deliver.

The New York Giants finished 4-13 in 2025. They fired head coach Brian Daboll after three seasons. They watched Malik Nabers, their best offensive weapon, go down with a knee injury. They traded away Dexter Lawrence, their best defensive player, to Cincinnati.

On paper, this looks like a franchise still in the middle of a painful rebuild.

And yet somehow, there is genuine optimism surrounding the Giants heading into 2026. The kind of optimism that draws standing ovations at town hall events. The kind that makes players voluntarily talk about championship standards. The kind that tends to follow one specific thing around the NFL.

A great head coach.

John Harbaugh Changes Everything

Let’s be honest about what the Giants hired this offseason. Harbaugh is a Super Bowl winner, a potential Hall of Famer, and one of the most respected organizational leaders in professional football. He spent 13 seasons in Baltimore building a culture that routinely competed for championships with different rosters, different coordinators, and different supporting casts. The constant was always Harbaugh.

And I’ll say something that I think needs to be said out loud. The Baltimore Ravens letting John Harbaugh walk out the door this offseason was one of the dumbest decisions any organization has made in recent NFL history. You don’t let coaches like this go. You build around them. You pay them whatever they ask. You find a way to make it work. Baltimore had one of the most accomplished and respected coaches in the sport sitting in their building and they let him leave.

As a Browns fan, I’ll take it one step further. Cleveland should have dropped everything the moment Harbaugh became available and offered him every dollar they could legally put on the table. The Browns have been searching for organizational stability at the head coaching position for decades. Harbaugh is exactly the kind of coach who provides that stability, the kind who doesn’t just win games but builds a culture that sustains winning over time. The fact that Cleveland didn’t land him is one more missed opportunity in a long line of them.

Instead, the Giants get him. And make no mistake, this is a game-changing hire for New York.

When the Giants introduced Harbaugh at the Beacon Theatre in May, the assembled fans gave him a standing ovation. That reaction wasn’t about what the Giants have been. It was about what they believe Harbaugh can make them become. Players who have spent years losing in New York are suddenly talking about championship standards. That shift in belief doesn’t happen by accident. It follows great coaches around the league wherever they go.

The coaching staff he assembled around him is equally impressive. Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy brings a championship pedigree from his time with the Kansas City Chiefs. Pass-game coordinator Brian Callahan served as the Tennessee Titans’ head coach last season. Defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson comes directly from Harbaugh’s Ravens staff, where he helped build one of the NFL’s top pass defenses in 2023. This is not a collection of first-time coordinators learning on the job. This is a staff built to compete now.

Jaxson Dart Was Better Than You Remember

Before we talk about where Dart needs to go, let’s accurately account for where he’s already been.

Dart took over as the starter in Week 4 of 2025 after the Giants opened 0-3 under the previous coaching staff. From that point forward, he completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 2,272 yards with a 15-to-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He rushed for 487 yards and nine touchdowns, the most rushing scores by a quarterback in a single season in Giants history and the third-most by any rookie quarterback ever. He accounted for 24 total touchdowns.

That’s not a fluke. That’s a 22-year-old quarterback who stepped into a difficult situation and competed.

But there are real things to fix. His PFF overall grade of 67.9 ranked 23rd among 26 qualifying quarterbacks. He completed just 32 percent of his deep passes of 20-plus air yards, ranking 30th out of 33 quarterbacks. His 3.4 percent turnover-worthy play rate tied for sixth-highest in the league. And his 11.2 percent plus-accurate throw rate tied for last.

Harbaugh has been characteristically direct about where Dart stands. He called the quarterback’s adjustment to the new offense a “work in progress” this spring and noted he occasionally looked indecisive in the pocket. But he also said “I think he’s adjusting really well. He looks good. I love his competitiveness. He wants to be perfect every play.”

That’s not a coach managing expectations. That’s a coach who has evaluated a lot of quarterbacks telling you this one has the mindset to get better.

The questions that follow Dart into camp are concrete. Processing speed against NFL coverages. Ball security as a runner who took a beating in 2025. And perhaps most importantly, whether the chemistry with the receiver room can hold if Nabers opens the year on the sideline.

The Nabers Situation Is the Wildcard

Malik Nabers is the best offensive weapon on this roster. He was one of the most productive young receivers in the NFL last season before the knee injury cut his year short. He is not expected to be cleared for any football activity during the spring, and his status heading into training camp is the biggest injury storyline on the team.

If Nabers is ready for Week 1, this offense has the potential to be genuinely dangerous around Dart and a strong run game. If Nabers misses significant time, Dart will be leaning heavily on a supporting cast of Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin III, Isaiah Likely at tight end, and rookie Malachi Fields, which is a significant drop in talent.

Harbaugh has said Nabers told him personally he would be ready. He has also been careful not to make any hard commitments about a timeline. That’s the right approach. The Giants can’t afford to rush their best receiver back before he’s ready.

Running back Cam Skattebo also suffered a season-ending ankle injury as a rookie but appears closer to being ready for camp. In eight games before the injury, Skattebo averaged more than four yards per carry with five rushing touchdowns and added 207 receiving yards and two scores. Harbaugh called him a “top tier back” and the run game foundation around him is real. The Giants finished with a top-five rushing unit last season, aided significantly by Dart’s nearly 500 yards on the ground, and return four of five offensive line starters with first-round pick Francis Mauigoa added to strengthen the group.

The Defense Has Real Upside

Trading Dexter Lawrence to the Bengals for a first-round pick was a legitimate organizational decision but it left a significant hole at interior defensive tackle. The Giants addressed it by adding DJ Reader and Shelby Harris as veterans to fill that gap, with Harbaugh acknowledging the offensive line and defensive line were “works in progress” heading into the offseason.

What isn’t a work in progress is the edge rush. Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, and Kayvon Thibodeaux form one of the most talented edge rushing trios in the NFC. Thibodeaux has been openly enthusiastic about Harbaugh, calling him a “maniac” in the best possible way. First-round pick Arvell Reese adds youth and athleticism to a group that already has veteran experience and proven production.

The secondary is the biggest question mark. Wilson has already shown early promise installing his scheme, with the defensive backs being the most impressive unit in team drills during minicamp. Second-round pick Colton Hood and free agent Greg Newsome are expected to compete for starting roles alongside holdover Deonte Banks. Whether this secondary can limit opponents enough to keep the defense from being a liability will be one of the most important storylines to monitor in camp.

The Odell Beckham Situation

We can’t write about the Giants in 2026 without at least acknowledging the elephant in the corner.

Odell Beckham Jr. remains a free agent and has been connected to New York throughout the spring. Harbaugh’s public comments have been deliberately measured. “I’m pretty sure that he can make a team in the National Football League right now, but can he make a difference?” Harbaugh said at minicamp. “It’s something he wants to do. Is his body going to hold up in the way he wants it to?”

That framing tells you everything. Harbaugh isn’t closing the door, but he’s not opening it wide either. If Nabers misses significant time to start the season, the calculus on Beckham changes quickly. For now, his status is one to monitor heading into and through camp.

The Bottom Line

The Giants finished 4-13 last year. DraftKings has them at plus-600 to win the NFC East, the longest odds in the division. By any reasonable measure, they are a team in transition.

But they have a legitimate franchise quarterback in his second year, an elite coaching staff led by one of the best head coaches of the modern era, a dominant edge rush, and a run game identity that should give Dart the support he needs to take a genuine leap.

The NFC East is the Eagles’ division to lose. The Cowboys have real championship aspirations. But don’t count the Giants out entirely. Harbaugh has a way of building things faster than people expect.

Training camp opens at The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia later this month. That’s where we find out whether the optimism is real.