John Schmeelk: If there was any doubt John Harbaugh was an old-school football guy, it should be erased after his comments about what it meant if a team is able to run on your defense for four or five yards at a time:
“That is the end of the world. That’s a disaster. If it breaks out past that we can’t even breathe. That’s how you feel about stopping the run. We want the run stopped. You want the run stoned. You don’t want it going anywhere.”
Do you think the Giants are going to do everything they can to stop the run? The signing of a big, long, physical linebacker like Tremaine Edmunds in free agency points to that priority. The next logical question to ask is why the Giants didn’t do more up-front in free agency. Harbaugh had an answer to that too, saying “Maybe it’s a one-year proposition, maybe not.”
He later added, “Just haven’t had an opportunity yet. It’s like golf. I usually have a lot of bad shots in golf – behind trees and in the woods and stuff. Practiced all the tough shots and really just wasn’t available to us yet for … the parameters that we built. You can overpay, but you can’t afford it a lot of times. You want to be smart and efficient in how we did it and still going to continue to do that because you’re also building for long-term.”
Given the Giants’ record last season, going all in and pushing money into future years isn’t prudent, even with some of the needs up front. It would prevent a more aggressive posture in the future, when a few extra additions could push the team over the top for a deep playoff run. There are also free agents still available to fill out the fronts on both sides of the ball.
Whatever it takes, the Giants are going to stop the run this year. If they have to stack the box, they will stack the box. They have cornerbacks capable of playing man-to-man on an island if the necessity should arrive. John Harbaugh has made it clear, they will do whatever it takes to stop the run in 2026.