{"id":688698,"date":"2026-01-19T13:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/688698\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T13:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:15:15","slug":"john-harbaugh-led-new-york-giants-are-a-playoff-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/688698\/","title":{"rendered":"John Harbaugh-led New York Giants are a playoff team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jan. 19, 2026, 7:04 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Former New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan offered high praise for the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/new-york-giants\/351\" data-autotag=\"9402befb-12da-4b26-905a-81ab1fea0850\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">New York Giants<\/a> under newly hired John Harbaugh, declaring them &#8220;absolutely&#8221; a playoff contender for 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Appearing on ESPN&#8217;s Postseason NFL Countdown following Harbaugh\u2019s official five-year deal with Big Blue, Ryan highlighted the roster&#8217;s talent despite a disappointing 4-13 season that led to Brian Daboll&#8217;s firing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;This team right here is so talented,&#8221; Ryan said. &#8220;If you go in to build an organization, you want to have a franchise-type quarterback [Jaxson Dart]. We&#8217;ll see. I think they might have one right there. You want a franchise left tackle [Andrew Thomas] to protect that quarterback. Check that box. You want a franchise No. 1 receiver [Malik Nabers]. You can check that box.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;And by the way, you&#8217;ve got five guys who can absolutely rush the passer,&#8221; he continued, referring to Darius Alexander, Abdul Carter, Brian Burns, Dexter Lawrence, and Kayvon Thibodeaux. &#8220;You put the right guy in that situation, they may go to No. 1 in the league in defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;So, to me, I think absolutely, this is a playoff team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Ryan drew parallels to Harbaugh\u2019s 2008 Baltimore Ravens, who reached the AFC Championship as a rookie head coach with rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, and his own 2009 Jets playoff run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;I think they&#8217;ll flip it overnight, I really do,&#8221; Ryan added. &#8220;Look, John Harbaugh, his first year [in Baltimore], rookie head coach, rookie quarterback, went to a championship game&#8230; And the next year, of course, I did.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Harbaugh himself shares the optimism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;I think the Giants roster is strong and it\u2019s our job to make it stronger,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6977938\/2026\/01\/17\/john-harbaugh-new-york-giants-finzalize-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">he told The Athletic<\/a>. &#8220;We are going to compete for the playoffs and for championships. I expect and want to make the playoffs next year.\u201d&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768828515_193_86373428007-square-1.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 19, 2026, 7:04 a.m. ET Former New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan offered high praise for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[95878,7,519,1917,56,2321,2469,6,96069,96070,95882,95945,95891,95895,95906,100571,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-688698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-giants","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-giants","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-giants","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkgiants","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-sstssportsnflgiants","17":"tag-sstsngiants","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagjohn-harbaugh","20":"tag-tagnew-york-giants","21":"tag-tagnfl-hub","22":"tag-tagoverall-positive","23":"tag-tagrex-ryan","24":"tag-tagsports-news","25":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115921952992142905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}