{"id":763057,"date":"2026-02-19T19:51:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T19:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/763057\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T19:51:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T19:51:26","slug":"ny-giants-free-agency-2026-daniel-bellinger-could-find-opportunity-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/763057\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Giants free agency 2026: Daniel Bellinger could find opportunity elsewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since his promising 2022 rookie season, New York Giants tight end Daniel Bellinger has always seemed like an under-appreciated, under-utilized. With NFL free agency looming, Bellinger now has an opportunity to find out if someone else will show him more appreciation than the Giants.<\/p>\n

Bellinger said at the end of the season that GM Joe Schoen had told him he was \u201cpart of the solution, not part of the problem\u201d for the Giants.<\/p>\n

Bellinger, though, also said that a bigger role elsewhere had appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody wants to be number one in their position to succeed as much as they can,\u201d Bellinger said. \u201cAnd, of course, that\u2019s what I want.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut like I said, like my main goal in football from Little League to now and furthermore is just help a team win. If that is a tight end one role, that\u2019s what I want.You know what I mean? But if I can help a team in a tight end two role or in special teams, whatever it takes to help a team win, I think is my biggest goal, because that\u2019s what I want to walk away from the game and say, OK, I helped the team win games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bellinger\u2019s future with the Giants is no longer solely up to Schoen. New head coach John Harbaugh seems to be wielding final authority over most things these days, and which of their own free agents they prioritize keeping will likely be his call.<\/p>\n

Reasons to keep Bellinger<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-6, 255-pound Bellinger, who is entering his age 26 season, is a good player. One the Giants, in my view, have not taken full advantage of the past three seasons.<\/p>\n

Theo Johnson is considered a better athlete with higher upside, but there isn\u2019t that much separation between the two:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Johnson is considered the more explosive player, and has averaged 11.6 yards per catch to Bellinger\u2019s 10.6. Bellinger, though, did average 15.1 yards on 19 catches last season.<\/p>\n

Bellinger also has exceptional hands. He has dropped just three of 106 targets (2.8%) in four seasons. Johnson has 10 drops in 117 targets over two years, a drop rate of 10.5%.<\/p>\n

Bellinger may not block at a Chris Manhertz level, but he is useful as an inline tight end and occasional lead blocker from the fullback spot.<\/p>\n

Bellinger does not figure to be expensive in free agency. Spotrac projects his market value at only $2.5 million on a one-year deal.<\/p>\n

Maybe Harbaugh looks at Bellinger, sees the same ordinary player Brian Daboll apparently saw, and wants to bring in someone else. Maybe someone like Isaiah Likely or Charlie Kolar, pending free agent tight ends who played for Harbaugh with the Baltimore Ravens. Maybe the Giants will prioritize Manhertz\u2019s blocking and add a pure pass catcher to supplement the tight end room.<\/p>\n

Maybe the Giants really believe 2025 seventh-round pick Thomas Fidone can step into a major role.<\/p>\n

I would keep him. I don\u2019t, though, believe the Giants will.<\/p>\n

I think someone is going to get a useful player at a bargain price, and that the Giants will end up wishing they had valued Bellinger\u2019s reliability rather than Johnson\u2019s flash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since his promising 2022 rookie season, New York Giants tight end Daniel Bellinger has always seemed like an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,1917,56,7558,2321,2469,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-763057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-giants","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-giants","12":"tag-new-york-giants-free-agency","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkgiants","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116099041650989686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763057","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=763057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}