The New York Giants have been busy in the first couple of days of NFL free agency. A total of 12 players have been added or retained, five have been (those dang Tennessee Titans!), and of this writing three have been released.<\/p>\n
What does the current \u2014 very unofficial depth chart look like? Are the Giants better or worse than they were? Let\u2019s look at those questions.<\/p>\n
Player the Giants have added or re-signed<\/p>\n
This list includes both players the Giants signed from other teams, and free agents of their own that have been re-signed.<\/p>\n
PK Jason Sanders
FB Patrick Ricard
CB Art Green
OLB Caleb Murphy
LB Micah McFadden
S Ar\u2019Darius Washington
RT Jermaine Eluemunor
WR Isaiah Hodgins
TE Isaiah Likely
LB Tremaine Edmunds
P Jordan Stout
TE Chris Manhertz<\/p>\n
Players the Giants have lost<\/p>\n
WR Wan\u2019Dale Robinson
CB Cor\u2019Dale Flott
TE Daniel Bellinger
OL Austin Schlottmann
S Dane Belton<\/p>\n
Players the Giants have released<\/p>\n
LB Bobby Okereke
OT James Hudson
P Jamie Gillan<\/p>\n
Players who are still in limbo<\/p>\n
G Greg Van Roten
LS Casey Kreiter
DT Rakeem Nunez-Roches
DT D.J. Davidson<\/p>\n
It would seem like the Giants have to bring Van Roten and Kreiter back. Neither should be costly, and both fill glaring holes on the current roster.<\/p>\n
PositionPlayerPlayerPlayerQBJaxson DartJameis WinstonRBCam Skattebo, Tyrone TracyDevin SingletaryEric Gray, Dante MillerFBPatrick RicardTETheo Johnson, Isaiah LikelyChris ManhertzThomas Fidone, Tanner ConnerWRMalik Nabers, Darius Slayton, Isaiah HodginsJalin Hyatt, Gunner Olszewski, Dalen CambreCourtney Jackson, Beaux Collins, Da\u2019Quan Felton, Xavier GipsonLTAndrew ThomasMarcus MbowLGJon Runyan Jr.Reid HolskeyCJohn Michael SchmitzBryan HudsonRGJake KubasRTJermaine EluemunorMarcus Mbow<\/p>\n
It could be considered surprising that the Giants have not done anything at the guard spot as of yet. They heavily pursued Alijah Vera-Tucker, but weren\u2019t willing to compete with the three-year, $42 million contract AVT is getting from the Patriots. There have been discussions about Wyatt Teller and Daniel Faalele, but nothing has yet materialized. It seems like a no-brainer that the Giants need to re-sign Van Roten at some point. Perhaps the Giants end up using the draft to supplement this spot.<\/p>\n
Tight end Isaiah Likely will help the passing attack, but it remains clear that the Giants need to add at wide receiver. Romeo Doubs seemed like a possible target, but the four-year, $80 million contract the Patriots gave Doubs seems like crazy money. I\u2019m fine with the Giants not spending that.<\/p>\n
PositionPlayerPlayerPlayerDLDexter Lawrence, Roy Robertson-Harris, Darius AlexanderElijah ChatmanMarion TuipulotuOLBBrian Burns, Abdul Carter, Kayvon ThibodeauxChauncey GolstonDeMarvin Leal, Swayze Bozeman, Caleb Murphy, Trace FordILBTremaine Edmunds, Micah McFaddenDarius MuasauChris BoardNICKELDru PhillipsMyles PurchaseCBPaulson Adebo, Greg Newsome IIJarrick Bernard-Converse, Deonte Banks, Korie BlackRico Payton, Nic Jones, Art GreenSTyler Nubin, Jevon HollandAr\u2019Darius WashingtonT.J. Moore, Patrick McMorris, Beau Brade, Raheem Layne<\/p>\n
The big issue here, obviously, is that the Giants have yet to address defensive tackle. If you check the list at Over The Cap of available defensive tackles there are a lot of good ones still on the market. It is clear that market has yet to take shape.<\/p>\n
There is also likely still work to be done in the secondary. Again, perhaps that comes from the draft.<\/p>\n
PositionPlayerPlayerLSHolderJordan StoutPunterJordan StoutPlacekickerJason SandersBen SaulsPunt returnerGunner OlszewskiKickoff returnerGunner OlszewskiDeonte Banks<\/p>\n
Harbaugh has clearly been focused on improving the Giants\u2019 kicking game. Let\u2019s see how that pays dividends during the season.<\/p>\n
A very fired-up Tony DelGenio started quite the back-and-forth on that topic Wednesday morning in the Big Blue View Slack channel. With the permission of Tony and Chris Pflum I am going to share most of it.<\/p>\n
So at the moment, is the 2026 Giants roster better than the 2025 Giants roster on offense or defense? Not clear to me that it is.<\/p>\n
And there is no game for how many months?<\/p>\n
You\u2019re putting a lot of pressure on 2 Day 1 and 2 draft picks<\/p>\n
There is still a lot to be done, and a lot of useful players out there who won\u2019t cost a ton. I get the concern, but it\u2019s March 11.<\/p>\n
I just think they\u2019re putting a lot of eggs in the better coaching basket. They\u2019d better at least bring GVR back.<\/p>\n
IMO: I\u2019d say overall the defense is better because Edmunds and McFadden are better than Okereke and Muasau. It\u2019d be nice to get DT depth so they can rotate Dex and Alexander off the field and not have nothing.<\/p>\n
The offense is worse. Likely is bigger than Wan\u2019Dale, but I\u2019m not sure he\u2019s a better player. Ricard doesn\u2019t move the needle for me when they don\u2019t have a right guard.<\/p>\n
I think they\u2019ve set themselves up reasonably well for the draft, however. I just wish WR and RG weren\u2019t glaring holes.<\/p>\n
I look at the LB situation differently. Edmunds is a good run defender but not great in pass coverage. McFadden is just getting someone back who had already been there and he\u2019s not great in pass coverage either. CB worries me, DT worries me, WR worries me. P and K look like an upgrade.<\/p>\n
The thing about McFadden is he WASN\u2019T there last year, and the Giants clearly missed him. You are right to have concerns about those spots, but \u2014 again \u2014 it is March 11. And in a salary cap league there is no way to ever perfectly address every need. Especially when you were a 4-win team.<\/p>\n
But we\u2019re not talking perfectly addressing every need. We\u2019re talking taking a step back at several positions and continuing not to address certain needs like IDL. Now I still have hopes that they\u2019ll do something about IDL soon. But at the moment, outside of STs, I feel they\u2019ve lost at least as much as they\u2019ve gained, and the Raanan tweet is ominous.<\/p>\n
They also have not restructured any contracts. Perhaps they don\u2019t want to, but we\u2019ll see what happens.<\/p>\n
I get ALL of the concerns, but I have to keep coming back to the fact that we are two days into the roster-building season and there isn\u2019t a game for six months.<\/p>\n
I do agree with Tony that more than anything the Giants have just prevented positions from becoming needs, rather than addressing needs. RG, WR, CB, and DL were all needs three days ago. Keeping Eluemunor was huge because the draft sucks at OT. But other than that, they didn\u2019t need a FB and they replaced a little slot with a big slot.<\/p>\n
I said on the podcast last night that the idea that Joe Schoen tried to present that the Giants were going to be able to create enough money to do whatever they wanted in free agency was nonsense. I think that is being borne out by some of the guys they have passed on.<\/p>\n
I do think your restructuring comment is a key thing. I don\u2019t want them going all Howie Roseman, but I do want to see some willingness of the team to use void years if necessary to make sure holes are plugged. BAL had $50M in void year costs when Harbaugh was there. I\u2019d be happy to see them use half that much to make sure they have holes plugged.<\/p>\n
Unless they just didn\u2019t see anyone in the FA pool worth creating future debt for. Which I can understand. Maybe if George Pickens (or Alec Pierce) had hit FA they would have gone there.<\/p>\n
But also, like I said last night, I think the Giants were a hell of a lot better last year than their record says.<\/p>\n
Going 4-13 when they had a better than even chance of going 9-8 was literally a 1 in a million collapse (1 in 1,108,511 that they squander all of those leads). That ain\u2019t a talent deficit.<\/p>\n
I agree the D should be better just with a new DC. But they\u2019re down a CB, so they need to do something about that. Maybe beef up the pass rush, I hear Maxx Crosby\u2019s available. [NOTE: This was meant as a joke!]<\/p>\n
I wonder in that regard if they\u2019d go Delane at 5.<\/p>\n
I think Delane has to be in play, at 5 or via trade down. TBH, I think all the non-positional value guys (Styles, Downs, Love and even Ioane) are in play.<\/p>\n
I think Delane, Styles, Tate, and Vega are all in play, although Vega probably works best if they can execute a trade down.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m out on Love and Downs. I know I\u2019m all alone thinking Downs is just good, not a historic prospect. But we\u2019ve also seen the Top 5 RB movie before, and Love isn\u2019t as good a prospect as Barkley or Bijan. Not to mention there isn\u2019t enough around them to make it worthwhile.<\/p>\n
I just feel like Love is a Harbaugh-esque play.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d rather it not be Love also. I\u2019d be fine with any of the others, but a small trade-down would suit me as well if they didn\u2019t lose all of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Giants have been busy in the first couple of days of NFL free agency. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,1917,56,5083,7558,2321,2469,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-806593","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-depth-chart","13":"tag-new-york-giants-free-agency","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkgiants","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116211212291317983","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806593","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=806593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}