{"id":889316,"date":"2026-05-12T15:18:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/889316\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T15:18:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T15:18:24","slug":"new-york-giants-answering-biggest-offseason-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/889316\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Giants: Answering Biggest Offseason Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

With all 32 NFL<\/a> teams preparing for OTAs and mandatory minicamps<\/a>, Athlon Sports is going under the hood to see what key questions remain for each team before training camps open in July. These questions might not get answered at minicamps, but any opportunity for new coaches to get familiar with their roster, rookies to get a feel for life in the NFL and free agents to get comfortable with a new team can be helpful.<\/p>\n

The focus today is on the New York Giants<\/a>, who are 7-27 over the last two seasons and have just one winning campaign in their last nine. The hiring of new head coach John Harbaugh, coupled with the emergence last season of rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart<\/a>, has ratcheted up the level of optimism. But that optimism might also carry along unrealistic expectations.<\/p>\n

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How important is it for John Harbaugh to fix the culture?<\/p>\n

The Giants are 55-109 over the last 10 years \u2014\u00a0only the lowly New York Jets<\/a> are worse over that period. That\u2019s how bad it\u2019s been for a once-proud franchise that has four Super Bowl<\/a> titles to its credit. Enter Harbaugh, who has a Super Bowl win of his own after 18 years as the Baltimore Ravens<\/a> head coach.<\/p>\n

\"<aNew York Giants<\/a> head coach Jim Harbaugh speaks during a press conference at rookie minicamp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. (Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

So while there\u2019s no doubt the roster needs improvement, Harbaugh has not minimized the importance of attitude adjustment.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat definitely is at the heart of what we’re going to try to do,\u201d Harbaugh said in early April. \u201cTry to be excited about every single day, try to approach the day, as my dad would say, with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s what it is. It’s just a bunch of people coming together to build something together that is a team, plays like a team, plays like a team better than any other team. If you do that, then you have a chance to be the best team because the best team is the team that plays the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did the Giants do enough to improve on defense?<\/p>\n

There are several key additions to a Giants defense that struggled mightily in 2025 \u2026 and one massive departure. The Giants were 26th in scoring defense last season, 28th in total yards allowed and 31st against the run \u2014 and that was with Dexter Lawrence<\/a>, perhaps the best defensive tackle in football. Unhappy with his contract situation, Lawrence demanded a trade this offseason and was shipped to the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> in exchange for the 10th overall pick in the draft.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt could be credibly argued that he\u2019s as valuable as any other defensive player in the NFL today,\u201d Athlon Sports\u2019 Doug Farrar wrote about Lawrence<\/a> when the trade went down.<\/p>\n

While Lawrence will be missed, the team added several new pieces. They added veteran inside linebacker Tremaine Edmunds<\/a> and cornerback Greg Newsome<\/a> in free agency, drafted a player that many thought was the best defensive prospect when they got Ohio State<\/a>\u2019s Arvell Reese with the fifth overall pick, then added Tennessee<\/a> cornerback Colton Hood in the second round.<\/p>\n

With expected improvement from last year\u2019s No. 3 overall pick Abdul Carter<\/a> and Brian Burns<\/a> coming off a career-high 16.5 sacks, the potential is there.<\/p>\n

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“Our defense is pretty flexible, position-less you might call it,” Harbaugh said after the Giants drafted Reese. “We’ll have an opportunity to move those guys around. But he’ll [Reese] line up next to Tremaine and he’ll be in the A gap, the B gap, the C gap, the D gap, off the edge. He’ll be moving around with all of our guys. Abdul [Carter] and Brian [Burns] and Kayvon [Thibodeaux] and Tremaine.<\/p>\n

“We’ll be running games and picks and stunts and different things like that on passing situations, and he’s good in coverage as well, he’s a versatile player. He’s a young player. He’s gotten better every single year, playing off the ball and on the ball, so he does both. Probably why he was our highest rated non-quarterback player in the draft. He’s an exciting player. We are fired up to have him.”<\/p>\n

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Have the Giants done enough to help Jaxson Dart<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Even before Harbaugh\u2019s arrival, Giants fans were encouraged when Jaxson Dart ended up starting 12 games as a rookie, completing 63.7% of his passes for 2,272 yards with 15 touchdown passes and five interceptions, adding 487 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns. The downside was that Dart\u2019s rushing prowess came with a dangerous penchant for inviting hits. Dart was no stranger to the concussion protocol last season, something the team would love to better avoid.<\/p>\n

While some insiders thought the best thing the team could do to help Dart was to bring in more offensive weapons for him, the Giants thought it would be better to improve the offensive line. Even with his scrambling ability, Dart was sacked 35 times last season. Overall, the Giants tied for 24th in the NFL with 48 sacks allowed.<\/p>\n

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So with the 10th overall pick that was acquired in the Lawrence trade, the team drafted Miami Hurricanes<\/a> o-lineman Francis Mauigoa. A right tackle for much of his college career, Mauigoa will likely take over at right guard.<\/p>\n

“When you see him physically, he’s got this boxy, dense build,” said Giants GM Joe Schoen. “He looks like a guard, and then you watch him slide his feet and you’re like, OK, well, he can certainly play tackle as well. So, obviously, having brought [right tackle] Jermaine [Eluemunor] back, we thought he would slide in to right guard and it’d be an easy transition for him. At his pro day, you could see the athleticism, the quickness, the bend. There’s no doubt in my mind or the staff’s mind that he would be able to do it.”<\/p>\n

Related: Biggest Offseason Questions Still Looming for Dallas Cowboys<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Biggest Offseason Questions Still Looming for New York Jets<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on May 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With all 32 NFL teams preparing for OTAs and mandatory minicamps, Athlon Sports is going under the hood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[291,2222,117,1483,256,1489,7,519,53802,7987,13,1012,2909,2972,1917,56,255,2321,2469,6,526,1799,7401],"class_list":["post-889316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-giants","tag-abdul-carter","tag-arvell-reese","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-brian-burns","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-dexter-lawrence","tag-football","tag-giants","tag-giants-defense","tag-greg-newsome","tag-jaxson-dart","tag-jim-harbaugh","tag-john-harbaugh","tag-miami-hurricanes","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants","tag-new-york-jets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkgiants","tag-nfl","tag-tennessee","tag-the-giants","tag-tremaine-edmunds"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116562277872385605","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889316","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=889316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}