The New York Giants have gotten off to a terrible start in each of the opening games of the Brian Daboll era. In 2022 they fell behind Tennessee 13-0 in the first half, but rebounded to stage a thrilling comeback that set the tone for their last playoff season. In 2023, the game was over by the end of the first quarter as Dallas shut the Giants out in the rain. In 2024 the game was close in the first half but Minnesota gradually took over in a convincing win. Another bad start, and the pitchforks could be coming out for the current Giants regime.
Unfortunately, the Giants had another dispiriting opening loss. It wasn’t as bad as the two previous openers – they were still in the game with a few minutes left. In the end, though, it came to nothing. What did we learn from the Giants’ 21-6 loss to the Washington Commanders?
The offensive line is still not fixed
First, though, I am excited to share with you my first 2026 mock draft, which I did during the game using the Pro Football Network mock draft simulator:
Courtesy of Pro Football Network
To be honest, I know nothing about these players, I just took the highest rated player at tackle, guard, center, and guard when it was my turn to pick. As far as taking a tackle first rather than an interior lineman, (a) that’s only because most people would say that No. 5 it too early to draft IOL, and (b) you can argue that the Giants don’t need a tackle with Andrew Thomas, Jermaine Eluemunor, and Marcus Mbow on the roster, but Thomas’ return from lisfranc surgery is a concern until it’s not, Eluemunor is a free agent in 2026, Mbow is promising but untested, and James Hudson III today gave up five pressures.
The real problem today, though, was in the interior, where no one played well. Russell Wilson is at the point in his career where he needs a clean pocket most of the time to operate. He’s still fairly mobile, but he’s no Jayden Daniels when it comes to evading pressure, especially up the middle. He’s also 5’9”, and pressure up the middle practically eliminates his chance to get a pass downfield, much less complete it. Wilson still has the pocket intelligence to thrive, but he doesn’t have the escapability he had in his youth. If this is a harbinger of what the OL is going to be this season, then it may make sense to put Jaxson Dart in sooner rather than later.
Of even more concern than the pass blocking was the run blocking. The Giants had two first downs inside the Washington 5-yard line today and could not come away with a touchdown either time, not even close. Cam Skattebo rushed once, for a 1-yard loss, but mostly, the Giants tried to score by passing from a place where most teams would just run the ball once or twice to get into the end zone. This is the tragedy of Evan Neal’s inability to pass block. He was inactive today because of that, yet he can be an extremely effective run blocker.
The Giants did have a respectable-sounding 74 yards rushing total today. Look again, though – 44 of those yards were scrambles by Russell Wilson. The Giants’ running backs had 15 carries for 30 yards.
The defensive line isn’t any better against the run
In contrast to the Giants, the Commanders had 32 rushes for 220 yards, similar to both of their games against the Giants last season. Take away Jayden Daniels’ 68 yards on 11 carries and that still leaves 152 yards on 23 carries by the running backs (including 1 for 19 yards by Deebo Samuel). The Commanders had 111 rushing yards outside the tackles, a problem for the Giants for several years now. It probably didn’t help that linebacker Micah McFadden went down early with a leg injury, but the secondary was mostly missing in action in run support. Almost half the Commanders’ rushing yards (103) were after first contact. The Giants? For comparison, they had a total of 3 yards rushing outside the tackles, and 34 yards after contact.
Do the Giants have a receiving tight end?
The memories of Greg Dulcich catching 7 of 8 balls thrown to him for 53 yards and three touchdowns in the pre-season are still fresh. Dulcich did not make the 53, because he is a receiver only, and because the Giants supposedly have a receiving tight end with great upside but not much experience in Theo Johnson.
The question is how long the Giants have to wait for that upside to be realized. Johnson dropped two crucial passes today and had only one reception for 5 yards. Last season, Johnson had 5 drops, tied for third most in the NFL despite him playing only 12 games.
In fairness, the TE he was tied with for drops last year was Washington’s Zach Ertz. However, Ertz’s 5 drops were in 87 targets vs. Johnson’s 43. Ertz had 3 receptions today, including the opening touchdown that put the Giants behind the 8-ball.
Daniel Bellinger, once a darling of Joe Schoen’s first draft but now an afterthought, only played 15 snaps today to Johnson’s 52. He caught his only target, though, for 14 yards. How long should Brian Daboll wait for Johnson’s potential to be realized, and should Bellinger be seeing the field more until it does?
On the plus side, Abdul Carter looks like the real deal
There has to be some good news today, right? Dexter Lawrence may have been thinking about other things today, because he had zero pressures. Brian Burns made his presence felt with two sacks. Rookie Abdul Carter, though, led the Giants with 3 pressures, including his first NFL sack.
He also made two consecutive great plays near the end of the first half, when Washington was at the Giants’ 15 yard line: A great tackle of Jayden Daniels on a keeper up the middle, where he came over from the right edge to prevent Daniels from scoring, and a pressure on Daniels that forced an intentional grounding that caused time to expire in the first half without the Commanders having a chance to attempt a field goal:
If that wasn’t enough, on special teams he also had a punt block:
If the Giants had an offense, those might have been key plays in the game.
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