The New York Giants return to action this week with four games to play in yet another season gone wrong. At 2-11 with a seven-game losing streak, an interim head coach, and an interim defensive coordinator, it would be easy to think there aren’t reasons to watch the Giants over the final month.
There are, though, always reasons to watch. Here are five.
Jaxson Dart’s development
There are some who would like to see the Giants place the rookie quarterback in bubble wrap and not let him take another hit until Week 1 of next season. That, of course is not going to happen. Dart is going to play, and that should be good for both him and the Giants.
Dart has started just eight games and played only 513 snaps in his NFL career. There is still plenty that he has not seen or done, and plenty of development for him to do. Every snap Eli Manning took for the Giants in 2004 was helpful for both him and the future of the team. The same goes for Dart. Especially if the Giants are able to play well offensively and win a couple of games down the stretch.
Coming out of Ole Miss, the 22-year-old has done a better job than many thought he would in going through progressions and figuring out where to throw the ball. That doesn’t mean experience won’t make him even better. He has taken care of the ball, with a 1.3% interception rate, and just three fumbles. Dart is 33rd out of 43 qualifying quarterbacks in completion percentage on passes longer than 20 yards (32.4%). That is an area of concern.
Of course, part of Dart’s development is also going to be learning when to risk taking a hit and when to protect himself. Not playing would, of course, prevent him from taking hits. It would not, though, help his decision-making in learning when the risk is worth it and when it isn’t.
On the topic of Dart taking hits, I do think the hysteria over Dart’s willingness to play aggressively needs to stop. The quarterback is right when he says that he is going to get hit. Did you watch Justin Herbert take a beating while playing with a broken hand on Monday night? NFL players, quarterbacks included, are going to get hit. They are going to get hurt. Sometimes because of a hit, sometimes not. Daniel Jones just lost his season to a non-contact torn Achilles tendon.
Dart’s aggression, his ability and willingness to use his legs, what people refer to as his moxie, is a big part of what made the Giants want to draft him in the first place. Nobody should want him to lose those things, or to become hesitant is his decision-making — something that might actually put him at greater risk.
He is 22 and has played half a season. Of course no one wants to see him have his career ruined after a year the war Robert Griffin III’s was, but experience is the best teacher. Dart isn’t going to get that on the sideline.
Abdul Carter’s production
Carter has been benched twice in Mike Kafka’s three games, once for missing a walk-through practice and once for missing a special teams meeting. By all accounts, these transgressions were part of a pattern that developed under the stewardship of former head coach Brian Daboll.
Draft analysts I have spoken to said there were maturity and entitlement issues at Penn State with Carter that NFL teams knew they would have to deal with. It seems that under Daboll the Giants did not do enough to set Carter on the right path.
Is that lack of maturity, lack of understanding of what it is to be a pro, part of the reason for Carter’s quiet rookie season?
Carter, the No. 3 overall pick, drew comparisons to Micah Parson before the draft and was the preseason favorite to be named Defensive Rookie of the Year. In a recent ESPN story ranking 2025 rookies, Carter did not even make the top 10.
Carter does lead all rookies with 47 quarterback pressures, which is 15th in the NFL. In terms of what NextGen Stats calls “quick pressures,” when a rusher gets to the quarterback in less than 3 seconds, Carter is fourth in the NFL behind Parsons, Nik Bonitto and Will Anderson with 28.
So, it is not like Carter has not been a handful for opposing teams to block. It’s just that Carter was drafted to do more than that. He was drafted to be a game-changer, to be a player other teams had to fear. He has only 1.5 sacks and does not have a true game-altering play in the first 13 games of his career. His 0.4% sack rate is 136th out of 140 players in NextGen Stats linebacker category.
When Carter did enter the Week 3 game against the New England Patriots after sitting out the first quarter, he turned in one of his better performances. Carter had his first full sack and, per Pro Football Focus, had six pressures. The only game in which he had more was the Giants’ Week 4 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, in which he had eight.
Was that a sign that a little bit of tough love was working?
There are two things to watch with Carter over the final four games: Does the production improve in terms of plays actually made, and are there any further incidents? Both will tell us something about whether or not the Giants are getting through to a young man they are heavily invested in.
Defensive improvement, or lack thereof
All season, the belief has been that the Giants’ defensive talent was under-performing. That former defensive coordinator Shane Bowen did not know how to maximize the talented front seven or the highly-paid and highly-drafted players at his disposal in the secondary.
Bowen is gone now, with Charlie Bullen in his place as interim defensive coordinator. We have only seen one game with Bullen in charge, and the Giants surrendered 395 yards in a 33-15 loss to New England.
Still, there were positive developments. There were some creative blitzes, including by cornerbacks and safeties. There was more of an effort at deception. The Giants, giving up a league-worst 5.9 yards per rushing attempt entering the game, held the Patriots to 4.1 yards per carry.
Can Bullen’s defensive continue to show positive signs?
There has been talk that Kavyon Thibodeaux, one of the team’s best run defenders, could return from a shoulder injury this week after missing three games. Maybe the Giants have gotten through to Carter. Maybe Bullen can find some ways to create more 1-on-1 matchups for Dexter Lawrence, or get some ball production from the secondary.
Whatever they end up being, we will be looking for signs that the Giants were right to believe the defensive talent was not being maximized on Bowen’s watch.
After losses in his first three games after taking over for Brian Daboll, a couple of questionable fourth-down decisions in a Week 13 Loss to the New England Patriots, and a panned performance in the press conference following that loss, interim head coach Mike Kafka’s bid for the full-time job seems to be on life support.
That, though, does not mean things can’t change.
Kafka has done some good things while being placed in a difficult situation.
- His two benchings of Abdul Carter in three weeks show an effort to reign in a permissive culture that led to the impression that the Giants have been a team that lacks accountability or standards.
- His decision to give the offensive coordinator job to tight ends coach Tim Kelly rather than quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney, a Brian Daboll, disciple, showed the ability to be his own man.
- His handling of the Shane Bowen wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction. Kafka took enough time to determine for himself whether or not he felt Bowen was the right defensive coordinator. His choice of Charlie Bullen didn’t make everyone happy. It also does not seem like it was the easy choice.
The Giants have four games remaining, with three of them at home where they are 2-3 this season. The combined records of those four teams is 16-35-1. Only the 6-6-1 Dallas Cowboys have a winning percentage at or above .500.
What is Kafka leads the Giants to victories in three of those games? Or even all of them? What does that do to his candidacy? It certainly wouldn’t hurt it.
2026 NFL Draft order
Speaking of winning games down the stretch, the Giants currently possess the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. We have reached the point where any game that the team wins is going to anger a big swath of the fan base that believes draft position is more meaningful than late-season victories.
The Athletic’s NFL Playoff Simulator currently gives the Giants a 9% chance of having the No. 1 overall pick at season’s end. ESPN’s Football Power Index projects that the Giants will end up with the fifth overall pick. The Pro Football and Sports Network Playoff Simulator gives the Giants a 23.7% chance at the No. 1 pick, second behind the Las Vegas Raiders at 30.6%.
The bad news for fans who don’t want to see the Giants win games the rest of the way is that the combined 16-35-1 record of their final four opponents, a .317 winning percentage, gives them the second-easiest remaining schedule of any team in the NFL.
The Giants are actually favored this week against the Washington Commanders, and it seems there is a good chance they will win a couple more games before the seasons ends.
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