Harold Tolchinsky asks: How will the Giants improve next season. They will have limited cap space and will be without draft choices 2 and 3 (although for good reasons)? Hopefully the injured will return to full form but what else can be realistically done?
Ed says: Harold, first the Giants DO have a third-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. They gave up their second-rounder in the Jaxson Dart trade, but still have first- and third-round picks.
Malik Nabers and Cam Skattebo will be back. Jaxson Dart will have a year of experience. I wouldn’t worry about the cap space right now. That is fluid and they will make room to do whatever they feel they need to do.
We have no idea right now if there will be changes in the coaching staff or front office. I think, though, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic that the Giants are moving in the right direction.
Paul T Criscuolo asks: Skattebo is gone for the season and maybe forever. We need a power back. AJ Dillon is not playing with the Eagles. He is available, cheap and the Giants are done with the Eagles for 2025. Watching his every game at BC tells me he gets better the more carries he gets. He’s 250 pounds, with has excellent speed and he likes contact. He wears down cornerbacks and small linebackers. He doesn’t fumble. AJ does not have a lot of wear and tear on his body. He’s a CT kid. Why not grab him?
Ed says: Paul, please step back from the ledge. Cam Skattebo is not gone forever. He had an ankle dislocation and will be back next season. Now, recovery is likely to take at least six months but that is not forever.
As for A.J. Dillon, the Giants can’t “grab him.‘ He is not available. He is on the Philadelphia Eagles’ active 53-man roster. The Giants can’t just poach him, like a team can poach a player on another team’s practice squad. They would have to trade for him. I don’t see why the Giants would do that.
In case you have forgotten, Tyrone Tracy is a good player and Devin Singletary is an accomplished, veteran running back.
Donald Sussman asks: Ed, how would you rate the job Schoen and Daboll have done with the roster depth?
Injuries are common and should be anticipated. I believe that every position group should be able to absorb at least one injury and still field a credible line up. I think the Giants have done that with all the position groups with the exception of two: Cornerback and wide receiver.
The Giants started the year with three good receivers. Since they often play 3 receivers at a time, the 4th receiver will be called upon if there is an injury. Clearly they were not in a position to replace one injury, let alone two. The offense has done a very good job of working around this deficiency, but in my mind it was an obvious mistake. It would be nice to have even an aging vet to step in.
In both situations the Giants solution to an injury is to field failed high level draft choice. I can understand how you can make a mistake drafting. I don’t understand how you can work with a player for two years and continue to either misjudge their talent or fail to admit a mistake.
Some players develop later. It’s fine to keep Banks and Hyatt for a third year. But to count on them to be the first solution to an injury is poor management in my view.
How do you feel about these two position group’s depth?
Ed says: Donald, the NFL is a salary cap league and there are only so many draft picks each season. The problem is not that the Giants haven’t tried to fill out the depth. The problem is that players like Deonte Banks, Jalin Hyatt and Evan Neal have not been what they were supposed to be.
If Banks was playing the way the Giants had hoped he would, maybe Cor’Dale Flott would be the fourth cornerback. Or, maybe they wouldn’t have needed to spend money on Paulson Adebo and could have used it on an expensive free agent at another position.
If Hyatt was the player the Giants thought he would become, we wouldn’t be talking about the possibility of trading draft assets to add a wide receiver.
If Evan Neal was a quality player, the Giants probably would not have had to spend money on Jermaine Eluemunor. Maybe they could have used that money on better interior offensive line options than Jon Runyan or Greg Van Roten.
You only have so many resources. When you are a building team, draft misses — whether the picks were justified or not — have a domino effect. Each one sets you back. No one would be worrying about the depth if these highly-drafted players were what they were drafted to be.
Doug Mollin asks: What the heck happened to Tyler Nubin?
In January, PFF picked him as “the 2025 breakout candidate” for the Giants.
Dane Brugler selected him for the 2024 all-rookie team.
His 2025 PFF (FWIW) is 58.4, ranking 61st out of 84 safeties — and honestly it seems even worse than that.
It’s the same defense and a year later he’s worse. What gives?
Ed says: Doug, I still believe that Nubin is a good player and will have a lengthy NFL career as a starting safety. will he be the ball-hawking, high-interception player the Giants hoped for? It doesn’t seem that way.
We have made a lot at Big Blue View over Nubin’s lack of athleticism. There is no denying that his Relative Athletic Score is not good:
That lack of speed and quickness was exploited by Saquon Barkley on his 65-yard run on Sunday and by the New Orleans Saints on the 80-yard Rashid Shaheed touchdown in Week 5.
Thing is, if other people had done their jobs properly on those plays Nubin would not have been asked to try to do things the defense is not designed to ask him to do, and that his own shortcomings make difficult for him. Like Wan’Dale Robinson on offense, he has physical limitations. Used properly, though, he can be a good player.
Nubin has missed far too many tackles this season, no doubt. Pro Football Focus shows him with 11, a ridiculous 21.2% missed tackle rate. He missed just 10 (9.4%) all of last year. That’s on him.
The PFF scores penalize him greatly for the missed tackles. The Pro Football and Sports Network Impact score tells a different story.
PFSN gives Nubin a 74.9, ranking him No. 34 among 90 safeties this season. A year ago, Nubin received a 72.3 from PFSN and was ranked No. 56.
I just point that out to show that Nubin might not be playing as badly as the PFF scores make you think.
Now, did I expect more? Absolutely. Do the Giants need more? Absolutely.
I just wouldn’t quit on the young man yet.
Jon Joel asks: The Peter Principle refers to employees being promoted beyond their level of competence. That might apply to the Giants’ current HC. Since Daboll does seem like a strong fit as Dart’s QB coach–and maybe OC–would the Giants ever consider what would be a probably unprecedented move next year: a demotion or even a hat swap with Mike Kafka? If a starting QB can become a backup on his own team, why couldn’t Daboll?
Ed says: JJ, this is not how it works. Head coaches don’t get demoted or swap places with one of their coordinators. They get fired. After four years of being Kafka’s boss, how on earth would switching roles work.
As for the Peter Principle, if Daboll ends up being a better coordinator than head coach he will join a very long list. There’s no shame in it. Hiring the right head coach isn’t easy. Teams get it wrong far more often than they get it right.
Patrick O’Neil asks: Let’s assume Jaxson Dart continues to look like the future of the franchise. Let’s also assume Coach Daboll’s continued employment is still up in the air as the season ends. Does John Mara have a private sit down with Dart to discuss his feelings on retaining the head coach? If so, how much sway do you think that opinion may hold?
Ed says: Patrick, I have no inside information on how this would work. So, this is my opinion based on what I know about Mara and the Giants.
I do not think Dart gets a vote. I think Mara might have a conversation with the young quarterback, but this is still a kid who will have just finished his rookie season and have really accomplished nothing. He doesn’t carry the cachet of a multiple-time Super Bowl winner or multiple-time All-Pro for the franchise. Besides, I seem to remember the Giants kicking Tom Coughlin to the curb when Eli Manning wasn’t happy about it.
Daboll’s body of work with the Giants obviously pre-dates Dart, and it will all matter. Dart and Daboll have a great relationship and the Giants don’t want to put the quarterback through the head coach spin cycle. If they don’t win games, though, that is what is going to happen.
Greg Hart asks: I live all the way upstate on the Canadian border. I watch the occasional Montreal Alouettes CFL game (this is their final regular season game). Have the Giants ever had a player from the CFL? There are some speedsters in that league.
Ed says: Greg, I don’t have a complete list. Current Giants guard Greg Van Roten played for the Toronto Argonauts in 2015 and 2016. Offensive lineman Brett Jones signed with the Giants out of the CFL in 2015 and was a Giant through the 2017 season.
Quarterback Nathan Rourke was with the Giants during 2024 training camp. Rysen John, a tight end, was with the Giants during training camp in 2020 and 2021.
Chase Baldwin asks: There’s been some vocal talk in the comments that Schoen and Daboll (and Bowen) need to go. I get that we don’t have the record that we want to, or should if we had managed to finish strong at Dallas or Denver. That said I do think there’s a core of players that are talented. Schoen had some big swings and misses at the start of his career with us, but I think he’s gotten better at talent evaluation. To me I believe we’ve sort of payed for his education, and I don’t know that it’s worth throwing that away. Am I drinking too much blue Kool-Aid? Are there any scenarios that is makes sense to fire Schoen in? I personally don’t buy the idea that him and Daboll are a package deal either, but I’d love to hear insight from someone much more on the pulse of the team than I.
Ed says: Chase, if ownership thinks that Joe Schoen has made too many mistakes, the talent on the roster is not improving, and the front office Schoen has built is structurally flawed, they will fire him. Right now, I don’t believe that to be the case. I believe he is on firmer footing than Daboll.
As for them being a package deal, I don’t think so. John Mara said a while ago they have separate jobs and he can separate their performances. That doesn’t mean he won’t opt for a full fresh start, but keeping the GM and moving on from the coach is certainly a realistic scenario.
Jesse Brooks asks: I can appreciate everyone’s frustration with the Giants being 2-6 and the fact that we can only play the teams in front of us but all the teams can’t be gifted the schedule that the New England Patriots have.
If so the Giants could probably be 5-3 and every one singing praises to Dart and Daboll. So far the Giants have played 5 games against what media members would call Super Bowl contenders and the Giants have beaten 2 of them. Do you think the strength of schedule will play a roll in Mara’s decision to retain or fire Schoen and Daboll?
Ed says: Jesse, strength of schedule might play into ownership’s thinking. I think you have to be realistic, though. If the Giants won games they were in position to win against Dallas and Denver, and won a game they lost against the New Orleans Saints when they were clearly the better team, they would be 5-3.
It’s not hard to make the argument they should be 5-3. Continually losing games they should win also has to factor into whether or not to keep the coach.
Eric Chavis asks: Can you see a world where at the end of the season Daboll gets fired but then Kafka ultimately gets the job as HC? Feel like Mara/Tisch may like that because of Dart but not sure if Kafka would want to hang around.
Ed says: Eric, I think it is possible — but not likely — that Mike Kafka would get the job. Kafka has gotten quite a few head-coaching interviews the last three offseasons, and nearly got the New Orleans Saints job last offseason. I would think ownership would at least give him the opportunity to make his pitch for the job.
As for Kafka wanting to hang around, there are only 32 NFL head-coaching jobs. Far less than that with quality quarterbacks in place to build around. You think Kafka, who has already missed out on a number of openings, is going to say no if the Giants offer him the job? I don’t.
Bobby Calloway asks: Since the 2022 draft class being free agents after the season how does that work with comp pick formula if they sign elsewhere next year? If Neal sign somewhere next year would he fetch a seventh-round draft pick compared to if Belton or Bellinger sign somewhere else in the off-season? I guess my question is how much does draft position go into the comp pick formula because in the case of Neal he has obviously hasn’t been on the field this year?
Ed says: Bobby, Evan Neal is eligible to be included in the compensatory pick formula for the 2027 NFL draft. So, too, are Dane Belton and Daniel Bellinger. Based on the current projection, Neal would be the 468th ranked free agent eligible to be counted in the comp pick formula, and could net a sixth-round pick. Don’t get your hopes up, though. Considering that Neal is the 468th-ranked potentially eligible free agent and only 32 compensatory picks are awarded the odds of getting a compensatory pick for Neal would seem slim.
Ben Goldstein asks: One thing that has impressed me about Dart, and seems contrary to his Ole Miss system, is how he’s scanned the field and gotten to multiple reads. Two questions: does this in fact seem to be the case? Is it possible that not having Nabers this year could be good for his longterm development in that he is not able to lock in on one receiver but forced to look across his options.
Ed says: Ben, yes, Dart has done a better job scanning the field and reading defenses than many anticipated he would this early in his career. It’s a testament to not only his ability, but how hard he works. As for Malik Nabers, there is no way you can convince me that not having the best playmaker on the team is a good thing for Dart. I get the not wanting to force the ball to one guy part of it, but what do we keep talking about as the trade deadline approaches? The idea that the Giants need more playmakers to help out their quarterback — because Nabers isn’t there.
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