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.
What does the current — very unofficial depth chart look like? Are the Giants better or worse than they were? Let’s look at those questions.
Player the Giants have added or re-signed
This list includes both players the Giants signed from other teams, and free agents of their own that have been re-signed.
PK Jason Sanders
FB Patrick Ricard
CB Art Green
OLB Caleb Murphy
LB Micah McFadden
S Ar’Darius Washington
RT Jermaine Eluemunor
WR Isaiah Hodgins
TE Isaiah Likely
LB Tremaine Edmunds
P Jordan Stout
TE Chris Manhertz
Players the Giants have lost
WR Wan’Dale Robinson
CB Cor’Dale Flott
TE Daniel Bellinger
OL Austin Schlottmann
S Dane Belton
Players the Giants have released
LB Bobby Okereke
OT James Hudson
P Jamie Gillan
Players who are still in limbo
G Greg Van Roten
LS Casey Kreiter
DT Rakeem Nunez-Roches
DT D.J. Davidson
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.
OFFENSE
Position |
Player |
Player |
Player |
|---|---|---|---|
| QB | Jaxson Dart | Jameis Winston | |
| RB | Cam Skattebo, Tyrone Tracy | Devin Singletary | Eric Gray, Dante Miller |
| FB | Patrick Ricard | ||
| TE | Theo Johnson, Isaiah Likely | Chris Manhertz | Thomas Fidone, Tanner Conner |
| WR | Malik Nabers, Darius Slayton, Isaiah Hodgins | Jalin Hyatt, Gunner Olszewski, Dalen Cambre | Courtney Jackson, Beaux Collins, Da’Quan Felton, Xavier Gipson |
| LT | Andrew Thomas | Marcus Mbow | |
| LG | Jon Runyan Jr. | Reid Holskey | |
| C | John Michael Schmitz | Bryan Hudson | |
| RG | Jake Kubas | ||
| RT | Jermaine Eluemunor | Marcus Mbow |
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’t 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.
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’m fine with the Giants not spending that.
DEFENSE
Position |
Player |
Player |
Player |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL | Dexter Lawrence, Roy Robertson-Harris, Darius Alexander | Elijah Chatman | Marion Tuipulotu |
| OLB | Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, Kayvon Thibodeaux | Chauncey Golston | DeMarvin Leal, Swayze Bozeman, Caleb Murphy, Trace Ford |
| ILB | Tremaine Edmunds, Micah McFadden | Darius Muasau | Chris Board |
| NICKEL | Dru Phillips | Myles Purchase | |
| CB | Paulson Adebo, Greg Newsome II | Jarrick Bernard-Converse, Deonte Banks, Korie Black | Rico Payton, Nic Jones, Art Green |
| S | Tyler Nubin, Jevon Holland | Ar’Darius Washington | T.J. Moore, Patrick McMorris, Beau Brade, Raheem Layne |
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.
There is also likely still work to be done in the secondary. Again, perhaps that comes from the draft.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Position |
Player |
Player |
|---|---|---|
| LS | ||
| Holder | Jordan Stout | |
| Punter | Jordan Stout | |
| Placekicker | Jason Sanders | Ben Sauls |
| Punt returner | Gunner Olszewski | |
| Kickoff returner | Gunner Olszewski | Deonte Banks |
Harbaugh has clearly been focused on improving the Giants’ kicking game. Let’s see how that pays dividends during the season.
Are the Giants better?
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.
Anthony Del Genio
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.
Ed Valentine
And there is no game for how many months?
Anthony Del Genio
You’re putting a lot of pressure on 2 Day 1 and 2 draft picks
Ed Valentine
There is still a lot to be done, and a lot of useful players out there who won’t cost a ton. I get the concern, but it’s March 11.
Anthony Del Genio
I just think they’re putting a lot of eggs in the better coaching basket. They’d better at least bring GVR back.
Chris Pflum
IMO: I’d say overall the defense is better because Edmunds and McFadden are better than Okereke and Muasau. It’d be nice to get DT depth so they can rotate Dex and Alexander off the field and not have nothing.
The offense is worse. Likely is bigger than Wan’Dale, but I’m not sure he’s a better player. Ricard doesn’t move the needle for me when they don’t have a right guard.
I think they’ve set themselves up reasonably well for the draft, however. I just wish WR and RG weren’t glaring holes.
Anthony Del Genio
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’s not great in pass coverage either. CB worries me, DT worries me, WR worries me. P and K look like an upgrade.
Ed Valentine
The thing about McFadden is he WASN’T there last year, and the Giants clearly missed him. You are right to have concerns about those spots, but — again — 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.
Anthony Del Genio
But we’re not talking perfectly addressing every need. We’re talking taking a step back at several positions and continuing not to address certain needs like IDL. Now I still have hopes that they’ll do something about IDL soon. But at the moment, outside of STs, I feel they’ve lost at least as much as they’ve gained, and the Raanan tweet is ominous.
Ed Valentine
They also have not restructured any contracts. Perhaps they don’t want to, but we’ll see what happens.
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’t a game for six months.
Chris Pflum
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’t need a FB and they replaced a little slot with a big slot.
Ed Valentine
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.
Anthony Del Genio
I do think your restructuring comment is a key thing. I don’t 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’d be happy to see them use half that much to make sure they have holes plugged.
Chris Pflum
Unless they just didn’t 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.
But also, like I said last night, I think the Giants were a hell of a lot better last year than their record says.
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’t a talent deficit.
Anthony Del Genio
I agree the D should be better just with a new DC. But they’re down a CB, so they need to do something about that. Maybe beef up the pass rush, I hear Maxx Crosby’s available. [NOTE: This was meant as a joke!]
I wonder in that regard if they’d go Delane at 5.
Ed Valentine
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.
Chris Pflum
I think Delane, Styles, Tate, and Vega are all in play, although Vega probably works best if they can execute a trade down.
I’m out on Love and Downs. I know I’m all alone thinking Downs is just good, not a historic prospect. But we’ve also seen the Top 5 RB movie before, and Love isn’t as good a prospect as Barkley or Bijan. Not to mention there isn’t enough around them to make it worthwhile.
Ed Valentine
I just feel like Love is a Harbaugh-esque play.
Anthony Del Genio
I’d rather it not be Love also. I’d be fine with any of the others, but a small trade-down would suit me as well if they didn’t lose all of them.
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