Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images Giants wide receiver added as a replacement for Amon-Ra St. Brown New York Giants’ wide receiver Malik Nabers, coming off a record-setting rookie season, will get to participate in the Pro Bowl Games beginning Thursday. Nabers, originally a second alternate to the Pro Bowl, will replace injured Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. Defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence is the only other Giant participating. Nabers is the first Giants received to participate in the Pro Bowl since Odell Beckham Jr. was named to the team in 2015, 2015 and 2016. Nabers set a franchise record with 109 receptions, two more than Steve Smith’s former franchise record of 107, set in 2009. He totaled 1,204 receiving yards and scored seven touchdowns. The 109 catches placed him fifth in the NFL and his 1,204 receiving yards was the league’s seventh-highest total. Nabers’ 109 receptions are the most by a rookie wide receiver in NFL history, topping the 105 catches the Rams’ Puka Nacua tallied in 2023. That is the second-highest total among all rookies, trailing only Las Vegas tight end Brock Bowers, who caught 112 this season. Nabers finished with 18 more catches than the previous Giants rookie record of 91, shared by Beckham and Saquon Barkley (2018). The Pro Bowl Games will be held from Thursday to Sunday in Orlando, Florida. The Games will feature a number of skills competitions and a flag football game to be played on Sunday.

Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images The New York Giants are looking for a new quarterback. Both Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito are free agents (the latter is an exclusive rights free agent). GM Joe Schoen may look to add multiple free-agent quarterbacks, and few possess an inexpensive upside like Justin Fields. I was not a big Fields fan when he came out of Ohio State in 2021. His physical traits are tantalizing, and he has a cannon, but, similar to Daniel Jones, his ability to change consistently the pacing and touch of his passes seems unnatural. Like Jones, accuracy issues and a lack of anticipatory passing are still significant question marks for Justin Fields. However, Fields is just 25 years old. He’ll cost the Giants little on the cap: Spotrac.com has his market value at $8.9 million average annual value — a shot on Fields at that price as the No. 2 quarterback is an interesting option. Plenty of former first-round picks have found comfortable homes away from the teams that selected them: Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff and Sam Darnold are examples. Can Fields become yet another? I remain skeptical but intrigued by his potential. I trust his upside more than that of Zach Wilson and Mac Jones, albeit the latter could offer low-upside stability. Fields started the first six games for the Pittsburgh Steelers while Russell Wilson was ailing from a calf injury. Fields led Pittsburgh to a 4-2 record before head coach Mike Tomlin made a somewhat controversial decision to bench Fields for Wilson. The offense did seemingly play better with Wilson as the signal caller. Fields finished the season with 1,106 passing yards, five passing touchdowns, one interception, a Big Time Throw Rate of 3.4%, and a Turnover Worthy Rate of 2.8%. Fields was most dangerous with his legs; he rushed for 289 yards and five touchdowns with six fumbles. He averaged 4.7 yards per carry, and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith seemed to enjoy the physicality and mobility of the young quarterback. We’ll start there. Fields’ legs Offensive coordinators can game plan around Fields’ elusiveness and his dangerous rushing upside. His toughness — combined with his 6-foot-3, 230-pound frame — allows him to punish defenders. The defense must be cognizant of his location at all times for his rushing ability can manifest on quarterback scrambles, like we see in the play above and below: But designed quarterback runs are even more exciting for a creative offensive coordinator. We’ve seen Brian Daboll design solid plays for Daniel Jones as a rusher, but Fields could take that to another level: Smith designed a beautiful fake-pitch G-Lead for Fields in the red zone against the Las Vegas Raiders. His ability to tuck it and run forces the defense to stay disciplined with their run assignments, leading to more advantageous numbers on the opposite side, lest the defense gets greedy and Fields makes them pay with his speed. Interior runs like QB-Power are also on the table with a signal caller like Fields. He picked up eight yards on this second-and-five run against the Indianapolis Colts. Fields’ presence offers the offense a much more creative and diversified rushing attack. He’s also a true threat as a zone read option: Fields sealed a victory against the Cincinnati Bengals on this zone-read keeper late in the fourth quarter. His threat as a runner can almost go unstated; it’s so self-evident, but how is he as a passer? Velocity Fields can thread the needle over the middle of the field. Fields tightly delivers a line drive to Van Jefferson (11) against the Dallas Cowboys’ zone defense. He waits for Pat Freiermuth (88) to get Eric Kendricks (50) to step to the right before squeezing the pass into Jefferson on a line. Fields gets good torque on his passes through his lower body and up until the point of release; this allows him to fire this football out of his hand in such a manner. Fields does a good job reading the defense and firing this football into his quick curl on the numbers. The Colts are in a Cover-2 defense, and the boundary middle hook split the hash and the numbers; Fields diagnosed this and threw with anticipation right before Calvin Austin III (19) turned around. Fields ‘ excellent timing and rhythm allowed Pittsburgh to pick up this first down on third-and-nine. Fields’ fastball has plenty of juice, and he can deliver catchable passes from the far-hash, albeit I would argue his ball placement is not consistently accurate. Still, we see him deliver a beautiful back-shoulder far-hash pass to Jefferson that’s dropped. Flashes of accuracy If a coach like Daboll can get a quarterback like Fields to consistently throw with accuracy, then the juice would undoubtedly be worth the squeeze for the Giants to pursue Fields at a discount. Fields accurately found Darnell Washington (80) on this boundary back shoulder. The defensive leverage was inside and Fields quickly noticed the space toward the sideline. The ball was placed perfectly for Washington to secure the six points. Fields took one step off the snap and fired a dart to Austin III, who defeated the soft inside lean of the cornerback. To be safe, Fields put the ball outside and away from the defender, allowing Austin III to effortlessly secure it before going out of bounds. We see Fields again successfully attack outside the numbers off a well-run route by George Pickens (14). It’s another far-hash rip to the receiver’s outside shoulder that was placed well by the quarterback. Fields doesn’t necessarily showcase touch over the middle of the field, but he also had a few impressive throws with good overall accuracy between the numbers. Fields waited just long enough for his receiver to get upfield and away from the underneath zone defender before throwing the ball low, which hit the receiver in the hands and was eventually dropped. There’s no room at all for Fields, but he provided a catchable pass. Here’s good processing

Wink Martindale | Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Kafka reportedly interested in bringing controversial former Giants defensive coordinator with him If New York Giants offensive coordinator/assistant head coach Mike Kafka is hired as head coach by the New Orleans Saints, he could add a delicious twist to the Giants’ 2025 season. Per Jordan Ranaan of ESPN, Kafka intends to hire former Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale for that job with the Saints should he have the opportunity. Martindale, of course, left the Giants under acrimonious circumstances following the 2023 season. The Giants face the Saints in New Orleans next season, setting up yet another potentially embarrassing scenario for Giants head coach Brian Daboll. Kafka called offensive plays for the Giants when the made the playoffs in 2022, Daboll’s first season as head coach. Martindale was, of course, the mastermind behind the team’s ultra-aggressive defense. After a miserable 2023 season, things changed for both coordinators. Daboll stripped Kafka of play-calling duties, with the organization adding the largely ceremonial title of assistant head coach to Kafka’s resume. Martindale found himself running the defense at Michigan after his relationship with Daboll fractured. The Giants have spent the 2024 season dealing with the embarrassment of watching Saquon Barkley have a historic season with the Philadelphia Eagles, who now have a chance to further the Giants’ misery by winning the Super Bowl. What if Kafka, after being pushed into the background, and Martindale, after being pushed out the door, by Daboll combine forces in New Orleans and are successful? What if, with that duo in charge, the Saints beat Daboll’s Giants next season? More embarrassment for the Giants. Of course, Kafka has to get the New Orleans job first and that is no certainty. The Saints are expected to hold a second interview on Monday with Eagles’ offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. While Kafka has had two interviews and the Saints are enamored with him, head-coaching jobs usually go to assistants from successful teams. The Eagles, obviously, have been just a bit more successful than the Giants this season. Still, the possibility of a Kafa/Martindale duo in New Orleans would certainly be fascinating.

GM Joe Schoen has never added premium talent to the position Co-owner John Mara made his displeasure with the New York Giants’ 2024 defense clear the day he announced that GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll would return for the 2025 season. “I didn’t think our defense played very well this year at all,” Mara said at the time. “I know that when you have an offense that performs like that, you’re putting more pressure on your defense. But we need to make improvements there. I’m tired of watching teams go up and down the field on us. So, I think that has to be addressed.” Those improvements did not start with firing defensive coordinator Shane Bowen. He will, to the surprise of some, be back for a second season. The Giants did replace secondary coaches Jerome Henderson and Mike Treier with Marquand Manuel. The place the Giants must start in upgrading their defense, though, is the defensive line. The Giants did not defend the run well in 2024. In truth, they have not defended the run well since finishing ninth in the league in yards per rushing attempt allowed (4.1) in 2020. Since then, they have finished 22nd, 31st, 31st and 24th. There are myriad reasons for that. In 2024, though, one of the biggest reasons was lack of depth on the defensive line. Schoen traded Leonard Williams to the Seattle Seahawks at the 2023 NFL Trade Deadline, a justifiable move that gave the Giants draft and financial resources to land edge defender Brian Burns. They lost veteran run-stopping defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson in free agency last offseason. The only noteworthy addition to the defensive tackle rotation was Elijah Chatman, an undrafted free agent who did not play a full-time role until injuries necessitated that over the final few games. The defensive line is, in fact, an area that Schoen has given short-shrift in his time as GM. The highest draft pick he has used on a defensive lineman is a fifth-round pick (147th overall) on D.J. Davidson in 2022. The biggest free agent signing has been Rakeem Nunez-Roches, a rotational run stopper forced to play far too many snaps in 2024. That lack of attention to the defensive line must change. The best teams build deep defensive line rotations filled with players who are assets when they are on the field. The Giants have not done that. It seems unlikely that the Giants would use the third overall pick in the draft on Mason Graham, commonly considered the best defensive tackle in the draft. The Giants must, though, look for upgrades on the line. It would behoove them to use both the free agent and draft markets to bolster the roster. Current roster (2025 cap hit in parenthesis) Dexter Lawrence ($23.840M)Rakeem Nunez-Roches ($5.033M)Elijah Chatman ($960,000)D.J. Davidson ($1.188M)Jordon Riley ($1.050M)Casey Rogers ($960,000)Elijah Garcia ($1.030M)Cory Durden ($1.030M)Ross Blacklock ($1.030M) Pending free agents Armon Watts (UFA) Nunez-Roches, as we discussed Sunday, is a cut candidate. He might be nice to keep as a fourth or fifth lineman playing limited snaps, but the Giants are probably better served to take the $3.6 million in cap savings from cutting him and look for a younger, more impactful player in free agency. In emergency action at the end of the season, Garcia showed flashes of useful play. Perhaps his length and athleticism give him a chance to make the roster in 2025. Davidson and Jordon Riley appear to be little more than replaceable parts. I would, honestly, be actively trying to find upgrades. Photo by Ryan Kang/Getty ImagesB.J. Hill Potential free agent targets SB Nation 2025 free agent defensive tackle rankings: 8. Leki Fotu7. Calais Campbell6. Levi Onwuzurike5. Milton Williams4. Adam Butler3. Osa Odighizuwa2. D.J. Jones1. B.J. Hill Pro Football Focus free agent defensive tackle rankings: Osa Odighizuwa (No. 30 overall free agent)Milton Williams (No. 32)Levi Onwuzurike (No. 40)B.J. Hill (No. 52)Jarran Reed (No. 75)Poona Ford (No. 76)Tershawn Wharton (No. 82)Teair Tart (No. 84)D.J. Jones (No. 97) I would be all-in on a reunion with Hill, a 2018 third-round pick by the Giants who was foolishly traded for center Billy Price in 2021. PFF estimates a value of two years, $20.5 million ($12 million guaranteed) for the 29-year-old Hill. PFF says “Hill is still a solid all-around player.” SB Nation says: “Hill has recorded 50+ tackles in each of the last four seasons with the Bengals and averaged four sacks per season. The former third-round pick is coming off a three-year, $30 million contract. He turns 30 this offseason, so he has good years left in the tank, and he’s a disruptive instant starter for any team that signs him to shore up their interior.” Sign me up. Looking for younger players who might still have upside? Odighizuwa, who plays for the Dallas Cowboys, and Williams, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, fit into that category. PFF estimates a market value of four years, $85 million ($42.5 million guaranteed) for Odighizuwa. It says: Odighizuwa played some of the best ball of his career over the second half of the campaign. The 2021 third-round pick is quietly one of the more underrated defenders across the NFL. Williams had a career-high 5.0 sacks in 2024. PFF estimates a market value of three years, $63 million ($37.5 million guaranteed). SB Nation says: Williams recorded five sacks and 10 QB hits in 2024 as the number two DT for the Eagles. He’s only going to be 26 in April, and has a lot of room for further growth. The former third-round pick has an elite pass-rush grade from PFF, but struggles against the run. Looking for an inexpensive rotational option? Tart, 6-foot-2, 315 pounds is a five-year veteran who spent the first four years of his career with the Tennessee Titans. He spent 2021-2023 playing in a defense coordinated by Bowen. The 27-year-old makes sense as a low-cost option who has played well for Bowen in the past. Tart’s market value is estimated by PFF