The Biggest Factor That Has Hurt the Giants' Roster Building Process

There’s nothing like home cooking, and that’s especially true when it comes to building successful NFL rosters that typically get playoff berths.

The New York Giants, however, haven’t really had much success, though, when it comes to building up a homegrown roster, let alone having postseason success.

Key Takeaways: The Giants’ draft has lacked punch

The Giants currently rank near the bottom of the NFL in homegrown talent, which suggests ongoing struggles to draft and develop players effectively.
Data shows a heavy reliance on externally acquired players.
The lack of a consistent draft-develop-retain strategy could be a strong factor in the roster’s struggles to improve.

According to premium metrics compiled by Over the Cap, the Giants currently rank 30th in terms of the number of homegrown players (players originally drafted and developed by the Giants) on their roster, with 32. That comes to 41.6% of their roster

Not surprisingly, right below them are the Dolphins with 28 (38.9%) and the Titans with 26 (35.6%), two teams that, like the Giants, didn’t even come close to sniffing the postseason this past year.

Those were also teams that, like the Giants, underwent massive overhauls starting with their respective coaching staffs.

Meanwhile, up at the top of the food chain are the Baltimore Ravens, who have 41 homegrown players and a team that just barely missed the postseason in 2025, the Rams with 44, the Bucs with 43, the Bills with 42, the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks with 45, and the Jaguars with 40.

The Giants, who have 45 players on their roster with NFL origins from other teams, need to start flipping how they build their roster. Interestingly, the Giants have the most players on the roster (their own and acquired) who were drafted in the first round (12), just behind the Atlanta Falcons, who have 14.

In the second and third rounds, the Giants have, shall we say, had their challenges. They have three second-rounders on the roster, according to the data (second fewest league-wide), and eight from the third round (16th).

What this data also reveals

Generally speaking–but not always–teams that have success building their core roster foundation through the draft year in and year out are likely to have winning records and legitimate chances at the postseason.

There are exceptions. For instance, this past year, the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, both of whom rank in the top half of the league in terms of stocking their respective rosters with homegrown talent, missed the postseason.

But overall, a team that ends up truly competitive needs to give itself a chance via the draft-develop-retain model that general manager Joe Schoen spoke about when he was first hired, but which has not been consistently applied under his watch for whatever reason.

Coaching is important, but it only goes so far if players aren't receptive to it or if the front office doesn’t find a creative, cap-wise way to retain homegrown talent.

These issues have popped up for the Giants in recent years, and it’s hoped that with the arrival of head coach John Harbaugh and his greater say in roster construction, the Giants’ misfortunes will start to reverse.

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