Giants Advised to Make This One Offseason Move in New Analysis

The New York Giants' offseason agenda is already stacking up, but there is one key decision that one analyst is stressing them to execute in the coming months.

Jan 20, 2026; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen and head coach John Harbaugh pose after the press conference announcing Harbaughís hiring at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images | Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

The New York Giants definitively aced the first major steppingstone of their offseason roadmap by getting Super Bowl-winning head coach John Harbaugh to sign on the dotted line as the franchise's next head coach just a couple of weeks ago.

Now, the football world is ablaze with opinions on what they need to do in free agency and the upcoming draft to finally build a competitive roster that will fulfill Harbaugh's immediate expectations to be a playoff contender in the 2026 season.

With major holes potentially opening up from 20 impending unrestricted free agents set to hit the open market and a lot of youth throughout the roster, the Giants brass have to be very sharp in their execution to ensure their biggest needs are met without jeopardizing any position that will matter to their success on the gridiron.

The league’s free agent legal tampering period is still a month away, and a lot could change the team’s thinking before we have a rough outline of a group ready to take on spring practices later this year. Still, the Giants will have to determine their biggest priority and attack it head-on if they want to reach greater heights next fall.

NFL.com's Kevin Patra has his thoughts on the topic and his advice to Big Blue as the offseason officially kicks off this week: bring in an upgrade to their lackluster secondary, particularly at cornerback. 

“To get the most out of new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson’s aggressive-style defense, the Giants must get better corner play,” Patra said. 

“With Cordale Flott set to hit free agency, the need in the secondary is magnified. Flott generated a -0.15 EPA per target in 2025, top of New York’s struggling defense -- the rest of the unit was in the positive.” 

“To take advantage of their pass rush, the Giants need corners who can make life more difficult on receivers off the snap.”

Dec 21, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants cornerback Paulson Adebo (21) reacts after a turnover against the Minnesota Vikings during the first half at MetLife Stadium. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

It doesn’t come off as much of a surprise that Patra chose the defensive secondary as the personnel grouping that must be addressed if Harbaugh and company want to garner the positive results he expects. 

While the Giants had some issues on the offensive side of the ball that will also earn their attention, it was the back end of the defense that ran into rough patches in several of the team’s close games that resulted in avoidable losses. 

One can recall the game against the Denver Broncos in Week 7, when the defense was caught sleeping in the final 37 seconds of regulation as the Giants were on the cusp of an upset victory against one of the toughest pass-rushing attacks on the road. 

A costly pre-snap penalty combined with two 22+ yard completions off of loose zone coverage helped the Broncos offense move the football 56 yards down into field goal range in that short period and steal the win on a 39-yard field goal as time expired. 

It happened again three weeks later in Chicago, as the Giants held a slim 20-17 lead with the Bears, with both offenses trading scoring blows. The secondary was torched on a 27-yard dart from Caleb Williams before whiffing on a few tackles during his 17-yard run to cough up the lead in the final two minutes of what was a 24-20 defeat.

The unit was just as fragile in man coverage as they were in zone, failing to get a lot of disruption of opposing throws (only Andru Phillips had more than two forced incompletions in that scheme), and closing down on the ball in the endzone with eight touchdowns allowed.

All of those issues severely cut into the effectiveness the Giants hoped to have on defense as they built a versatile pass rush to slow opponents. 

It’s why they were able to finish with the fifth-best pass rush win rate in the league this season,  but only yielded 29.5 sacks from their core pieces and a 6.26 pass rushing productivity score, which was less than satisfactory for a group of their caliber and hype before the year started.  

With Flott, a veteran who won his starting role in training camp and was a bright spot, set to hit free agency, the group will only get younger.

The inexperience will continue to haunt the Giants in big moments if they don’t re-sign him or land another player who can excel in getting after the football, holding up elite receivers, and completing tackles in the open field. 

Patra nails it with his analysis of the biggest move Joe Schoen must orchestrate to further the winning agenda in 2026. All signs point to the offense getting better in year two with Jaxson Dart and some of his weapons returning from injuries or added via free agency or the draft. 

With Wilson taking over as defensive coordinator, there seems to be no end to the team’s desire to return to the aggressive style of defense that makes life difficult for quarterbacks and defined their most recent runs to the pinnacle of NFL history.

Tough decisions will have to be made to make those two areas even better. Still, none of it will truly flourish for the Giants if they don’t find the best answer to improve their secondary into a unit that helps them win games rather than lose them brutally.  

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