Giants Look to Stay Atop the Division Against Desperate Saints

At 3-1-1 and sitting alone in first place, New York hosts a 1-4 New Orleans team with nothing to lose, while injuries remain among this week's storylines.

The New Orleans Saints roll into MetLife Stadium this week to face the Giants. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The New York Giants will keep building positive momentum as they grind toward their bye week, two weeks away.

The first five weeks have been quite the adventure. They upset the Cowboys, lost to the Rams, squeaked out wins against the Titans and Cardinals, and tied with the Commanders, with most of those games played without quarterback Jaxson Dart and outside linebacker Brian Burns.

And yet they have prevailed, sitting alone at the top of the division and looking to stay there when they host the New Orleans Saints this weekend.

“Yeah, I think it says a lot about not only our coaching staff, what they’ve tried to build throughout the whole offseason program and into training camp. It says a lot about them, the foundation that they’ve built, and a lot of us as players, we’re sitting 3-1-1 right now,” said left guard Jon Runyan.

It’s also not lost on Runyan or his teammates that they could have easily been 1-4, especially given how some of their recent games have played out. As such, Runyan said the players and coaches are not about to rest on their laurels.

“We still have a long way to go. This whole division stacks up how it does, as long as we take care of what we got, like we got the Saints coming in this week. (Head) Coach (John) Harbaugh has been saying go 1-0 every week, and that’s been our mindset, and it’s been working so far this year.”

Here’s a look at some of this week’s storylines ahead of their game with the Saints.

The Desperate Saints

The only thing worse than facing a really good team is facing a desperate team, and that’s exactly what the Giants get this weekend when the Saints march into MetLife Stadium.

The Saints (1-4) have lost their last three games by two or more scores. They have been a little bit better on the road, losing to the Lions by one point in Week 1 and upsetting the Ravens by seven in Week 2.

But in an NFC South division that seems wide open every year, the Saints will be desperate this weekend, knowing that if they lose, their chance to win the division will likely be over. And that’s what makes them so dangerous.

Injury Updates

Oct 11, 2026; Landover, Maryland, USA; New York Giants offensive line Jermaine Eluemunor (72) is helped off the field after an injury during the third quarter against the Washington Commanders at Northwest Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Head coach John Harbaugh said right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor (calf) and safety Tyler Nubin (neck) are out, while cornerback Colton Hood (concussion) will likely be day-to-day. If Hood is in the concussion protocol, he may be out a little longer, so that bears watching.

And speaking of injuries, the Giants obviously hope to have safety Jason Pinnock (concussion) back, while the expectation is that left tackle Andrew Thomas (groin) will have his practice reps managed.

The Jameis Winston Experience Expanded

Oct 4, 2026; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston (19) warms up before the game against the Arizona Cardinals at MetLife Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

A funny thing happened to the offense last week. The Giants, who have been trying to stick with their power running game, ultimately went to the passing game 54 times in their tied game against Washington. Granted, a big part of that was that the Giants were trailing, but when they trusted Winston with the ball, he made things happen and brought the Giants back from a 14-point deficit.

The game, by the way, marked the second straight time Winston threw three touchdown passes. That’s good news for a Giants offense that is about to face a Saints pass defense that has allowed an average of 3.6 touchdowns per game so far.

“We’ve been talking about some of the tempo stuff. We’ve been working on that. It’s been part of our system from day one, really. We built it in from the beginning. And it was good to get to it,” Harbaugh said of the offense last week.

“We got to it maybe because we had to. Maybe game flow forced us to do it, but it was a good thing in that sense. So yeah, it opened up the offense. It was good to see, and it probably needs to be part of what we’re doing going forward.”

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news, and send your mailbag questions to us.