Rating the Giants’ Foundation Under John Harbaugh

It’s been a long time since the New York Giants have had a competitive team, let alone a roster that gives off the slightest hint of being a championship-caliber group.

Questionable draft decisions that didn't work out, bleeding of talent via free agency, and roster management decisions, along with a head coaching carousel, have all contributed to the Giants being cast into a decade-plus-long period of lousy football.

But it’s a new era for the Giants, whose head coach, John Harbaugh, has a proven track record of building consistent winners, a good sign for the Giants in that they finally have someone who appears to have a clue about what it takes to be successful.

Or do they?

The Blueprint: Breaking Down Bucky Brooks’ Roster Formula

NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks has a formula he leans on to assess whether a team has a championship foundation in place, as well as a ranking system to gauge the strength of that foundation.

According to Brooks, a potential championship team should have the following:

1 quarterback
3 offensive playmakers
3 quality offensive linemen
2 pass rushers
3 back-seven playmakers

Within the above, there is then an additional breakdown as follows:

BLUE: Top 5-to-10 player at his position.
GREEN: Really solid, dependable starter.
YELLOW: Potential concern due to age, injury, or contract.
PURPLE: Unproven young player with BLUE potential.
PINK: Unproven young player who could become a GREEN -- or maybe even a BLUE.

Here, in our opinion, is where the Giants stand at present.

Quarterback

Second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart enters 2026 as the undisputed starter. Dart is coming off a solid rookie campaign in which he led his draft class with 24 touchdowns scored (15 thrown, nine rushes), doing so without his No. 1 receiver (Malik Nabers) and running back Cam Skattebo for the bulk of his first year as the starting signal-caller.

Dart has lots to still improve upon in his game, most notably his deep ball decision-making and reducing the amount of time he tends to hold onto the ball, but it’s probably fair to put him in the PINK category in that he’s still young and somewhat unproven but certainly appears to be trending toward becoming a dependable starter (GREEN) down the line.

Could Dart eventually become a top-5 or top-10 at his position? Never say never, but for right now, putting him in the PINK category seems to be the best fit for where he’s at in his career.

Offensive Playmakers

New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

The Giants have two potentially solid playmakers in receiver Malik Nabers and tight end Isaiah Likely. Since we need three, we might as well throw in one of the two running backs, Cam Skattebo and Tyrone Tracy, which we’ll sort out momentarily.

WR Malik Nabers

Let’s start with Nabers. Prior to his knee injury, which puts him squarely in the YELLOW category at the moment (concern due to injury), Nabers was the undisputed No. 1 receiver on the team and a top-10 receiver in receiving yards (1,204, seventh) and receptions (109, fifth).

Had he not had the knee injury, there is no question that Nabers would have landed in the BLUE category. Alas, fate had other plans, though it’s hoped that once he is fully healed from his knee surgery, Nabers can get back to the form he showed as a rookie.

TE Isaiah Likely

Likely appears to have moved ahead of Theo Johnson as the TE1 on the team, given the financial commitment the Giants made to him. He has probably often been an afterthought in Baltimore, given that he plays behind Mark Andrews.

Over the last two seasons (the time Johnson has been in the NFL), Likely has done a bit more with fewer opportunities than Johnson.

According to data from PFF, in 94 plays, he has seven touchdowns to Johnson’s six (117 plays), and is only four first downs shy of Johnson’s two-season total of 41

With a chance to play a large (no pun intended) role in the Giants offense as a big slot receiver, he likely best fits into the GREEN category.

Tyrone Tracy/Cam Skattebo

The Giants sought to run a committee approach last year with their two Day 3 draft picks (chosen in different years) headlining that rotation.

Tracy might not have posted eye-popping numbers– his 740 rushing yards last season put him 28th in the league among running backs–but where Tracy quietly made a difference was in the all-purpose yardage category.

There he registered 1,028 scrimmage yards, the second straight season he topped the 1,000-yard mark, making him just the fifth Giants player to do so in back-to-back seasons since 2010 and the first since Saquon Barkley did so in 2018-2019.

Given that, plus his expected role, Tracy probably best fits in the PINK category with potential to advance to the GREEN ranking of becoming a solid and reliable starter.

Skattebo, meanwhile, is coming off a season-ending ankle injury, which lands him squarely in the YELLOW category.

The second-year running back knows just one speed, and there have already been questions regarding whether his hard-nosed playing style is sustainable for a long and productive career.

Offensive Linemen

New York Giants offensive tackle Andrew Thomas | John Jones-Imagn Images

The Giants are returning four-fifths of their starting offensive line from the last two seasons, which is good for continuity purposes.

Upon closer look, this group should be a strength if everyone stays healthy, with its three most solid members being tackles Andrew Thomas and Jermaine Eluemunor, and rookie guard Francis Mauigoa.

LT Andrew Thomas

Thomas is hands down a worthy member of the BLUE ranking, and it’s not even close. Despite injury issues of the last three seasons (which could qualify Thomas for the YELLOW category), Thomas has been among the league’s best tackles ever since rebounding from a horrid rookie season in 2020.

Per PFF, last year, Thomas finished with the fifth-best overall grade among offensive tackles, the eighth-best run-blocking grade, and the fourth-best pass-blocking grade.

His 13 pressures allowed in 802 blocking snaps were the fewest given up among 50 tackles who played a minimum of 730 snaps. If that’s not elite-level performance, then we don’t know what is.

RT Jermaine Eluemunor

Eluemunor was no slouch last year either. Although he finished 39th overall and 48th in run-blocking, he ended up tied for 15th (out of 50 tackles) in pass-blocking, the 19 pressures he allowed tying him for fourth-fewest with Peni Sewell of the Lions and Fred Johnson of the Eagles.

We don’t think we’d put Eluemunor in the BLUE category with Thomas, but he’s definitely worthy of placement in the GREEN category, with high potential to join Thomas at the next level.

RG Francis Mauigoa

We are including Mauigoa in the top three because we suspect there will be significant competition at left guard, the job currently held by Jon Runyan Jr, and at center, where John Michael Schmitz currently plays.

Mauigoa, the tenth overall pick in this year’s draft, has yet to take a snap, plus he’s making a position switch after spending most of his college career at right tackle.

The great thing about Mauigoa, whom we think belongs in the PINK category, is that he’s kept an open mind about making the position switch and has already earned the praise of his head coach, who called him a “natural” at guard.

And who knows? It might just be a matter of a year before Mauigoa jumps into the GREEN or BLUE category if he stays healthy and continues to take to coaching.

Pass Rushers

The Giants are loaded with pass rushers in what’s a “take your pick” type of deal. For the sake of clarity, we’re only going to look at the outside linebackers for this section: Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Abdul Carter.

Brian Burns

Burns finished second in the league last year in sacks with 16.5 and has never had a season where he’s posted fewer than 7.5 sacks. A durable sort who has not missed a game since coming to the Giants two years ago in a trade with the Panthers, Burns belongs squarely in the BLUE category.

Kayvon Thibodeaux

Thibobeaux has the talent, but he just hasn’t had much luck in terms of being able to stay healthy. The one season he played all 17 games (2023), he had his best year with 11.5 sacks.

Given his recent history–he’s missed 12 games over the last two seasons–and the fact that he has a $14.75 million cap hit for this coming season, he belongs squarely in the YELLOW category due to injury and contract.

Abdul Carter

Once Carter got his head screwed on straight last year and stopped skipping meetings and other team-related events, he worked himself into the discussion for Defensive Rookie of the Year, which he lost out on.

Carter, who tied for 12th in pass-rush pressures per PFF and led the NFL in quick pressures (under 2.5 seconds) according to NFL+, lands in the PURPLE category.

If he can put together a solid season effort-wise, the sky is the limit, and, at minimum, future placement in the GREEN category should be expected.

Back 7 Playmakers

New York Giants linebacker Tremaine Edmunds | John Jones-Imagn Images

This group includes off-ball linebackers and the defensive secondary. In our estimation, this is the most unsettled part of the team, as we had no candidates we could justify for anything above the GREEN category.

Here, though, are our top-3 picks for this group.

LB Tremaine Edmunds

Edmunds, a two-time Pro Bowler, is a definite candidate for the GREEN category and could, in fact, be borderline BLUE worthy.

The eight-year veteran has never had a season with fewer than 100 tackles, and since 2018, his rookie campaign, he ranks seventh among linebackers in tackles with 859 and sixth in tackles against the run with 460.

Among the back seven, Edmunds is probably the cream of the crop right now, depending on how Arvell Reese pans out.

LB Arvell Reese

Reese, the fifth overall pick in the draft, has yet to take a snap in the NFL, which makes him an ideal candidate for the PINK category.

The sky is the limit for Reese, who will have plenty of opportunity to rush the passer, but until he shows it consistently, he’s going to have to work his way up the chart.

CB Paulson Adebo

Until someone proves otherwise, Adebo is the de facto CB1 given his contract. And it’s because of his contract, plus the fact that he hasn’t played a full season since his rookie campaign in 2021, and his contract that we have little choice but to put him in the YELLOW category.

Our concern with Adebo is simple. Although he’s one year into his Giants contract, he hasn’t looked the part of a CB1.

Granted, he was injured and missed five games, but all too often he didn’t appear to be the most physical player out there, which would be a nice feature for a team’s top cornerback to have.

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

Add us as a preferred source on Google