Winners and Losers From the Giants' Preseason Opener: Beckham Flashes, Defense Stumbles

The New York Giants finally received the chance to strap on the shoulder pads and battle with competitors in another jersey, unofficially opening the John Harbaugh coaching era and their three-game preseason slate against the Minnesota Vikings at MetLife Stadium on Saturday.

When it comes to their first taste of live action against another team, there is always a lot that both the Giants coaching staff and fans want to see, from how the new offensive and defensive systems look to which players give themselves a leg up in select positional battles.

Harbaugh and company will not be overreacting or making any major decisions for the 53-man roster from just one preseason outing, but it offered their first opportunity to evaluate every single player in the locker room and who might be closer to making the team in 2026.

With the first test of August behind them, here are some early winners and losers from the Giants’ 13-10 loss.

Winners

RG Francis Mauigoa

Coming off a rather strong 2025 season for the unit, one of the key areas to watch was the Giants’ starting offensive line and the addition of rookie Francis Mauigoa who was tasked with stepping into the right guard position.

Mauigoa, who played just 10 snaps at the same spot during his senior season with Miami, looked as close to a natural as it gets in his first reps as a pro. He took part in the Giants’ first two offensive series with the first unit and kept a clean pressure sheet.

Mauigoa, whom the Giants selected with the No. 10 pick in the NFL Draft, which they acquired from the Dexter Lawrence trade with the Cincinnati Bengals, has big shoes to fill as he replaces the veteran Greg Van Roten who left in free agency after being the most reliable starter last season, logging a team-high 1,151 blocking snaps and allowing just three sacks and 26 pressures.

WR Odell Beckham Jr.

Aside from all the noise surrounding John Harbaugh’s preseason debut as Giants head coach, many fans had been expressing excitement over the return of Odell Beckham Jr. as he aims to make his former head coach’s 53-man roster in his second stint with Big Blue.

Beckham, who hadn’t stepped onto the MetLife turf in a Giants uniform since December 2018, looked rather impressive in his limited action with the team’s second unit. He hauled in two catches on three targets for six yards and was one of four receivers to bring down more than one reception.

The production might not have been much to write home about, but what stood out was Beckham’s athleticism that he clearly still holds in his arsenal as he flashed some speed on a couple good route fakes that left the cornerback all alone.

Unfortunately, the Giants couldn’t capitalize on those plays where Beckham was streaking open downfield to really set the crowd in East Rutherford into a frenzy after they gave him a raucous ovation when he entered the huddle in the second quarter.

Still, the 33-year-old had a positive first impression as he hopes to return full-time to New York and help the receiving corps be more impactful this fall.

WR Braxton Berrios

On the special teams front, the Giants got some promising work from their slew of returners, including receiver Braxton Berrios who led the punt return specialists in his light workload on Saturday.

Berrios, who signed with the team in free agency, returned two punts for 30 yards and an average of 15 yards per attempt. He helped New York, whose other return came from the hands of fellow receiver Xavier Gipson, average 13.3 yards in that realm on the day.

The Giants are putting an extra emphasis on improving their special teams operation this season, and Berrios could just become the guy they have needed to boost the starting field position they give to Jaxson Dart and the offense in 2026.

Last fall, the Giants finished the year ranked 22nd in average punt return with 8.58 yards per attempt. Harbaugh cut his teeth in the NFL as a former special teams guru, meaning he’ll want to see that number improve and Berrios gave a good first impression in his case to win his coach’s trust.

Losers

ILB Micah McFadden

The Giants suffered their first big loss of the 2025 season when inside linebacker Micah McFadden went down with a foot injury in Week 1 that ended his campaign before it could even take off.

McFadden, the franchise’s fifth-round pick in 2020, was also on a downward trend as far as his efforts in stopping the run were concerned. He finished as a top-3 tackle producer in each of the previous two seasons, but also held one of the team’s largest missed tackle rates, averaging 17.2% whiffs in that span.

With his extended absence and the Giants’ upgrades to the linebacker room, including the signing of Tremaine Edmunds and drafting Ohio State phenom Arvell Reese, McFadden came into camp slated as the backup on the right side and needed to prove himself capable of remaining in the mix.

The Giants rested Edmunds, giving McFadden a chance to display his old run defense acumen as the starting left side linebacker, but the 26-year-old struggled to make the most of his opportunity.

He missed two tackles that led to big gains of 15 and 18 yards for the Vikings’ ground attack on the game’s opening drive that ultimately went 10 plays and ended with a 35-yard field goal by Will Reichard to hand Minnesota the first points of the matchup.

McFadden saw just 11 snaps last fall, so maybe his outing was more a case of rust that needs to be shaken off as the preseason advances, but the early signs of problems against the run are one of the major issues the whole Giants defense needs to clean up before the regular season.

CB Deonte Banks

This one has to be getting frustrating for the Giants and their fans to watch, but it was another lackluster performance for Deonte Banks whom the team started alongside rookie second-round pick Colton Hood at the outside corner spots after electing to sit Paulson Adebo and Greg Newsome II out of the contest.

Banks, whose tenure with the organization has been skating on severely thin ice after the Giants elected to not pick up his rookie fifth-year option, appeared to fall victim to some of the same coverage mistakes that haunted him in 2025 when he posted his worst campaign with a 81.3% opponent reception rate.

Minnesota pounded the Giants defense a little more on the ground during their first offensive series before their second turn was limited to a three-and-out possession. On the third drive, they keyed on Banks and made off with two penalties against him, the first for defensive holding on 1st-and-10 from their 41-yard line and the second for illegal contact on 2nd-and-12 in plus territory.

Luckily for Banks, the Vikings would stall their drive with a couple infractions of their own and consecutive incompletions by quarterback J.J. McCarthy which led to a punt.

At the end of the day, it won’t help Banks’ chances of earning a new contract from the franchise if he continues to cost his team important yards with repetitive penalties and not clean up his act in man coverage.

DL Josh Tupou

With DJ Reader and Shelby Harris both missing Saturday’s game as healthy scratches, the Giants went in with a slimmer defensive front. That also meant a good chance to evaluate the state of their interior depth and whether they need to make any additions ahead of Week 1.

Josh Tupou was a guy who earned the shot to jump to the front of the order and show what he could do to impact the Giants’ response in the trenches, but he largely failed to do so in his pair of drives with Dennard Wilson’s starting unit.

Tupou made two tackles (one solo) in his opportunity and was nonexistent in getting some push on the Vikings’ offensive line and creating some pressure to thwart their attack. It took a couple quarters before the defensive front could get home on a sack by Darius Alexander that marked the Giants’ only pressure in that category.

The Giants took an early hit to their defensive line when veteran defensive end Roy Robertson-Harris was lost for the duration of the year with a torn ACL. Even though their other absences were simply a preseason precaution, there should be some concern about the depth and experience they seem to be lacking in the position group.

They hoped that a veteran like Tupou might step in and offer a potential solution to that area, but his first foray as a member of the Giants wasn’t very convincing.

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