New York Giants

Nine rushing touchdowns from a rookie quarterback — Jaxson Dart finished twelfth in the entire league in rushing scores, more than most starting running backs. That's the headline buried inside a four-and-thirteen season. Here's how the Giants quietly built a top-five rushing attack, why the defense couldn't get off the field on the ground, and the one rookie number that frames everything. Four wins, thirteen losses, last in the NFC East, no playoffs. The Giants got muffed in the standings — but the tape underneath is more interesting than the record.

Start with the team by the numbers. Offensively, the Giants finished plus thirteen point three in total expected points added — how much their snaps improved scoring chances versus an average offense — ranking seventeenth. League median. The defense is where it falls apart: plus ninety point two expected points added allowed, and on defense you want that number negative. Bottom eight in football. Takeaways told the same story — fifteen all year, nine interceptions and six fumble recoveries, twenty-fifth. And this was a boom-or-bust roster top to bottom. They lost by one in Denver in Week 7, smashed the Eagles thirty-four to seventeen in Week 6, then got run off the field in New England fifteen to thirty-three in Week 13. Same team, wildly different versions, week to week.

Now let's talk about the passing offense. The Giants threw for two hundred seventeen point eight yards per game with a passing expected points added of minus four point six — league average output, nineteenth, forty-fourth percentile. The bigger problem was protection: forty-eight sacks allowed on six hundred twenty-seven dropbacks, a seven point seven percent sack rate that lands in the worst third of the league. The story under center was the rookie. Jaxson Dart started fourteen games, threw for two thousand two hundred seventy-two yards, fifteen touchdowns, five interceptions, and completed sixty-three point seven percent against an expected sixty-five point eight — minus two versus expectation, twenty-seventh among qualified starters. Rough on accuracy, but the flashes were real. Week 7 in Denver, third and seventeen in the fourth quarter, Dart hit Theo Johnson on a short middle route that turned into a forty-one yard touchdown — twenty-nine yards after the catch, a plus six point oh four expected points swing on a single snap. That's the rookie ceiling. The floor was the twenty-seventh-ranked accuracy. Both showed up, often in the same game.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense. Two thousand one hundred ninety-seven rushing yards, four point three per carry, and a rushing expected points added of plus fourteen point six — fifth in the league, eighty-eighth percentile. Top-five run game. The catch: it was a true committee by necessity. Rookie Cam Skattebo, the most explosive ground signal on the roster, played only eight games before going down — one hundred one carries, four hundred ten yards, five touchdowns, plus forty-three rush yards over expected. Once he was out, Tyrone Tracy carried the volume and Devin Singletary handled the goal line. But the real engine was Dart's legs. Eighty-six carries, four hundred eighty-seven yards, nine rushing touchdowns from the quarterback. That's what dragged a committee backfield into a top-five run unit.

Next up, the pass defense. The Giants allowed two hundred twenty-nine point nine passing yards per game and a passing expected points added allowed of plus sixteen point four — and remember on defense you want that number negative. Fifty-third percentile. Right in the middle. They generated thirty-nine sacks, fifteenth in the league, fifty-sixth percentile — decent. The real wound was takeaways: just nine interceptions all season, boom-or-bust ball production. When the secondary did create a moment, it was massive. Week 6 against the Eagles, leading twenty-seven to seventeen in the fourth quarter, Cor'Dale Flott jumped a Jalen Hurts pass in the red zone and took it sixty-eight yards the other way — minus eight point eight five expected points for Philadelphia, snuffing out a touchdown drive and icing the game. That play is the season in miniature. Capable of elite moments, just not nearly enough of them.

And the run defense. This is where the Giants got absolutely muffed. Two thousand four hundred ninety-five rushing yards allowed across seventeen games — one hundred forty-six point eight per game — and a rushing expected points added allowed of plus seventy-three point eight. On a defense, that's catastrophic. Third percentile. Basically the worst run defense in football. They gave up zero point one seven expected points per carry, meaning every single handoff against them, on average, moved the offense forward. Twenty-one rushing touchdowns allowed. No individual to single out, because the failure was collective — gap discipline, tackling, second-level fits, all of it. Steady floor of bad, no week it got fixed. You cannot win four games when opposing teams know they can just hand it off.

Welcome to Muffed, your 2026 New York Giants draft recap. Seven picks, two in the top ten, and the headline is unmistakable: this was a size-and-physicality reset. Joe Schoen and John Harbaugh said it themselves — they wanted to draft, in Harbaugh's words, a bunch of Giants, figuratively and literally. They walked out with a top-five linebacker, a top-ten tackle, a second-round corner with elite testing, a third-round receiver, and three Day 3 fliers up front. The trenches and front seven got the lion's share, and you can draw a straight line from the 2025 tape to almost every name on this board.

Start with the offensive line, where the splash pick lives. In 2025, this offense surrendered 48 sacks and 112 quarterback hits — Harbaugh said it flat out, you can't complete passes if you can't protect the quarterback. So at pick ten, the Giants took Miami tackle Francis Mauigoa, whose Relative Athletic Score — a zero-to-ten grade comparing combine and pro-day testing to every player at his position since 1987 — came in at 9.62. Top four percent of offensive linemen ever measured. Then in the sixth at pick 192, they grabbed Illinois's J.C. Davis, an 8.27 athlete with position flex — left tackle in college, swing guard-tackle for the staff. Harbaugh praised the length, the bend, the foot quickness. A Day 3 dart with real testing pedigree on a line that needed bodies.

The run defense got three picks, and it starts with the headline of the class. In 2025, the Giants bled plus 73.78 expected points on the ground, plus 0.17 per carry, and 21 rushing touchdowns. Enter Arvell Reese, the Ohio State linebacker, at pick five — 69 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, a true three-down profile. Harbaugh acknowledged the public skepticism directly; even Malik Nabers asked him how Reese would be used. The answer: Reese fits their defensive structure uniquely, a player who can play off the ball and move around the front. Then on Day 3, they doubled down. Sixth round, pick 186, Auburn defensive tackle Bobby Jamison-Travis — a 4.98 Relative Athletic Score, honestly a muffed-the-measurables result, but Schoen called him a big, long, powerful body and admitted defensive tackle is still a free-agency priority. Seven picks later at 193, BYU's Jack Kelly — and this is the Day 3 swing I love. A 9.72 Relative Athletic Score, top three percent of linebackers ever tested, with 13.5 tackles for loss and 10 sacks, 13th nationally. Harbaugh framed Kelly and Reese as bookends: a Mike who can also rush off the edge, with 30-plus career sacks dating back to Weber State. That's a layered front-seven plan.

In the secondary, the math was just as ugly: 25 passing touchdowns allowed in 2025, plus 16.41 expected points through the air. The answer at pick 37 was Tennessee corner Colton Hood, whose 9.66 Relative Athletic Score lands in the top three percent of corners ever measured. The college production is honest — 50 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, zero interceptions but 8 pass breakups, tied for eighth in his conference. A length-and-speed bet whose ball production hasn't caught up to the testing. At pick 37, you're buying the traits and betting on the curve.

The passing offense got one addition, in the third at pick 74: Notre Dame receiver Malachi Fields. 36 catches, 630 yards, 5 touchdowns — and the number that pops, a per-play predicted points added of plus 0.48, plus 28.25 on the year. Those receiving yards ranked third in his conference, the touchdowns also third. His 7.48 Relative Athletic Score sits comfortably above average. Harbaugh framed the priority for Jaxson Dart in two parts: protect him, then arm him. Fields is the weapon — a big-bodied target whose efficiency number is the standout.

Pick of the draft. You can argue Mauigoa at ten — premium position, elite athlete, biggest hole on the roster. You can argue Hood — top-three-percent testing where length and speed are everything. The pick is Arvell Reese at five. Here's the case: the broader public had questions, and the team had a clear, articulated vision that survived a direct challenge from their own star receiver. Schoen and Harbaugh spent more press-conference oxygen on the Reese fit than any other pick. That's where the conviction lives. When you take a linebacker top five and your head coach says he plays uniquely inside your structure in a way outsiders can't see, you're betting the defensive identity on him. The other premium picks are good bets. Reese is the bet that defines the class.

Going into 2026, the question is whether the front seven actually holds up. The Giants told you what they're trying to be — bigger, longer, heavier-handed, built for the NFC East trenches — and they spent two of their first five and three of seven on the front seven. Reese and Kelly reshape the linebacker room, Mauigoa reshapes the line, Hood raises the corner room's ceiling. The stress test is the interior defensive line. Schoen said it twice: they're not done at defensive tackle, and DJ Reader and other veterans are still on the radar. Close that gap in free agency, and this class has a real chance to flip the run-defense math that drowned them in 2025.