Despite a four-win, last-place season in 2025, the optimisim is strong for the New York Giants and their fans shortly into the offseason. On Saturday, John Harbaugh officially agreed to a five-year deal to become the Giants’ head coach. Over 18 years as the Baltimore Ravens’ head coach, Harbaugh put together a remarkable 180-113 regular-season record and won a Super Bowl title, while winning fewer than eight games just once.
Former NFL head coach and current ESPN analyst Rex Ryan even thinks, with confidence, that the Giants will be a playoff team in 2026.
“I think, absolutely, this is a playoff team,” Ryan said about the Giants during Saturday’s edition of Postseason NFL Countdown on ESPN.
“Absolutely, this is a playoff team.”
Rex Ryan on why the Giants’ star power and the reported addition of John Harbaugh could set them up for success 👏 pic.twitter.com/dp4bVwGcWv
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) January 17, 2026
“This team right here is so talented,” Ryan began. “If you go in to build an organization, you want to have a franchise-type quarterback (Jaxson Dart). We’ll see. I think they might have one right there. You want a franchise left tackle (Andrew Thomas) to protect that quarterback. Check that box. You want a franchise No. 1 receiver (Malik Nabers). You can check that box. And by the way, you’ve got five guys who can absolutely rush the passer (Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Dexter Lawrence, Abdul Carter, Darius Alexander, etc).”
“You put the right guy in that situation, they may go to No. 1 in the league in defense,” Ryan said. “So, to me, I think absolutely, this is a playoff team. Look, John Harbaugh, his first year (with Baltimore), rookie head coach, had a rookie quarterback, and went to a championship game his first season. That’s happened, I think, five times in the history of the NFL. And, the next year, of course, I did.”
Going from a four-win team to the playoffs is very difficult, but the Chicago Bears (5-12 last season, 11-6 this season), Jacksonville Jaguars (4-13 last season, 13-4 this season), and New England Patriots (4-13 last season, 14-3 this season) are a few recent examples of such a turnaround.
And to Ryan’s point, the Giants have a lot of nice pieces in place already for Harbaugh to work with, to go with having the No. 5 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
So, while suggesting that the Giants are “absolutely” a playoff team is pretty aggressive, it wouldn’t be shocking if Ryan’s prediction ends up being correct.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.