Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart says he and his teammates are lining up behind new head coach John Harbaugh.
Asked about Harbaugh on NFL Network, Dart identified one thing that makes him special as a coach: “His leadership.”
“The way that he carries himself as an individual, a man, it’s something you can really, really respect, day in and day out,” Dart continued. “The biggest thing is, he’s never trying to change anybody from who they are, but he’s putting out his culture, his plan, and it’s for us to buy into it. That’s really cool to have, when you have all these different guys coming in to a brand new system, who have different experiences, some of us being younger, a lot of the vets, but we’re all buying into the exact same plan because we trust him, because of how great of a coach he is and the man he is as well.”
The Giants have struggled to find coaching stability since the departure of Tom Coughlin, going from Ben McAdoo to Pat Shurmur to Joe Judge to Brian Daboll. Dart thinks they’ve brought in the right guy in Harbaugh.
Giants Clips
The Jets picked up a new defensive lineman on Saturday.
They announced the signing of Ben Barten to the 90-man roster. Barten has some familiarity with the area as he was cut by the Giants earlier this week.
Barten signed with the Giants after he went undrafted out of Wisconsin this year. He had 24 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack for the Badgers last season.
The Jets waived long snapper Garrison Grimes in a corresponding move. Grimes went to BYU and was also undrafted this year.
Veteran Thomas Hennessy is now the only long snapper in camp with the Jets.
As a rookie, Giants outside linebacker Abdul Carter earned two benchings, totaled four sacks and finished fifth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. He has a much bigger goal for his second season.
“I want to be Defensive Player of the Year,” Carter said, via Darryl Slater of nj.com.
Carter “absolutely” thinks it is realistic and laid out the reasons.
“Just my process and knowing who I can be — and a belief in myself,“ Carter said. ”I know what I’m capable of. I can be whoever I want to be.”
Carter had moments when he showed why he was the third overall pick, but he also proved unreliable with his habitual tardiness.
“Everything happened the way it was supposed to,” Carter said. “I learned from it, moved on from it. So I’m ready to go.”
Giants running back Cam Skattebo’s flubbed attempt at a backflip earlier this month earned him a meeting with head coach John Harbaugh.
Harbaugh said this week that the message to Skattebo was that he needs to take care of himself and do what he can to be healthy. Skattebo, who missed the second half of his rookie season with a dislocated ankle, said on Friday that the message was received loud and clear.
“Obviously I do some dumb things here or there, but I learn from it,” Skattebo said, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com. “My coach talked to me and told me how he felt. I learned from it. Will I go do that backflip again? Probably not. We live and we learn and we move on.”
Skattebo has deployed the backflip to celebrate touchdowns in the past and he didn’t rule out doing them in that setting in the future. As long as points are going on the board and Skattebo has a cleaner finish, the Giants are likely to have a little less of an issue with the gymnastics.
The first days of Giants training camp featured a lot of positive reports about how wide receiver Malik Nabers has healed from last season’s torn ACL, but there were none to add to the list on Friday.
Nabers did not practice with the rest of the team on the third day of camp, but head coach John Harbaugh said that the day off was part of the effort to get Nabers ready for the start of the regular season after such a long layoff.
“I think it’s part of the process,” Harbaugh said, via Mike Garafolo of NFL Media. “These guys will work through it. Every single day, it’ll be what it is that given day. He’s worked real hard, he’s made a lot of progress and that’s what we decided to do today.”
Nabers declined to put a target date on a full return when he was asked about playing in Week 1 this week, but that’s obviously the goal and the wideout’s practice schedule will continue to be managed with that in mind.
Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers is practicing with the team at training camp, but he’s not ready to make any guarantees about being in the lineup against the Cowboys on the first Sunday night of the regular season.
Nabers is working in individual drills after tearing his ACL in late September 2025. Nabers said on Wednesday that he feels great and that his hope is to keep having good days until he feels prepared to do everything.
“Mindset is just keep stacking days,” Nabers said, via Charlotte Carroll of TheAthletic.com. “Trying to get back out there with my teammates. If I can keep on stacking days with the training staff and they continue to see improvements with my body, continue to see improvements with my knee and where I’m at, it just gives me more confidence to go out there and play. . . . No target dates. Just continue to listen to the training staff and they continue to ask me questions. When I’m ready, I’m ready.”
The start to camp has been encouraging for Nabers and an extended run without complications should have him on track to be catching passes from Jaxson Dart early in the regular season.
Veteran defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins has hung up his cleats.
Hankins, 34, told Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report that he is retiring after 12 seasons.
Hankins did not play for the Seahawks last season, going on the non-football injury list after injuring his back in the 2025 offseason. The Seahawks released him from NFI on Dec. 3, and he has been a free agent since.
He signed with Seattle in 2024 and appeared in all 17 games with eight starts. In what turned out to be his final season, Hankins recorded 30 tackles, with five tackles for loss, two quarterback hits and a sack. He also made the first interception of his career.
A second-round pick of the Giants, he also played for the Colts, Raiders and Cowboys.
Hankins appeared in 169 career games and was among the league’s premier run-stuffing interior defensive linemen, with 433 tackles, including 44 for loss.
The Giants announced a couple of roster moves on Thursday afternoon.
They have signed linebacker Anfernee Orji to their 90-man roster. Defensive lineman Ben Barten has been waived in a corresponding move.
Orji signed with the Saints as an undrafted free agent in 2023 and spent two seasons with the team. He moved on to the Titans last year, but missed the whole season after tearing his ACL in the preseason.
Orji had 30 tackles in 16 games for the Saints. He saw most of his playing time on special teams in New Orleans, but did make a pair of starts on defense.
Barten signed with the Giants after going undrafted out of Wisconsin this year.
In his NFL career, Texans defensive end Will Anderson has only missed games due to injuries twice: In 2023, when he suffered a high-ankle sprain against the Jets on the turf at MetLife Stadium, and in 2024, when he suffered another high-ankle sprain against the Jets on the turf at MetLife Stadium. He doesn’t think that’s a coincidence.
Asked about the use of real grass in the World Cup, both at MetLife and at the Texans’ NRG Stadium, Anderson said it’s the superior playing surface.
“Yes, most definitely. I would most definitely say grass. Grass 100 percent,” Anderson said. “I think it’s just the natural feel of grass, your feet not getting stuck in the ground like in turf. I had two high ankle sprains up in MetLife because of the turf. I think grass is just a better option.”
Still, Anderson said he hasn’t talked to the Texans about using a grass field in Houston for NFL games.
“Not really. At the end of the day, it’s up to them. They’ll figure it out. You just control what you can control. Go out there and play and do your job,” Anderson said.
The two times in his career that Anderson couldn’t do his job, artificial turf was the reason.
Malik Nabers participated in individual drills during the Giants’ first practice of the summer. The wide receiver backed up what General Manager Joe Schoen said earlier Wednesday about Nabers now running, cutting and sprinting.
Schoen, though, softened his stance on Nabers’ availability for Week 1, declining to guarantee Nabers will play the season opener.
“We’ve got a really good plan for him,” Schoen said, via a transcript from the team. “The medical staff has a really good plan for him, and we’re going to always say listen to the patients. So, we’re going to see how he reacts. . . . So, as long as everything goes as planned, we’ll listen to Malik and his body and again, hopefully he’ll be ready, and we’ll see how it plays out. But no predictions right now, just because we have a long way to go, still a lot of camp.”
Nabers tore the ACL and meniscus in his right knee on Sept. 28 against the Chargers. He underwent surgery Oct. 28 but required a second surgery this offseason to remove scar tissue after experiencing stiffness.
