Copr. Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images 2026
Football is back in swing ladies and gentlemen, and the New York Giants kicked off the John Harbaugh era with a 13-10 defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings. While that score may raise plenty of eyebrows from this team’s offensive skeptics, and there’s been plenty of those since 2016, we saw large glimmers of hope from the first and second team units.
On the opposite end of the stick however, we saw plenty of miscues on both sides of the ball throughout the contest, and while most of those were relegated to the third stringers, and we’ll get to them, those who reside highly on the depth chart also didn’t escape their fair share of criticism.
This week, Giants Fare dives into the good, the bad and the plain ugly of what we saw from the team’s first action out of training camp.
Winners: Malachi Fields, Odell Beckham Jr., Jack Kelly
Copr. Julian Leshay Guadalupe-northjersey.com 2026
We’ll admit, we had to stretch on winners outside of Fields for this one. The rookie wideout hauled in three receptions for 34 yards and a Moss-esque touchdown in the back of the endzone in the second quarter. Fields’ frame and measurables have drawn favorable comparisons to Calvin Johnson. We would hate to get ahead of ourselves before the young man plays his first snap in the NFL, but he’s had an excellent camp to this point, outplaying other WR2 candidates such as Darnell Mooney and JuJu Smith-Schuster. It shouldn’t be out of the question that the Notre Dame product might be placed opposite Malik Nabers in the starting lineup sooner rather than later.
Odell Beckham Jr. received a standing ovation when he entered the game in the second quarter in what was surely an emotional return to MetLife stadium for the Giants icon. Beckham caught two passes for six yards on three targets including a five yard snag on one of his signature slant routes, although the third target was an atrocious read by QB Brandon Allen that wound up being intercepted. Beckham also torched CB Dwight McGlothern Jr. on a fade route that would’ve led to an easy touchdown if seen by Allen, who threw elsewhere. Overall, ‘OBJ’ likely did more than enough to survive this week’s round of cuts.
Rookie linebacker Jack Kelly led big blue in tackles in his first action in East Rutherford. The former BYU standout recorded five total tackles and two solo hits on Saturday, including an impressive show of strength against Viking’s RB Zavier Scott, shoving him back into QB J.J. McCarthy on a play that ended up resulting in a sack by Darius Alexander. While some may believe fellow rookie LB Arvell Reese should’ve made this list, Kelly played overwhelmingly well for a young man who’s more so on the chopping block as a late round draft pick.
Losers: Run Defense,Tyrone Tracy Jr., Brandon Allen
Copr. Yahoo Sports 2026
The Giants’ biggest point of emphasis this offseason has been mending their bottom-of-the-barrel run stopping. Based on what we saw from the first team unit, there’s still some ground to cover. Vikings running backs Aaron Jones Sr. and Dillon Bell combined for 54 yards on a mere five carries. Things won’t get any easier next weekend when the G-men look to contain explosive RB De’Von Achane as they travel to Miami to play the Dolphins. We’ll keep an eye on what adjustments Harbaugh makes this week in preparation.
Tyrone Tracy Jr. didn’t leave much tape on the field this weekend. The third-year RB gained five rushing yards off of two carries. However, eyebrows were raised when Tracy slipped and fell while attempting to block safety Jay Ward which led to a brutal sack of quarterback Jaxson Dart on the final play of the first quarter. The hit forced Dart to be evaluated in the medical tent, and Tracy Jr. has been heavily scrutinized online and in the media for his miscue on the play as he apologized for the error in his postgame press conference.
Last and certainly least we come to third string quarterback Brandon Allen. The journeyman signal caller almost single handedly cost New York the contest, with two of his three incompletions resulting in interceptions. Allen finished the day with the worst passer rating out of all six quarterbacks who saw action on both sides (38.0). Allen theoretically should be the first in line to get cut from the roster this week, although John Harbaugh’s thoughts on the matter may differ from our own.
-Jack Barber
Works Cited
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