The Giants.com crew discuss the biggest takeaways from head coach John Harbaugh and general manager Joe Schoen speaking to reporters at the NFL Annual League Meeting in Phoenix.

John Schmeelk: If there was any doubt John Harbaugh was an old-school football guy, it should be erased after his comments about what it meant if a team is able to run on your defense for four or five yards at a time:

"That is the end of the world. That's a disaster. If it breaks out past that we can't even breathe. That's how you feel about stopping the run. We want the run stopped. You want the run stoned. You don't want it going anywhere."

Do you think the Giants are going to do everything they can to stop the run? The signing of a big, long, physical linebacker like Tremaine Edmunds in free agency points to that priority. The next logical question to ask is why the Giants didn't do more up-front in free agency. Harbaugh had an answer to that too, saying "Maybe it's a one-year proposition, maybe not."

He later added, "Just haven't had an opportunity yet. It's like golf. I usually have a lot of bad shots in golf – behind trees and in the woods and stuff. Practiced all the tough shots and really just wasn't available to us yet for … the parameters that we built. You can overpay, but you can't afford it a lot of times. You want to be smart and efficient in how we did it and still going to continue to do that because you're also building for long-term."

Given the Giants' record last season, going all in and pushing money into future years isn't prudent, even with some of the needs up front. It would prevent a more aggressive posture in the future, when a few extra additions could push the team over the top for a deep playoff run. There are also free agents still available to fill out the fronts on both sides of the ball.

Whatever it takes, the Giants are going to stop the run this year. If they have to stack the box, they will stack the box. They have cornerbacks capable of playing man-to-man on an island if the necessity should arrive. John Harbaugh has made it clear, they will do whatever it takes to stop the run in 2026.

Dan Salomone: Isaiah Likely will certainly have a bigger impact in the box score with the Giants, John Harbaugh told the assembled media in Phoenix.

The tight end is new to the Giants but familiar to Harbaugh, who coached the fourth-round pick for his first four seasons in Baltimore. In 2024, Likely set career highs 42 catches for 477 yards and six touchdowns. Even though he became the second-fastest Ravens tight end (34 games) to reach double-digit receiving scores in a career, behind only Mark Andrews (28 games), Harbaugh believes there is more to come.

"I'm certain he's going to be able to put up the numbers … the stats," Harbaugh said. "That wasn't part of the thing in Baltimore because of the supporting cast, so to speak."

Likely was one of a handful of former Ravens players – and many more coaches – who flocked to East Rutherford this offseason.

"I have seen him in every kind of circumstance," Harbaugh said. "So it's really a valuable thing to know players. It's one of the things about your own players and why it's so important to try to keep the players you have on your roster if you can. We'll try to do that with the Giants going forward, but Isaiah is a guy that I coached personally, a lot of the coaches on our staff had coached personally, so we knew him. And not just him, but the other guys, too. He's going bring a lot to the table. He's a talented football player. He's a playmaking football player. He's going to make plays for us."

And for Jaxson Dart.

"I think Jaxson is going to really like him running the routes and being in his line of vision," Harbaugh said. "He's got a big catch radius. He can make plays after he makes a catch. He can get up field. He can make people miss. He can run people over. He's a very good perimeter blocker. You'll see that. That will be good for our run game."

Matt Citak: For several years, one of the Giants' biggest weaknesses was the protection up front. The offensive line had struggled to put together consistent production up until last year, when the line had its best performance as a unit in a long time. Heading into the 2026 season, four of the team's five starters up front are set to return, with the lone exception being right guard Greg Van Roten. Both John Harbaugh and Joe Schoen touched on the offensive line when talking to reporters Monday, with the general manager telling the media that Van Roten is "no longer here" but "not out of the mix." The veteran could still find his way back to East Rutherford, but whether or not that happens, there is still work to be done up front.

If you don't want to take my word for it, here is how Harbaugh responded when asked about the O-line:

"It's a work in progress."

Building on the success the unit found last year is pivotal this season. Jaxson Dart's development is perhaps the most important thing in the 2026 campaign, and what better way to support the young quarterback's growth than with a strong unit protecting him. As both Harbaugh and Schoen mentioned, there are still a few different ways for the Giants to bolster the line. Several intriguing interior O-line options remain unsigned in free agency, while numerous high-upside prospects should be available for the Giants with their first two picks. On top of the possible external options, the Giants also re-signed a few players, including Evan Neal and Joshua Ezeudu. While the two young linemen haven't gotten their careers off to the starts they were hoping for, their new head coach saw enough to bring them back and give them another chance with the franchise that drafted them.

"They're motivated," Harbaugh said about Neal and Ezeudu. "They came to the office and sat down and laid out a plan and a vision of the type of players they want to be. They showed us what they're doing to make that happen right now. So let's give them a shot. Let's give them an opportunity. They're talented. They're tough. They want to be great. They have dreams. They have big dreams. So if they're going to dream big I would like them to do it right here in our building and try to realize those dreams with us."