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10 Things To Watch For

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10 things to watch in Giants vs. Dolphins

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Here are 10 things to watch in the preseason matchup between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium (4 p.m. ET):

Carry momentum from joint practice

The Giants and Dolphins got things going prior to the game with a joint practice on Thursday. The session featured some strong play from the Giants as both sides of the ball stepped up and made some plays.

"We got a lot of good work done," coach John Harbaugh told the media after practice. "I think we leave the practice a better team than when we came in. That was our goal. We now we're going to go look at the tape, study it, walk through all the corrections and whatever we need to do, and try to leave the meeting a better team than we were when we entered the meeting. So, I'm really proud of our guys. I thought we played some good football out there. And now we'll be ready to look to play even better in the game."

Harbaugh said the coaching staff will evaluate Thursday's practice before deciding which players will or will not play in Saturday's game.

"We'll have that conversation tonight," the head coach said. "Certain guys, I'm sure, got enough work. Certain guys, we'll have to talk about what we want to do. I think we'll decide tonight."

The Giants and Dolphins held a joint practice in Miami ahead of their preseason matchup.

'Ferocious' pass rush

Going up against a different opponent for just the second time this summer, the Giants' pass rush pinned its ears back and got after the quarterback on Thursday.

It started in the secondary as safety Jevón Holland blitzed off the edge to sack Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis during the first team period. A few plays later, Chauncey Golston read a Willis bootleg perfectly and met the quarterback right as he was turning. Golston got into the backfield again later in the period for another sack.

During the red zone period, Kayvon Thibodeaux pressured the quarterback and forced him to get rid of the ball, which the outside linebacker quickly batted down. Not long after, Thibodeaux and Marlon Davidson combined for a pressure.

In the two-minute drill, the defense forced a Miami three-and-out, which began with an Abdul Carter sack. After Arvell Reese came up with a tackle immediately after a pass for a very short gain to force third-and-long, Dru Phillips came around the edge for a sack, which would have forced a punt.

Brian Burns also got into the backfield for a sack during Thursday's practice. After the session, the veteran voiced his thoughts on how the defense looked against the Dolphins.

"Overall, dominant," Burns said about his unit's performance Thursday. "I feel like we didn't play to the standard that I hold us to, or our leaders hold our defense to because coming out as our first joint, trying to be smart, make sure everybody gets taken care of, but at the same time, they're not our team. So, when you have an opportunity to hit them, you hit them. And you hold them up and they get hit again."

"It was ferocious," Harbaugh later added about the pass rush. "It was ferocious. That's practice, so you've got to come do it in the game. But I was impressed with it."

Competition at WR

One of the most intriguing competitions throughout training camp has been at the wide receiver position.

The Giants have a lot of players competing for a limited number of roster spots. In order to get opportunities for each of these pass-catchers, the offense has rotated in a variety of different wide receivers to catch passes from Jaxson Dart during team drills, something the young quarterback believes is beneficial for all parties involved.

"I think that they all have different skill sets, which is fun because we can put guys in different spots and they do things really well and different," Dart said Thursday. "So, I've liked continuing to grow our relationship with each and every one of them. I thought guys really came out today and made a lot of really good plays. And I think that you could really tell in the one-on-ones and then the start of practice, guys making down the field catches, making contested catches, maybe looks where maybe the look looked a little covered and then being able to freestyle it and make good plays to get open. I was really happy about that."

Fields continues to shine

One of those receivers in the mix is Malachi Fields. The rookie third-round pick has put on an impressive show during the first few weeks of training camp. In fact, despite being the lone first-year receiver on the entire roster, Fields has looked far from a rookie thus far.

"I'm not surprised of what he's doing," Dart told the media after Thursday's joint practice. "The guys loved his tape. I loved his tape. I knew through conversation how like smart of a football player he was. So, coming out here of learning a new offense, him being able to be efficient. And then you just saw his catch radius in college, which was, he made some unbelievable catches. And I thought that kind of what he did was a little limited compared to what he can do. And I've loved having him out there. He's a true competitor, a true pro and it's been really great to see because I think that as a team we needed a guy like that to come step up, especially on those outside making contested catches and downfield plays."

"I would say first, obviously, he has the physical traits to be a good wide receiver," offensive tackle Andrew Thomas said of Fields. "But I would say more so is just his attitude. He was an early draft pick, but that's not how he acts. He approaches the game every day trying to learn something new. We asked him to go put his face in and try to dig out the safety, he's running in at full speed. And that just speaks a lot to his character and what he's willing to do for our team. So, I'm excited to see him play."

'We're going to be ready to go'

Over the first few weeks of training camp, several different players have noted the difficulty of a Harbaugh-led practice. In fact, you can go back to the spring practices when Kayvon Thibodeaux first voiced that same sentiment.

But the taxing practices, both in West Virginia and back in East Rutherford, seemed to prepare the Giants for a training session in the grueling Miami heat Thursday. According to one of the veteran leaders on the team, the tough practices earlier in camp not only benefited the team on Thursday, but should also help the team be ready to hit the ground running come Week 1.

"I definitely think we're going to be ready to go," Burns told the media Thursday. "There's a lot of things that we can learn from this tape. Although, I feel like it was a dominant day, (there's) still a lot of growing that we can definitely capitalize off of. So, I'm glad that we came out here and we got this work, but I definitely think we're ready for week one."

Ways to watch

TV

Channel: NBC 4 NY

Announcers: Bob Papa (Play-By-Play), Carl Banks (Analyst), Phil Simms (Analyst), Howard Cross (Sideline)

Pregame Show: Giants Pregame Show presented by Quest starting at 3:30 pm

Spanish Broadcast

Channel: Telemundo 47

Announcers: Miguel Gurwitz (Play-By-Play), Rolando Cantú (Analyst)

Stream

This week's game can be streamed on Giants.com and Giants App in market only.

Listen

Channel: WFAN 101.9FM, Audacy, Giants.com, Giants App

Announcers: Paul Dottino (Play-By-Play), Shaun O'Hara (Analyst), John Schmeelk (Sideline)

Pre- and Postgame: John Schmeelk, Tiki Barber

Pregame: Giants Gameday begins at 3:00 pm, presented by Hackensack Meridian Health.

Postgame: Giants Extra Point

SIRIUS XM

Radio Channel: 380

Streaming Channel: 823

Giants En Español

Radio Channel: Que Buena 1280AM Streaming Only Presentado por Ford

Play-by-Play: Nestor Rosario

Analyst: Francis Adames

TuneIn_16x9

Najee's (practice) debut

After signing with the team a few days ago, Najee Harris saw his first reps as a Giant during team drills Thursday. With the offense lined up around the five-yard line, Harris muscled his way down to the goal line and likely would have gotten into the end zone for a touchdown.

"I don't know if it was always the plan (to play him in the scrimmage), but he was ready," Harbaugh said of the veteran back getting some reps against the Dolphins. "He looked good yesterday and he said he felt good. He wanted to get in there, and he looked good."

Harris joins a running back group consisting of Cam Skattebo, Tyrone Tracy Jr., Devin Singletary, Eric Gray and Damon Bankston. According to Harris, the talent in the RB room should benefit all of those guys.

"Really good players, man, really good players," Harris said of the backs on the roster. "Cam and just everybody there. I feel like they've all got their own special talent, and they're all good players. They're all guys who can be ones and I feel like we all could just elevate each other and make each other better. And I thought the guys in there are all great guys, and it's a good room, really good room."

Burns at No. 14 in NFL Top 100

As the Giants took the field for Thursday's joint practice in Miami, the NFL revealed that outside linebacker Brian Burns came in at No. 14 on the NFL Top 100 Players for 2026.

This made Burns the highest-ranked Giants defender ever to appear on the list, which debuted in 2011 and is decided annually by current NFL players.

Burns racked up the accolades in 2025, when he was named second-team All-Pro by the Associated Press. He was also voted to his third career Pro Bowl, first with the Giants. Burns also made the Pro Bowl in 2021 and 2022 as a member of the Carolina Panthers.

In his seventh NFL season, Burns set career highs in sacks (16.5), quarterback hits (31), tackles for loss (22), and forced fumbles (tied with three) while starting all 17 games for his second consecutive season with the Giants. His 31 quarterback hits, meanwhile, are the most by any Giant since the statistic started being tracked in 2006.

Players around the league on both sides of the ball weighed in on what makes Burns great.

DE Maxx Crosby: "Around the league, you're going to watch the sack tapes. I watch Brian Burns. Great pass rushers, I want to see how I stack up."

OT Tristan Wirfs: "He's slippery. The way he moves like – he's just so slippery. But so smooth at the same time as well. Yeah, impressive dude."

QB Tyler Shough: "He's tough. He's really tough. I've got to know where he's at. It's hard to get away from him. Some guys maybe step up and run away, but he's so athletic."

LB Alex Highsmith: "He's just a freak athlete and a crazy rusher. I've got a lot of respect for him. In terms of tools in the toolbox, [he has] as much as any guy in the league. He's chop-ripping. He's swiping. He's ghosting. He's spinning."

Take a look at where Giants players have ranked on the "Top 100" list over the years.

The Weekly Wire

The signing of Najee Harris was far from the team's only roster move this week.

It began on Sunday with defensive back Sam Webb being placed on the reserve/retired list. The following day, running back Dante Miller was waived/injured before transferring to injured reserve on Tuesday.

With the two open roster spots, the Giants signed quarterback Jake Haener and linebacker Chandler Martin, the latter of whom spent the 2025 season with John Harbaugh in Baltimore.

To make room on the roster for Harris, the Giants released veteran wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster.

On Wednesday morning, the team traded offensive lineman Daniel Faalele to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a 2027 sixth-round pick. With the open roster spot, the Giants then claimed defensive lineman Ben Barten off waivers from the Jets. Barten had been with the team earlier in the offseason before being waived and picked up by the Jets, who let the undrafted rookie free agent go earlier this week.

What's next?

The Giants will wrap up their preseason slate on Friday, August 28 with a "road" matchup against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium. Then on Sunday, August 30, the Giants must announce the initial 53-man roster by 6 p.m.

View every move made by the New York Giants during the 2026 cycle.

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The Giants Foundation 5K & Kids Run

Bring your friends, family and neighbors out to run The Giants Foundation 5K Presented by Quest® on Sunday, November 8th and finish in the end zone at MetLife Stadium!

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