There's been a contingent of perpetually bad NFL teams. Yet, there's a legitimate case to be made for the New York Giants being the worst of the bunch — for now.
However, New York made John Harbaugh tied for the highest-paid head coach in the business and gave him significant organizational power to buck that trend. The club pulled out all the stops to get the guy they think is the best option to dig them out of a near-decade-long hole. And by the sound of it, he's eager to hit the ground, so Giants fans should be too.
Addressing the media at the 2026 annual league meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, Harbaugh set the bar quite high for the Giants moving forward:
"Our expectation is always going to be, every game we go into, to win," Harbaugh told reporters. "Every single game, we're going to plan on going in to win that game ... I'm pretty sure if we win every game, we're going to make the playoffs, right? If my math is right. So, that's what we're going to try to do."
John Harbaugh lays out bold vision of success for new-look Giants
Daring comments like this can come back to haunt Harbaugh, especially considering the situation he inherited. Yet, instead of running from the pressure that comes with the Giants' job, he appears to be embracing it head-on. The Super Bowl XLVII champion has big plans for Big Blue.
Talk is cheap, though, and Harbaugh will have his hands full trying to turn the tide in New York. He described the whole team as "a work in progress" minutes before talking about pushing the envelope. Yet, that didn't stop him from pledging to raise the incredibly low standards Giants supporters have endured over the last several years.
It's still incredibly early in the Harbaugh era, but he's ostensibly working toward building the Giants into a respectable, competitive organization again. His arrival and their ensuing free agency moves have been encouraging, and the upcoming draft presents another opportunity to make meaningful strides.
Only the Giants' hometown rivals, the Jets, have lost as many games since 2017. They're tied for the fewest victories during this prolonged stretch and are the only two franchises that haven't cracked the 50-win mark. That alone should illustrate the uphill battle Harbaugh faces to bring New York football back to relevance, which almost seems to excite him.