Can John Harbaugh’s training camp get the Giants off to a good start?

Going all the way back to the final years of the Tom Coughlin era, the beginnings of NFL seasons have not been kind to the New York Giants.

Only twice since 2013 have the Giants gotten off to 2-0 starts. Not coincidentally, those were the only times in those 13 seasons that the team reached the playoffs. Giants seasons, or at least the idea of playing important games in them, have generally been over by the end of October. Sometimes, by the end of September.

Below, a look at how the Giants began (and ended) each of the last 13 seasons:

Tom Coughlin

2013 — 0-6 (7-9 finish)

2014 — 0-2 (6-10 finish)

2015 — 0-2 (6-10 finish)

Ben McAdoo

2016 — 2-0 (that extended to 10-4, then an 11-5 finish and a playoff berth)

2017 — 0-5 | 1-8 (3-13 finish | McAdoo, GM Jerry Reese fired with four games remaining and the Giants 2-10)

Pat Shurmur

2018 — 1-7 (5-11 finish)

2019 — 0-2 | 2-11 (4-12 finish)

Joe Judge

2020 — 0-5 | 1-7 (6-10 finish)

2021 — 1-5 (4-13 finish)

Brian Daboll

2022 — 6-1 (9-7-1 finish … wild-card round victory over Minnesota Vikings)

2023 — 1-5 (6-11 finish)

2024 — 1-3 | 2-13 (3-14 finish)

2025 — 0-3 | Daboll fired at 2-8 (4-13 finish)

Can John Harbaugh change that?

The 63-year-old Harbaugh, an old-school coach with a reputation for being demanding of players, is expected to put the Giants through a training camp more arduous than most have experienced as NFL players.

Asked during mandatory minicamp how taxing this summer’s training camp will be, Harbaugh played coy.

“Is there a rating scale for that? Give me the rating scale. What is the scale? Vince Lombardi being 10 and whatever, it won’t be that. It won’t be Lombardi-esque or anything like that,” Harbaugh said.

Harbaugh was asked if his camp would be an 8 next to Lombardi’s 10.

“I guess it will be an 8,” Harbaugh said.

By modern NFL standards, anything approaching that level would be considered grueling.

Harbaugh’s practices during rookie minicamp, OTAs, and mandatory minicamp, albeit unpadded ones limited by rules outlined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, hinted at what is to come:

Draft picks took reps during team periods at the rookie minicamp, something that has not been the norm in recent seasons.
Front-line players took the majority of reps during team periods in OTAs and minicamp, again a change from standard operating procedure in recent years. There were few reps for third-team players.
The Giants did 9-on-7 run drills normally reserved for padded training camp practices. These were lower intensity than when done in pads, but the drill remained noteworthy.
Practices went the full amount of time allowed by the CBA. The first two minicamp practices lasted the allotted 2½ hours.

Harbaugh believes in maximizing every minute of every day. This is what he said during his introductory press conference:

“Are we really doing our best? Are we really putting everything we have into it for this day? Are we really attacking the day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind, another level? Is that possible? Is that something that we can accomplish? Can we have the best meeting and the best practice in the history of the National Football League?

“We can if we decide to, and when you do that day by day, you build something, you take it onto the field, and you let the chips fly, and you go play some ball.”

Jermaine Eleumunor, who began his career playing for Harbaugh with the Baltimore Ravens, said the coach is “the exact same” as he was then.

“I feel like I’m back in Baltimore,” Eluemunor said. “The workouts, the intensity, just the attention to detail. The way we get things done in the field, the reasons behind them.”

Edge defender Kayvon Thibodeaux is enjoying the Harbaugh experience. He called the head coach “a maniac.”

“Coach – I just love him so much because every question I’ve had, he’s been able to explain it, and there’s a system, and there’s a process, and there’s a method,” Thibodeaux said.

With the Ravens, wide receiver Zay Flowers was not a fan of Harbaugh’s grinding style.

“Full pads all the time,” Flowers said during an appearance on the “4th & Short Podcast” hosted by former NFLers Jarvis Landry and Leonard Fournette. “However many practices in pads you can get, every single one. We’re doing one-on-ones in Week 17. Week 17, we’re doing one-on-ones, everybody out there, we’re tired, we’re still going.

“That’s why we had a lot of injuries because of how we practiced, how we went,” Flowers continued. “The load was heavy.”

Taking the Giants to The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia for two weeks was not Harbaugh’s decision. It was a move necessitated by the World Cup matches being held at MetLife Stadium, and the location was chosen before he was named head coach. Still, Harbaugh seems excited.

“I look at it like a real opportunity. It’s going to be a chance to get locked in,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a simple place to be, you know. You don’t have to deal with coming back and forth from a hotel. Obviously, we’ll get away from the World Cup stuff and the construction here, which is a plus too for us.

“But that bonding opportunity: Guys aren’t going home. They’re going to be with each other into the evening, stuff like that, go to dinner together. I think it’s a real plus for us. I’m excited about it.”

Will it matter?

There is, of course, no way to know for certain until the games are played in September.

The Giants open the season with a pair of difficult games — a season-opening home game against the Dallas Cowboys, followed by a road trip to face the Los Angeles Rams. Both are expected to be playoff teams and perhaps Super Bowl contenders.

An 0-2 start is clearly a possibiity.

All fans can do is take comfort in the reality that the Giants will be well-prepared, and that Harbaugh’s history shows few poor starts in his 18 seasons in Baltimore.

In 2015, the Ravens went 0-3 en route to a 5-11 record, the worst of Harbaugh’s coaching career.
In 2024, the Ravens started 0-2 en route to a 12-5 season and an NFC North title.
In 2025, Baltimore started 1-5 before rallying to finish 8-9.

Recent history is not on the Giants’ side. Harbaugh’s history is. We will have to wait and see how it works out. Training camp, though, certainly promises to be different than what we have become used to.

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