On a 53-man roster, some players are more important than others. So, who are the top 10 most important New York Giants?
The answer is subjective. There is no absolute, obvious, correct 10. Regardless, I am going to offer my list of 10, formed after consultation with the Big Blue View front office of Tony DelGenio and Chris Pflum. We will count down from No. 10, doing one player each day.
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Remember, this list is NOT “most talented” or “best”. This is “most important.” I thought of most important both in terms of talent, and in terms of how much each player’s quality of play, health, and role could be critical to the success of the 2026 Giants.
No. 10 — TE Isaiah Likely
On a team that needed to upgrade its pass-catchers, Likely was the Giants’ biggest swing at doing so.
With questions swirling around the early-season availability and effectiveness of Malik Nabers, the Giants’ best receiver, Likely becomes more important.
The fact that the Giants signed the 26-year-old to a three-year, $40 million contract ($20.5 million guaranteed) to be something he has never been — a No. 1 tight end and primary weapon in their passing attack — makes Likely’s success or failure even more important to the Giants’ fortunes.
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If the Giants are right, the 6-foot-4, 245-pound Likely will help mitigate the loss of 1,000-yard wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson in free agency and give Jaxson Dart a big, reliable, potentially dynamic target in the middle of the field.
If the Giants are wrong, they have an overpaid TE2.
Likely played the past four seasons for Giants coach John Harbaugh with the Baltimore Ravens. Harbaugh said at the NFL owner’s meetings that he was “certain he’s [Likely] going to be able to put up the numbers, the stats.”
“I’ve seen him every day in practice,” Harbaugh said. “I’ve seen him make plays. I know how he plays the game. So, you try to kind of create a vision for a player. What do you think they’re capable of doing? And one thing that we always have tried to do is see what players can do. Not so much concerned about what they don’t do, what they haven’t done, what they can’t do. What can they do? And when you see a player do it every day, you got a pretty good idea what he’s capable of.
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“He’s a playmaking football player. He’s going to make plays for us. I think Jaxson’s going to really like him running the routes and being in his line of vision. He’s got a big catch radius. He can make plays; after he makes the catch, he can get upfield. He can make people miss. He can run people over. He’s a very good perimeter blocker. You’ll see that. That’ll be good for our run game. So, all those things he brings to the table.”
If Likely, entering his fifth NFL season, is what Harbaugh promises he will be, that can make a huge difference for Dart and the Giants.
