The New York Giants are sitting atop the NFC East heading into their bye week, but general manager Joe Schoen is not ready to make any bold proclamations about the team’s playoff chances.
Asked how equipped the Giants are for a playoff push, Schoen kept it simple.
“We’re about to find out,” Schoen said on NFL Network. “Again, I like the group. They’re resilient.”
We're about to find out."
Joe Schoen on if the Giants can make a run to the playoffs 👀 pic.twitter.com/HRKujeDn97
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) October 27, 2026
The Giants have plenty of reasons to feel good about themselves. They improved to 4-2-1 with a 27-21 overtime win over the Houston Texans on Sunday, and the victory kept them in first place in the division.
J.J. McCarthy made his first start for New York in that win, and Schoen made sure to highlight what the young quarterback has done in a short time.
“We have a quarterback that’s started one game for us and went out and performed at a high level. He’s 23. He’s won his last five starts,” Schoen said.
McCarthy completed 20 of 28 passes for 252 yards in the win, a 71.4% completion rate that was the second-best by a Giants quarterback in his first start with the team.
What impressed Schoen most was how quickly McCarthy got up to speed. The Giants acquired him from the Minnesota Vikings in late September after Jaxson Dart suffered a season-ending knee injury, sending a 2027 fifth-round pick to Minnesota.
Article Continues Below“Just having played the position, how hard that is to do, to come in and the 20-plus snap counts and not really throwing to our receivers throughout a training camp or an offseason,” Schoen said. “I don’t think it’s been a month. Maybe tomorrow will be a month he’s been here. And to go out and perform against that defense the way he did was impressive.”
Jameis Winston held down the fort after Dart went down, but McCarthy now appears to have taken the reins.
The former No. 10 overall pick had made just 10 starts across two-plus seasons with the Vikings after an injury-riddled start to his career. He had slipped to third on Minnesota’s depth chart before the trade.
Now, he has a chance to lead the Giants back to the postseason. If the Giants can build on their first-place standing after the bye, Schoen will get his answer soon enough.