In Week 6 of the NFL season, the Philadelphia Eagles will face a team they have owned over roughly the last couple of decades in the New York Giants, who they swept last season and who they have beaten in six of their last seven meetings since the 2022 season. Here are our five things to watch.
1) Who is Jaxson Dart?
The Giants' starting quarterback to begin the 2025 season was Russell Wilson, who was benched after Week 3. The Giants turned to Jaxson Dart, a rookie who they selected with the 25th overall pick in the 2025 draft.
In two starts, Dart has completed 39 of 60 passes (65.0%) for 313 yards (5.3 YPA), 3 TDs, and 2 INTs. He has also run 19 times for 109 yards and a TD.
Interestingly, during the NFL Combine, draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah comped Dart to Jalen Hurts.
"The comparison that I had — and it may have taken some people off-guard — but I talked about Jalen Hurts," Jeremiah said, "just in terms of the build, how the ball comes out of their hand, guys that got better each and every year in college. I know that Jalen Hurts ran the ball more, but Jaxson Dart was successful running the ball in the SEC. He is very athletic."
As it turns out, Dart said that he patterns his game after Hurts. Dart does not have Hurts' athleticism. To be determined if he has Hurts' mindset. He most certainly does not have Hurts' supporting cast.
Another comp that was made to Dart was Brock Purdy, by Lance Zierlein of NFL Network.
"Teams might see physical and play similarities between Dart and Brock Purdy but such a pathway for Dart likely requires a balanced, ball-control passing attack that allows him to manage the game instead of driving it," Zierlein said.
"I like him," Vic Fangio said. "Another mobile quarterback. I think he's got that air about him to be a quarterback. I think he's confident in his abilities and in their offense. Got the gun run game to contend with. They'll run quarterback draws, quarterback designed runs. He's good. I think they got themselves a quarterback."
Dart is in a difficult situation as a rookie with the Giants, playing behind a poor offensive line, and throwing to a group of receivers that no longer includes Malik Nabers.
2) The Giants' skill position players aren't good
As noted above, Dart will not get to throw to Malik Nabers for the rest of this season. Nabers was the Giants' best offensive player. As a rookie in an awful offense in 2024, he had 109 catches for 1,204 yards and 7 TDs. He tore his ACL Week 4 against the Chargers, and his season is over.
With Nabers out, the Giants next best receiver is Darius Slayton. For the last half decade, sadly, Slayton was the Giants' best receiver, by far. He was a free agent this past offseason and was widely expected to sign elsewhere, but surprisingly landed back with the Giants on a three-year deal worth $36 million, which was more or less the same contract Saquon Barkley was seeking from the Giants before he left in free agency to play for the Eagles, lol.
Slayton led the Giants in receiving yards in 2023, 2022, 2020, and 2019, but has never topped 800 receiving yards in a season. Slayton missed practice on Monday and Tuesday with a hamstring injury. He is not expected to play on Sunday.
The Giants' remaining receivers are Wan'Dale Robinson, Jalin Hyatt, Gunner Olszewski, and Beaux Collins. The Giants will likely call up Lil'Jordan Humphrey from their practice squad for this matchup. Obviously, the Eagles are not exactly contending with a Jerry Rice - John Taylor receiver group here.
At running back, Tyrone Tracy was the Giants' Week 1 starter. He has missed the last two games with a shoulder injury, and has been limited in practice this week. To be determined if he's good to go for Sunday. In Tracy's absence, rookie fourth-round RB Cam Skattebo has filled in. The Giants also have Devin Singletary, who the Giants thought would be a reasonable replacement for Barkley, as shown in the infamous Giants offseason version of Hard Knocks. All of the Giants' backs have unimpressive yards per carry numbers:
Giants RBs Rush Yards YPC TD
Cam Skettebo 63 240 3.8 2
Devin Singletary 21 72 3.4 0
Tyrone Tracy 22 68 3.1 0
In summary, the Giants have unthreatening receivers and running backs. Their biggest threat might be TE Theo Johnson, who has 15 catches for 99 yards and 3 TDs.
3) Where might the Eagles go #Feastin'? 🍗
The Giants' offensive line has been a liability for a very long time. That's no different in 2025:
LT LG C RG RT
Andrew Thomas Jon Runyan John Michael Schmitz Greg Van Roten Jermaine Eluemunor
After being named Second-Team All-Pro in 2022, Thomas signed a five-year contract worth $117.5 million. Since then he has missed 18 games. There's a common sentiment that Thomas is still a great player when healthy, but PFF has him down for 8 sacks allowed in the 16 games he played in 2023 and 2024. He has played well so far in 2025, and is the only offensive lineman on the roster that the Giants can feel good about.
PFF has Runyan, Van Roten, and Eluemunor down for 2 sacks allowed, each. Eluemunor is tied for fourth in the NFL with five penalties. He had three penalties (2 holding, one false start) against the Saints Week 5.
The Eagles' defense has gotten decent pressure this season, but they only have 7 sacks as a team. Only four teams have fewer. This is the week that they have a chance to get after the quarterback.
#FeastinMeter: 6/10 turkey legs 🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗
4) The Giants have good pass rushers
The Giants have four defensive linemen -- Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Abdul Carter -- who can get after the quarterback.
Lawrence is one of the best interior defensive linemen in the NFL, and the Eagles very likely won't have Landon Dickerson to block him on Sunday. Dickerson's replacement is Brett Toth, who in my opinion is not a viable NFL starter. Jeff Stoutland is going to have to give Toth help all day against Lawrence.
That means that Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson will be on an island against the trio of Burns, Thibodeaux, and Carter, though that's nothing new for them.
The Eagles faced a very good passing rushing defensive line last week against the Broncos, and this will be another challenge. I imagine the Eagles will try to lean on their run game this week, because, well... 👇
5) The Giants' run defense stinks, as always
The Giants' run defense stinks every year, and every year they don't fix it.
Year Rush yards allowed NFL rank
2021 129.0 25
2022 146.3 28
2023 132.4 29
2024 136.2 26
2025 140.0 26
During Hard Knocks, we got to see Brian Daboll say he wanted to hire Shane Bowen to be the Giants' defensive coordinator because of Bowen's past success against the run:
Daboll says, "I mean, can you get our run defense to look like this, please?"
Unfortunately, stopping the run requires more than just a new defensive coordinator. You need players, too, and overall the Giants don't have good run stoppers.
In 2024, the Giants gave up 4.6 yards per carry, they allowed the second-most runs of 20+ yards (19), and they tied for the most runs of 40+ yards (5). To add insult to injury, Barkley had 17 carries for 176 yards and a TD in his return to MetLife.
In 2025 through five games, they're allowing 140 rushing yard per game, and 5.3 yards per carry.
What was their biggest move in free agency to stop the bleeding? They signed iDL Roy Robertson-Harris, who turned 32 in July, and the Giants gave him a two-year deal worth $10 million. He logged 20 tackles, 2 sacks in 2024. The Giants give decent money to a mid defensive lineman or two every offseason, and they never have any impact, even though they get to play next to Dexter Lawrence. That was another one of those signings.
The Eagles' rushing attack has been non-existent so far in 2025. If they can't get anything going against this trash Giants defense, run game concerns should be at a new level.
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