In our exclusive interview ahead of the 2026 NFL season, the NFL Network analyst reveals which players most impressed him in the preseason and which teams could be surprise Super Bowl contenders.
Brian Baldinger believes the New York Giants stand out as the team most prepared to make a leap and contend for the playoffs in the upcoming 2026 NFL season.
The Giants went 4-13 last season despite an impressive first year from rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, and they hired a Super Bowl-winning head coach in John Harbaugh during the offseason.
With +250 odds in the NFL betting to make the playoffs this season, the Giants have the look of an ascending team, and Baldinger believes the combination of Dart, Harbaugh and wide receiver Malik Nabers gives New York a chance at reaching the postseason this year.
In our exclusive interview ahead of the new season, the NFL analyst and voice of the hugely popular ‘Baldy’s Breakdowns’ also discusses which lesser-known players have most impressed him on film during the preseason, and reveals which playoff team from last year he believes may be set for a disappointing season.
Which coaching staff impressed you the most during your NFL training camp tour?
I saw 14 teams, and honestly, when I went to St. Joseph, Missouri, where the Kansas City Chiefs are training. To see Patrick Mahomes, after major knee reconstruction, perform like he did, where you couldn’t even tell what knee got injured. He didn’t have a brace on and he took almost every rep. To watch Andy Reid conduct a practice, and to hear his quarterback. I was standing on a hill, watching the practice from the end zone, and you could hear Mahomes all the way up on top of the hill, Just loud, bold, confident.
And then just the way that they practice. It’s just so crisp and sharp and there’s not any wasted time. That was impressive to see.
Your film breakdowns are legendary. Who are the guys who have jumped out to you on tape, who the general public wouldn’t be aware of?
Jordan van den Berg was a seventh-round pick out of Georgia Tech for the Chicago Bears, and they just traded away Gervon Dexter, who was a starting defensive tackle for them, because this Jordan van den Berg keeps showing up. He had a legitimate preseason. He’s undersized, but he was like that player at Georgia Tech. I went to watch him practice and in all three preseason games, he played very well.
Landon Robinson was a seventh-round pick from the Naval Academy by the Cincinnati Bengals, and I liked him coming out of the Naval Academy. I don’t like to make comparisons, but he kind of reminded me – only because of his size – of what Aaron Donald was coming out of Pitt. Now, he’s not going to be a Hall of Fame player, he’s undersized, but he’s very explosive, he’s very fundamental, and he plays the game the right way.
Both those guys are undersized defensive tackles, and everybody’s looking for these monsters inside like Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, but sometimes you can get these players that just play with good leverage, know how to get off blocks, get to the football and make good things happen. Both those guys have gotten a lot of attention from me throughout this preseason.
Arvell Reese of the Giants played in two preseason games. You could just tell. I went out there to West Virginia to watch him practice, and I watched him in a scrimmage against the Dolphins, and you legitimately cannot take your eyes off of 52 for the Giants when you watch their defence play. He makes you watch, and that’s always a starting point when somebody gets highlighted in one of my breakdowns – I want you to watch this guy the way I’m watching this guy. Come join me in the film room. I want you to see why this guy keeps capturing my attention.
What have you made of the rookie quarterbacks from pre-season so far? Has anyone looked more polished than you expected, or surprised you from a physical perspective?
Well this Jalon Daniels in Tampa. This guy played 45 games at Kansas, but he’s the backup to Baker [Mayfield] right now. He’s an undrafted kid out of Kansas, and I don’t know the last time Kansas produced a quarterback that made any dent in this league, but it doesn’t matter. He earned that spot. He played very, very well.
If you go to Cleveland and you just look at Taylen Green, they’ve got three quarterbacks now on the roster, but you watch him practice and he’s 6′6″, He runs like a deer, and he’s got the best arm of anybody on the team. Now, is he polished? Can he go win you games right now? Probably not. But he made the team as a sixth-round pick out of Arkansas, and he’s a guy that certainly impressed throughout the preseason.
You’ve always said the game’s won in the trenches. Who are your top three offensive lines going into the new season?
Seattle returns all five starters from a year ago, they won the Super Bowl, and Sam Darnold played great. Then they drafted this kid, Beau Stevens, out of Iowa in the fifth round. They just keep finding these guys.
John Benton is the offensive line coach there in Seattle, Charles Cross and big Abe Lucas are the tackles. Grey Zabel, the rookie left guard last year. You just look at them and go, why can’t they still be a top offensive line in football? I think they have a chance to be very good.
The Eagles return all five starters from a year ago, but Landon Dickerson was going through a knee scope at this time last year and never really looked healthy all year long. Lane Johnson had a foot injury halfway through the season, missed the rest of the season. He’s fully healthy. The Eagles should be very, very good right now on the offensive line.
I would say the New Orleans Saints have a chance. They brought in David Edwards in free agency from Buffalo. Kelvin Banks played very well as a rookie. They got their center back. They’ve got a chance to be good.
The Buffalo Bills returned four of the five starters from a year ago, and they’ve got the leading rusher in football. Buffalo should still be very, very good in the offensive line right now.
Every year a team makes a leap to become a playoff contender. Who is that team this year?
I think the Giants could make a leap. John Harbaugh can flat out coach, and they haven’t had good coaching there since Tom Coughlin left. He’s a real coach, and I think he’s got a good staff. If Malik Nabers is anything like he was in his rookie season, he is an elite player. And they’ve kind of brought him back slowly, didn’t play in the preseason, but I’ve watched him run. If Malik Nabers can get back to that, they’ve got a good offensive line and they’ve got three good backs. The quarterback is developing. Defensively, they’ve got holes at defensive tackle, but they should be a good team.
They beat the Eagles last year soundly. They had games won last year against Denver, against Kansas City, and Chicago, but they couldn’t finish it. They made mistakes in the fourth quarter to lose games. They were a better team than the record showed last year. Now it’s a tough division, but the Giants should be better. They play the Cowboys in the opening game of the season. If they beat the Cowboys and they get a taste of victory, that could be a team.
I think the Minnesota Vikings. I think Kyler Murray is going to be a good fit in this offence. There’s a reason why Kevin O’Connell made the choice for Kyler to be the starting quarterback a couple weeks ago and just gave him all the reps possible. They’ve got everything.
With Sam Darnold two years ago, they won 14 games. They’ve got a very good team, a great defensive coordinator, they’ve got talent, they’ve got a good offensive line and great weapons. If Kyler plays good to great, this could be a bounce back team. They won nine games last year, and they’ve got a chance to come out of that pack and win that division if Kyler plays great.
Three second-year quarterbacks have high expectations this year. Out of Jaxson Dart, Tyler Shough and Cam Ward, who is the best player at the moment and who has the highest ceiling?
Based off what Tyler Shough did last year, I would put him first. He was very good. When I went to their training camp last year in Metairie, I thought Tyler Shough was better than Spencer Rattler in training camp. Now, they didn’t start him, which maybe was by design. Kellen Moore knows what he’s doing at that position.
When Shough came in, he gave that team a lift. Now they’ve had a lot of injuries. We’ve got to see what happens at receiver right now. But I would say Tyler Shough, the way that he played and the athletic ability that he has, I’d say he has the shot to be really good.
Jaxson Dart, he can’t just go and challenge these defences, and take off and run like he did. It’s not going to go well. But if he plays a more disciplined style and Malik Nabers is healthy, with the line and the running game, he’s got a chance to be really good.
I like Cam Ward personally. There’s just something that seems to be missing from him right now. I want to see more from Cam. I know it’s his second year. I thought he competed really well last year, but in preseason, I didn’t really see the jump I expected him to make with the additions that they made at receiver and along the offensive line.
What’s the biggest change in scheme you’ve seen in the past few years, and which individual player most embodies that change?
Every quarterback in this league now is under center. That’s the biggest change. It used to be a shotgun league. That’s what these kids played in college, in high school, and that’s what they were running in the pros. Around the league right now, every quarterback is under center.
We saw Sam Darnold make a big jump Klint Kubiak under Kevin O’Connell. He sat for a year watching Brock Purdy in San Francisco, and now he’s a top-flight quarterback in this league. It’s going to help protect the quarterbacks. The running games have to help the quarterbacks, and the play action passes have to help these offences get explosive plays against these defences that are sitting in two-high shells and not showing you what coverage they’re in until the ball is snapped. You need that time to be able for them to declare what they’re in.
So I feel like that’s the biggest change right now. Teams that are playing two and three tight ends, quarterbacks under center, running backs eight yards deep, play action passes off of that. I feel like that’s the new offence in this league and it’s here to stay.
You played all across the offensive line during your career. Who’s the current NFL defensive lineman you would hate to have to block?
Well Aaron Donald just came on board and he’s going to play San Francisco in Australia. The 49ers might start a rookie offensive lineman at left guard in Carver Willis, and he might see Aaron Donald in his first game.
I know his trainer. I know how hard he’s been training. I know he’s had two-and-a-half years off. But he was the gold standard for defensive tackles in this business, and I don’t know how much it’s changed because of the variety of different ways he can beat you.
Obviously the guy that’s playing next to him right now [Myles Garrett] is the same. He’s almost an unblockable force. So they’ve got two of them, and they also have other guys that are really good players like Kobie Turner and Byron Young. But those two guys for the Rams right now are probably as difficult to block as anybody in this whole league.
Are they potentially the best defensive line tandem ever?
Maybe. Reggie White and Jerome Brown back in the day in Philadelphia, they were putting quarterbacks in body bags back under Buddy Ryan. That was a pretty unstoppable duo at that time. Then if you put Jerome on the other side next to Clyde Simmons, that was that was probably about as good as they got.
The Bills added DJ Moore this offseason. What does he give them that they haven’t had in recent years?
He’s always been very good after the catch. Even from his days coming out of Maryland, he was very fast. He was built like a running back from the waist down, and he’s a very powerful guy with the ball in his hands. He does have an explosive element to his game, so it gives them some deep speed that maybe they didn’t have. Stefon Diggs couldn’t run like DJ Moore. He was a great route runner, great catcher, rarely dropped a pass, and very dependable.
The one part I want to see with DJ, and it was there a little bit with Caleb Williams, is that Josh creates so much offence with his ability to extend plays. Can DJ play off script with Josh Allen and get open the way Terrell Owens used to, the way Antonio Brown used to? Some of these great receivers really helped their quarterbacks out when they got into trouble. That’s the part I want to see from DJ in this offence right now.
The Patriots added AJ Brown – is he a better fit with Drake Maye than he was with Jalen Hurts last year?
I think it’s a much better fit. First of all, AJ wants to be there. He was drafted by Mike Vrabel, and he respects Mike. Not that he didn’t respect Nick Sirianni or any of the coaches in Philly, but he loved playing for Mike, not just the way that he coached him and was hard on him, but the way he coached the team.
Watching him in practice this year go up against Christian Gonzalez, who’s legitimately as good as any corner in the NFL, it’s a war out there every day.
They traded away Kayshon Boutte, and this offence is going to be built for AJ. He’s a great deep ball catcher, Drake’s got a big arm. They’re going to take shots down the field to him. They’re going to give him a chance. I just feel like this is one of those new beginnings that some players just need. You just need to clean the air, go to a different place, go up against a great player every day in practice like Gonzalez, and they do go at it each day. I just think this is a great fit for New England.
Could Makai Lemon also be a better fit for what Philadelphia wants to do with Jalen Hurts?
If he does become a great fit, I think it’s going to take some time. He missed a lot of practise time. He played a little bit in the last preseason game. He didn’t wow anybody in Philadelphia, but it’s a preseason game and it was his first action. He is a very tough kid and he does have no fear going over the middle. Those are good things.
I’ve got to see how Jalen adjusts to this offence. It’s all new to him. Everything from being under center to play action, to turning his back to the defence – it’s all new to him. I think if Makai is going to become a No. 1 or 1A receiver next to Devonta Smith, I think it’s going to take some time. It might take half a season if he develops this year, just because of the amount of time that Makai Lemon missed already.
Josh Jacobs has gone on the commissioner’s exempt list and there has been a lot of buzz about Marshawn Lloyd in preseason. Do you believe he can shoulder the load as their starting running back?
He was a good prospect coming out of college and he got drafted in the right place. He’s going to get a great opportunity. Nobody is Josh Jacobs, that guy probably has more touchdowns than anybody the last couple of years. He smells the goal line and he’s just a great, complete back. But the commissioner made this decision. I don’t know when he’s going to be eligible, and somebody’s going to get a chance to step up here.
They believe in running the football. They’ve rebuilt their offensive line. They think they got much better left tackle than a year ago, they feel like they’re much better up front, and they get Tucker Kraft back. They need a running back to step up and be a starter. A lot of these guys like A.J. Dillon have come and gone over the years. If [Lloyd] is going to be an NFL player, this is a great opportunity for him.
He’s going to get a chance to wear the crown and to be the guy, and if he’s not, they’ll go find somebody else. Brian Gutekunst is a good GM, and they know how to find talent. But they need a foundation running the football for this offence to click.
