3 Giants-eagles Storylines For Week 9: Can New York Handle Prosperity?

The New York Giants head to Lincoln Financial Field, a place that has been a house of horrors for the Giants more than a decade, to face the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

The script has been flipped in 2026, with the Giants leading the division, while the reeling Eagles enter the game in last place in the NFC East with a six-game losing streak.

Let’s look at some of this week’s storylines.

Who’s the bully now?

The Giants have not beaten the Eages at Lincoln Financial Field since a 15-7 victory on Nov. 27, 2013. The Eagles have won the NFC East title three of the last four seasons, appearing in two Super Bowls and winning one. The Giants went 11-38 from 2023-2025.

Yet, at the midway point of this season we are living in an alternate reality. The Giants are leading the division at 4-2-1 and trying to make moves to improve their chances of reaching the playoffs. They are the betting favorite. The Eagles are trying to figure out what truck ran them over and whether or not Humpty Dumpty can be put back together again.

It is an amazing turn of events.

Question is, can and will the Giants handle their business? Good teams win games like this one.

Who’s toting the rock?

Tyrone Tracy is on injured reserve with a hamstring injury. Cam Skattebo did not practice on Monday due to his own hamstring injury, and head coach John Harbaugh said Skattebo will be “day to day up to the game.” As of this writing, the Giants have not completed a trade for Jonathan Taylor, Derrick Henry, Tony Pollard, Breece Hall, or any other running back. Najee Harris is somewhere looking for a new job.

Devin Singletary, who has 18 carries this season, might be the last man standing from the Giants’ original backfield on Sunday. Gregory Desrosiers will be playing in his first NFL game after being signed off the Los Angeles Chargers practice squad. Practice squad back Phil Mafah has five NFL carries. Eric Gray, released in cuts to the 53-man roster, was just re-signed to the practice squad. He has six fumbles in 81 career touches, hardly a confidence-inspring statistic.

Can J.J. keep rolling?

J.J. McCarthy has played five excellent quarters of football since replacing Jameis Winston in the fourth quarter of a Week 6 loss to the New Orleans Saints. He has fans and media members alike conjuring McCarthy vs. Jaxson Dart scenarios regarding who will quarterback the Giants next season.

There is a long way to go, though, and McCarthy has a lot to prove before putting the Giants into a situation where they would actually have to make such a decision.

Can McCarthy continue to impress? Can he continue to look like a viable NFL starting quarterback? Can he continue to make the Minnesota Vikings silly for dumping him earlier this season in return for the bargain price of a fifth-round pick?

That is to be determined.

McCarthy is actually 7-4 as a starting quarterback with five consecutive victories. The common denominator in all of those games? Just like his national championship-winning career at Michigan, McCarthy was never asked to do too much in any of them.

The Week 7 victory over Houston, when McCarthy went 20 of 28 passing was the most passes he has thrown in any winning effort as an NFL quarterback. The 252 yards passing was also a career-high.

Only twice in his career has McCarthy been asked to throw 30 or more passes. In those two games, both losses, he has gone 36 of 74 (48.6% completions) with 2 touchdown passes and 4 interceptions.

NFL teams will figure out how the Giants are using McCarthy, and how they are orienting their passing attack. Looking at McCarthy’s pass charts at NextGen Stats, it is clear he does not like to throw the ball in the middle of the field. Twenty-seven of his 28 passes against the Houston Texans were outside the hash marks, and most were outside the numbers. The charts from all 11 of his NFL starts tell the same story.

What happens when teams start squeezing the Giants’ passing attack into the middle of the field, where McCarthy doesn’t want to be? What happens when they jam the box and force McCarthy to win games by throwing 35 or more times?

McCarthy’s ability to navigate those things will tell us how much he has truly grown as an NFL quarterback.