Few people know coach John Harbaugh better than Mike Tomlin.As coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2007-25, Tomlin faced off against Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens 44 times, including four games in the postseason. For nearly two decades, they were the faces of one of the best rivalries the NFL had to offer.But times have changed. Harbaugh is now the new face of the New York Giants, while Tomlin signed on as a studio analyst for NBC Sports’ Football Night in America. In preparation for his debut in that role, the man who knows what a Harbaugh football team looks like better than almost anybody outlined what Giants fans can expect from their new coach.“Harbs definitively has a mode of operation,” Tomlin said ahead of the Giants’ game Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys. “He has a definitive style for how he engineers victory, and that’s a major component of winning and winning consistently.”Tomlin added that he anticipates that style will take hold in New York immediately and that the Giants will be more competitive in 2026 than people might expect.Will the Eagles three-peat as NFC East Champions?Charlotte CarrollTomlin isn’t alone in that opinion. In surveying analysts across the league, the national consensus appears to be that the Giants will be better than most people expect — thanks to Harbaugh.“I say this without discrediting anything or anyone from before, but there is just an adult element in the building now,” ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky said. “I say this all the time, but it’s not just Sundays, and it’s not just the season. Harbaugh knows what February feels and sounds like. He knows what March feels and sounds like for teams that are good, competitive teams. He knows what you do post-draft in April. (He knows) what the OTAs are supposed to be (and) how sharp you’re supposed to be. (He knows) what a training camp is supposed to feel like for a team that’s a good football team. … Just being able to tap into the past is a really valuable asset that, honestly, not a lot of the coaches from beforehand had that (kind of) experience.”For as much optimism as those who watch the league are expressing for the Giants this preseason, it’s tough to overstate how big of a hill Harbaugh has to climb to get this franchise back to being competitive. The Giants finished 4-13 last season and 3-14 in 2024. Their 13-38 record over the past three seasons is the second-worst mark in the NFL over that stretch.Suffice it to say, Harbaugh’s task is daunting. And that leads us to a question we pose to our panel of national analysts every year around this time: What would be a successful season for the Giants? For a team that has won more than six games just once in the past decade, what bar does Harbaugh need to clear to make the future feel bright in New York?Orlovsky defines success in Year 1 of the Harbaugh era as playing meaningful games into December. NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger, however, thinks the Giants have what it takes to make the playoffs.“Harbaugh is a great coach, and they’ve got very good talent,” Baldinger said. “So how they bring it together, and how they coach them, and how they figure out ways to win games, that’s the job of the coach and the staff. But they’ve got everything it takes to be one of the seven best teams in the NFC.”Amazon Prime’s Andrew Whitworth didn’t forecast a playoff season for the Giants, but he also didn’t believe that needs to be the barometer for success; he simply wants to see signs of progress.“There are enough questions there that, if I’m a Giants fan, I’m saying, ‘Listen, (our) defense has some really talented young players; we made some investments in our offensive line; we have a quarterback and a tailback now who are going to be healthy, and they gave us some positive play last year, so where can we build off of that?’ Whitworth said. “I mean, I’m a little excited to see where it goes.”Unsurprisingly, Whitworth’s excitement about the Giants’ future stems from his days facing off with Harbaugh’s Ravens. The four-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle spent the first 11 seasons of his career playing for the Ravens’ AFC North rival Cincinnati Bengals, nine of which came against Harbaugh-led teams.“I think even just looking at where they went in the draft, it’s very clear, Harbaugh didn’t lose his way,” said Whitworth, referring to the Giants’ selections of linebacker Arvell Reese at No. 5 overall and offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa at No. 10. “Every year, you knew you were going to play guys that look the part, if anything else. There’s going to be an emphasis (on) the physicality they play with, the way they execute. A special teams coach, and that’s what his background is, like that’s all in the fine details, and that’s what elite special teams are. I would imagine a really physical team that’s not going to beat itself.”Baldinger also highlighted Harbaugh’s special teams background as an asset, saying he expects the group to be “special.” He also noted the emphasis on physicality and wanting to dominate the line of scrimmage, witnessing those things firsthand when he attended the Aug. 20 joint practice between the Giants and Dolphins in Miami.One of the other biggest reasons for optimism about the Giants in 2026 comes with a massive caveat, according to Baldinger and Whitworth. While the Giants’ pass rush will be fearsome, thanks to Brian Burns, Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux, the analysts have significant concerns about how much the Giants’ defense will allow the pass rush to matter. Specifically, they have real concerns about New York’s defensive tackle depth chart, which was already worth questioning even before the team traded Dexter Lawrence.“The truth in the NFL is you got to earn your right to rush the passer, so it’s going to have to be earned by all those skillful rushers on first and second down,” Whitworth said. “How do they play against the run? Their ability to stop the run and play with some physicality, that’s gonna be a big key to the success of this Giants defense.”Why it's refreshing that Harbaugh wants to 'win games' this seasonDan DugganOn the offensive side of the ball, Orlovsky has three elements in particular he’ll be looking at when defining what a successful Giants season looks like. The first is whether the offensive line, consisting of four returners (left tackle Andrew Thomas, left guard Jon Runyan Jr., center John Michael Schmitz and right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor) and one rookie right guard, Mauigoa, can be the five of the future? He believes the unit has the makings of the best one the Giants have fielded in the last 10 years.The next piece for Orlovsky is quarterback Jaxson Dart taking tangible steps forward in his second season in the league. For Orlovsky, that starts with cleaning up his footwork. Finally, Orlovsky also wants to see a better understanding of situational risk — with the football and when it comes to Dart’s sometimes unchecked aggression in the run game. As a rookie, Dart faced a lot of criticism for his tendency to take big hits as a runner. That’s been a major point of emphasis under the new coaching staff.Unsurprisingly, Baldinger wants to see growth in that area, too.“He’s got a better offensive line that he should trust to be able to stand back there and make his reads,” Baldinger said. “I don’t think he has to do as much as he did last year. I don’t think he should run as much as he did. He’s a good runner, so I don’t want to say he shouldn’t run. He can do that. I think he’s got to be more disciplined. We saw this in Year 2 from (Bears quarterback) Caleb Williams. He should be able to stand back there, five yards behind the center, seven yards behind the center, and go through whatever progressions there are to get it to an open receiver. I want to see that on a more consistent basis from him.“I want to see him play the game with no fear, but with less running and less frenetic scrambling than he demonstrated a year ago.”If Dart can take the steps forward Orlovsky and Baldinger outlined, there is reason for Giants fans to dream about a return to the postseason — or at least, as Orlovsky said, playing meaningful football in December. It’s been a few years since Giants fans have had the pleasure of watching games that late into the season without thinking primarily about NFL Draft ramifications.Perhaps this will be the year that changes. Tomlin certainly seems to think it will be.“I think the Giants are a really good organization,” Tomlin said. “They’ve had bad teams, but I think it’s a good organization. And I think that the fix there is going to be quicker than maybe outsiders might realize.”