NFL predictions: BBV staff weighs in on Giants-Cardinals matchup

Can the New York Giants make the first quarter of their 2026 season a truly good one by defeating the Arizona Cardinals to improve their record to 3-1? Here is how the Big Blue View staff sees that game, and the rest of the NFL Week 4 slate.

I think this game is going to be extremely telling as to who the 2026 Giants are. This will be offense's first game with Jameis Winston going through a normal week of practice and preparation.

That'll eliminate the excuses we've heard regarding the game plan against the Rams, as well as the short week and elements last week. Will the Giants trust Winston to throw the ball? And how will he execute if they do? Excuses aside, Winston hasn't looked good since Dart went down. The Giants will need him to step up if Arizona focuses on shutting down the Giants' run game.

On the defensive side of the ball, we'll get to see how the Giants adapt to losing their best player in Brian Burns . The Cardinals put up points against the 49ers, but was that just divisional weirdness? They only scored once against the Seahawks the week before.

I'm going to pick the Giants here, and I'm doing so because of one thing that stood out from Sunday: Multiple veterans of the 2025 Giants all saying some variation of "We don't win this game last year."

Sometimes winning isn't pretty. Sometimes it really is just surviving and making one fewer mistake than the other guy. And understanding that they can claw their way through adversity and not collapse could be bigger than we realize for this team. I still think the Giants still have the pieces in place to be the same team we saw against Dallas — assuming Jameis Winston can step up. It might not be pretty, and special teams may be the difference in the game, but I think the Giants do enough to win and keep moving forward.

To me these are two evenly matched teams. I wouldn't have said that after Game 1, but the Jaxson Dart and Brian Burns injuries lower the Giants' level of play on both sides of the ball. The forecast for Sunday is cloudy with a chance of showers. Assuming we don't get anything like the rain and winds of last weekend, my guess would be a high-scoring game. The Cards' defensive line is about as good as Tennessee 's, with Zaven Collins playing great outside and Roy Lopez solid in the middle, but like the Giants, they don't get much pass rush overall and can be run on. The secondary is nothing special either; their best-known player, Budda Baker , is not what he used to be.

The bigger problem is the Cards' offense. Jacoby Brissett is a seen by many as a quality backup-caliber QB, but he has been the starter at least part of the time for five different seasons. Last year he passed for over 3,000 yards and 23 TDs. His favorite target is All-Pro tight end Trey McBride , who has had 1,000 receiving yards two years in a row, and we know the Giants never shut down good tight ends. Brissett can also go to WR Michael Wilson , who also broke 1,000 yards last season. With Brian Burns out, unless Dennard Wilson finds a way to get his rushers to the QB, the Cards can put up a lot of points – they've broken 30 twice, against the good defenses of the Chargers and 49ers. Rookie RB Jeremiah Love had his best game so far last week with 90 yards, more than half after contact.

That said, the Giants can move the ball and put points up themselves if we get good Jameis rather than bad Jameis this week and if the rain holds off. Cam Skattebo should find room to run and the Giants' receivers should get open enough for them to sustain drives. I can even imagine this being a breakout week for Malik Nabers in which he starts to resemble the force of nature that he was in his rookie year.

Overall, I see the Cards having more firepower and coming out on top, say 31-27 if the rain is not a factor.

We are about to learn A LOT about this 2-1 Giants' team. The Cardinals have been respectable through two weeks and sit at 1-2. They've run an efficient quick game, earning them the seventh-highest EPA while running the fifth-most short passes. Brissett has been pressured the sixth most in the league, but the Giants generate the LEAST amount of pressure in the league. Arizona is going to throw quickly to mitigate Abdul Carter and the Giants' pass rush, which is now significantly worse without Brian Burns. We'll see new looks from Dennard Wilson's defense with the addition of Jihad Ward , but the Giants' cornerbacks MUST make plays on the football, and the defense, overall, must rally and tackle to prevent yards after the catch.

The Giants' offense has struggled to create explosive plays, and the Cardinals' defense has struggled to stop them. Arizona's defense hasn't blitz much ( 27th in blitz rate ), nor do they get much pressure ( 25th in pressure rate ), but Jameis Winston has a tendency to hold onto the football. The Giants are going to use heavier personnel, putting Arizona in a spot to use their BASE defense, which currently ranks 27th in EPA. I expect the Giants to lean on their rushing attack and attempt to run out of 11 personnel, where Arizona will match with nickel ( 27th in EPA in nickel defense ).

The Giants will work the play-action and attempt to get Malik Nabers going when they do throw the football, but expect a conservative approach, again, and one that embodies what we've discussed since John Harbaugh took the job — physical, heavy personnel, control the clock, and don't turn the football over. Winston must be cautious with the football. Again, I can see this going in many different ways, but I'll project a low-scoring victory for the Giants, but we'll see improvement in the red zone, and the Giants score two touchdowns.

Before the season started, Arizona at home in Week 4 looked like one of the safer "wins" on the schedule for Big Blue. Well, guess what? The Cardinals are favored by 2 1/2 points on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. That's how fast things can change in the NFL.

The Giants narrowly escaped with a win over the Titans in the wind and rain last week, and this week's injury loss for the season is another very costly one: Edge Brian Burns. New York must again regroup in the face of adversity.

The 1-2 Cardinals were supposed to be among the very worst teams in the league this season, but so far, they've been pretty frisky, and competitive despite a really tough schedule to open the season (@LAC, SEA, @SF). They've got weapons on offense that could give the depleted Giants' defense some real problems – Trey McBride is an elite talent at tight end, rookie RB Jeremiyah Love is dangerously explosive and saw his role expand last week, and WR Michael Wilson came out of nowhere last season and is a very capable receiver. Jacoby Brissett isn't afraid to chuck the ball all over the field.

I really want to take the Giants to win and get to 3-1 on Sunday, but I'm having trouble convincing myself that it's the smart pick. I'm willing to chalk up a lot of the offensive malaise in Jameis Winston's first two starts to the circumstances of the first one and the weather in the second one. Still, I think the Cardinals are going to give New York problems on both sides of the ball, and walk out of MetLife with the win.

The first four games of the modern NFL season is in many ways an extension of training camp. You find out what your team does well and what their issues are that need to be introduced. For the Giants going into their last game of the first quarter of the season, they are actually more unsettled then when the season started due to the losses of their two most important players on the team in consecutive weeks— first Jaxson Dart, then Brian Burns.

What the Giants do best on either side of the ball is it. And with the lackluster performance of Jameis Winston necessitating the trade of J.J. McCarthy , that will be leaned on more for the rest of the season. The face an opponent in the Arizona Cardinals whose rushing defense ranks 26th in the NFL early in the 2026 season, allowing an average of 127.7 rushing yards per game. On offense, they rank 23rd in the NFL but have weapons at running back with Jeremiyah Love, tight end Trey McBride and wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr.

With rain in the forecast again for gameday, the game will be a replay of last week's win over the Titans. The difference is that Arizona has a proven quarterback in Jacoby Brissett that knows how to win these type of games.

There are two things I can't believe about the Giants after three games. One is that Jameis Winston will continue to put up such woeful numbers. The other is that the Giants' pass rush will continue to be unable to get into the same area code as the opposing quarterback.

Losing Jaxson Dart and Brian Burns in back-to-back weeks is a lot to withstand. There can't be any denying that.

Maybe I am looking at this through blue-colored glasses, but this game could feature big performances by both Winston and the Giants' pass rush. The Giants end up with a feel-good start to their season.

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