Week 7 of the 2026 NFL season is upon us and now the New York Giants continue their season on the road in Houston against the Texans.
After a slow 0-4 start to the season, over the past few weeks, Houston has been able to stack up some wins against the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars. Going into Week 7, the Texans will try to win their third consecutive game to continue their hot streak.
Texans’ quarterback CJ Stroud has had an unbelievable start to the season despite the up and down year from the team. This season, Stroud ranks third in passing yards behind the Rams’ Matthew Stafford and Patriots’ Drake Maye with 1,714 yards. Stroud has nine touchdowns and has only had one interception so far through six weeks. He has completed 65.3% of his passes as he looks like one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL after his struggles this past postseason.
Houston has the fifth ranked passing offense this year as they have been able to have big scoring outputs against teams. Stroud has a number of options at his disposal from wide-receiver Nico Collins to tight-end Dalton Schultz, and wide-receiver Jaylin Noel. As the offense is hitting its stride, the Texans have also been headlined for a few moves and players coming back from injuries that can help Houston even more.
During Week 5 of the NFL season, the Texans traded a 2027 second-round and sixth-round draft pick to the Arizona Cardinals for wide-receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and a 2027 seventh-round draft pick. Harrison Jr. was the fourth overall pick from the 2024 NFL Draft as he has spent two years with the Cardinals and had an up and down career. In 33 games with the Cardinals, Harrison Jr. had 1,578 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns. With a change of scenery, Harrison Jr. gets to move on and have the opportunity to reunite with his College quarterback CJ Stroud. At Ohio State, the duo played two seasons together in 2021 and 2022. Now Stroud and the Texans will have the chance to utilize Harrison Jr. in their offense after the Cardinals and the receiver couldn’t see eye to eye.
The Texans also announced this Sunday, wide-receiver Tank Dell will return for the first time since December 21, 2024. Dell suffered significant damage to his knee a few seasons ago with dislocating his kneecap and having multiple torn ligaments. In his first two seasons, he was a big time receiver and one of Stroud’s reliable go to options. In Dell’s 2023 rookie season, he had 709 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. In year tw0, Dell had 667 receiving yards and three touchdowns. The Texans and the NFL world will monitor the wide-receiver come this Sunday as Houston has another weapon to go to in this stacked offense.
For the Giants, they also made some headlines during the week as the team announced that J.J. McCarthy will be their starting quarterback against Houston. This past week, when New York trailed 34-10 against the New Orleans Saints at home, head coach John Harbaugh benched Jameis Winston for McCarthy. In just the fourth quarter alone, McCarthy was able to spark a comeback to bring it to a 34-27 game. The quarterback passed for 243 yards before falling short on the team’s last drive which could’ve gone to overtime.
The Giants still remain first place in an NFC East division where no team has won a game in two consecutive weeks. The team felt like they needed a change as they experiment mid-season at quarterback after Jaxson Dart’s season-ending injury. In four starts, Winston had a 2-1-1 record with seven touchdown passes but five interceptions. Throughout his NFL career, Winston has had his highs and his lows in this league. After trading for McCarthy from the Minnesota Vikings earlier in the season, the team gets to experiment with the former 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Similar to Winston, McCarthy has had his highs and lows in his young career as the Vikings decided to move on from the quarterback.
McCarthy brings a competitive and fiery edge as a player that can help this Giants offense. He has had moments in his career being able to throw the ball down the field to his targets. While he has had issues with his footwork and occasional turnovers, New York has got to see what they have in the young quarterback especially after almost coming back late last week.
If Houston wants to continue their win streak, not only do they need their passing game to continue to show up but they need some type of production from their struggling running back room. The Texans haven’t been able to run the ball at a good enough clip this season and the team’s defense hasn’t held up their end of the bargain as well. Houston has been in a lot of battles this season with giving up high scoring outputs against opponents. Despite being ranked middle of the pack on defense this season, the Texans under coach DeMeco Ryans haven’t looked like the top defensive team they’ve been the past few seasons.
For New York, the team has to make McCarthy’s life easy to manage. Starting on offense with the running game, the team needs someone to step up and take over as no one has quite done so. Running back Cam Skattebo was benched against the Saints after fumbling in overtime against the Washington Commanders in Week 5. Aside, from the run game, McCarthy has plenty of options to throw the ball to on offense. From wide-receiver Malik Nabers to tight-end Isaiah Likely. In Nabers’ last three games, he has had 100+ receiving yards and two touchdowns as he has made his mark for the Giants. In Likely’s last two games, he has caught three touchdowns of his own as he has been another reliable target on offense.
Similar to the Texans, the young talented Giant’s defense has been middle of the pack this season as well. The team has been great all year long at forcing takeaways with six interceptions and three fumbles recovered. However, New York has given up high scoring outputs as they haven’t been able to rush the quarterback and stop the run.
With Week 7 approaching, will the Giants get their fourth win of the season or will the Texans win their third consecutive game to improve to 3-4?
