Giants training camp 2026 with new coach John Harbaugh

Reps on reps on reps

John Harbaugh's practices are notorious for being grueling and tough. The Giants got their first taste of that running a lot of reps Wednesday at their first practice.

For Harbaugh, the grind is about being ready for Sept. 13 when the team opens the season. So even this early, he's evaluating how the Giants look even while practicing without pads.

"We're chasing execution," Harbaugh said. "We're at the stage now we're getting ready for the games. I mean, that's that's what practice is for...We're here to prepare for the games that we're going to play. The plays we call, how we practice, all those things. We're not just running plays out here to run plays . . . that's why we want to keep our plays to ourselves. So that's what we're evaluating, to execute."

The Giants have three more days of practice before a day off Sunday, then they have six straight days of practice at The Greenbrier before flying back to East Rutherford. It's a lot, but remember: the Giants have started flat in their last three season openers. They lost all three without scoring a touchdown.

If revving the engine up early on can change that, then it's all good (as long as it doesn't lead to any injuries). But Harbaugh has support from his players, including All-Pro linebacker Brian Burns. He appreciates Harbaugh expecting players to be prepared, be on time and come ready to work without excuses.

As for Harbaugh's rep for tough practices? Burns welcomed it

"Camp's supposed to be hard. That's how it's supposed to be," Burns said. "We're definitely going to work and I'm looking forward to it."

A Nabers sighting!

Malik Nabers is back — on the practice field, at least.

The Giants' star receiver mainly did individual, non-contact drills with the receivers on the first day of training camp as he recovers from a torn ACL and meniscus. He didn't do team drills, but he watched off to the side before heading into the locker room 50 minutes into practice. That was part of the Giants' plan to see how things progress day to day. 

Still, his presence was a welcome sight.

“There's an aura that he has on the field that's exhilarating," quarterback Jaxson Dart said of Nabers. "It makes me happy, it makes everybody happy.”

Head coach John Harbaugh made it clear that the Giants aren't rushing their star receiver back.

"You take it one day at a time. Meet the circumstances where we find them every single day," Harbaugh said. "Maybe he'll get way ahead, maybe it won't. You can't really put a timetable on it exactly, I don't think. I think you just see where it goes because we want him to be at his best. So when he's ready to be at his best, he'll be at his best."

Harbaugh said it'll be a while before Nabers is scheduled to participate in a full practice. The Giants have plans for him each day, but things can change based on how he feels. But Harbaugh commended Nabers for the work he's done so far, and it's just a matter of seeing slow and steady progress here on out.

Watch: Joe Schoen speaks before practice

Giants GM Joe Schoen addressed the media before the team took the field for the first time at training camp. Some of the highlights:

Malik Nabers will do some work at practice, but there's still no timetable for his recovery. The Giants have a plan, but they'll listen to his body.

Cam Skattebo is "good to go" from his ankle rehab and will do everything. Schoen also shared his reaction to Skattebo's botched backflip heard around the world at Fanatics Fest.

And here's Schoen on Dart and Year 2 expectations:

A view from the Greenbrier

We've arrived at The Greenbrier. Practice will start at 1:30 but here's a brief look at the entrance from the media station.

We'll get some field shots later (players were warming up and we can't show that). For now, we're here to get acclimated and wait for Joe Schoen’s presser at 1 p.m.

What to know as players take the field

The Giants start their first training camp practice today here in West Virginia. We'll get our first look at the team since early June and a first look at The Greenbrier, the resort where the Giants will be staying and training.

General manager Joe Schoen will speak at 1 p.m. before practice. John Harbaugh and players will address media afterwards. We may get a better update on Malik Nabers' injury rehab as well as Darius Slayton (sports hernia surgery) and Cam Skattebo (ankle rehab), among others.

In the meantime, here are five players to keep an eye on as the work for the 2026 season begins.

What in the world is the PUP list?

Players put on the active/physically unable to perform list — or PUP — at the start of training camp have football-related injuries, like those on IR, but count against the active 90-man roster.

These players can participate in all team activities other than practice and can be activated at any point during training camp when they are medically cleared. We've already seen several players for both the Giants and Jets who were placed on PUP last week be cleared prior to the teams' first full practices on Wednesday.

A player cannot be placed on the PUP list after he has practiced once or played in a preseason game.

Players on the active/PUP list at the end of the preseason must either be activated to the 53-man roster or moved to the reserve/PUP list during roster cutdowns.

If placed on the reserve/PUP list, a player does not count against the active roster but must miss at least four games.

A rule change this season allows these players to begin a 21-day practice window period after their team’s second regular-season game but he is still unable to join the active roster until after Week 5 of the regular season at the earliest.

How did Harbaugh choose The Greenbrier?

You might be wondering: How did John Harbaugh settle on The Greenbrier as a place to start his first training camp? Besides the fact that the Giants' practice facility is undergoing renovations.

Turns out it's a new experience for Harbaugh, too. He never had a Ravens camp there but he once considered the West Virginia resort. The Saints held training camp there from 2014-16. The Texans and Browns have held camp there before and the Patriots have also used the facilities. The 49ers and Cardinals used it as a temporary practice in between consecutive East Coast games.

So what does The Greenbrier offer? A sports performance center that spans 55,000 square feet and has two grass fields, a FieldTurf field, meeting rooms, a weight room, a hydrotherapy room, locker rooms for players and coaches and more. Not to mention fine dining and comfortable sleeping quarters.

Not bad, right? Here's what Harbaugh told Giants.com about the location.

"I visited The Greenbrier because we were looking at it for the Ravens one year, so I kind of know the layout, but that's the extent of it. It'll be a little cooler. It's 2,000 feet [elevation], which isn't that high, but that'll be a little bit of a good thing for us from a training standpoint. It should be fun."

Happy birthday, Malik Nabers

Today is Malik Nabers’ birthday. It's almost fitting it's the first day of vets reporting to training camp since Nabers’ health looms over everything with the Giants

At 23, Nabers is obviously a piece of the Giants’ future. But after tearing his ACL and meniscus in Week 4 last season, his present is what matters. As in will he be able to practice at some point during camp?

Today is indeed a day to celebrate Nabers. His rookie year was one of the best in team history. His Week 2 performance against the Cowboys last season showed why his ceiling remains high. But his birthday also comes with more patience for Giants fans eager to celebrate this new year with him healthy, whenever he's cleared.

A training camp road less traveled now

The last time the Giants went away for training camp, it was an NFL norm. That was back in 2012, fresh off their last Super Bowl victory, when they bid farewell to the University at Albany where they had spent most of their summers since 1996 (the exception was 2011 they held training camp at their new home facility at the Meadowlands, mainly because the lockout had prevented adequate planning for the preseason).

"I'm thinking, wow, this is an opportunity for a young team with a new staff to spend 10, 12 days together in West Virginia in the hills, you know, and just be about football for 10, 12 days together and eat dinner together and have an off day together, all the things that you kind of do to just bond and get to know each other," Harbaugh said in the spring when the Giants announced they would be going to West Virginia. "If it can help our team become closer, I think that's a good thing... I see all the reasons for getting away from it. It makes a lot of sense. There is something about it that's really a helpful part of it, too. So that's kind of probably why I'm excited about seeing how it goes and trying it."

This year, as they embark to the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, they are something of a football anomaly.

The 2026 Giants are one of just six teams that will hold a significant portion of their training camp away from their regular-season facility. The only others are:

• Bills (St. John Fisher University in Rochester, N.Y.)
• Cowboys (Oxnard, Calif.)
• Colts (Grand Park in Westfield, Ind.)
• Kansas City (Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Mo.)
• Steelers (St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa.).

The Rams will technically be “away” at Loyola Marymount University, but that location is within the Los Angeles city limits so not really on the road.

The 26 teams that are staying home are tied with 2021 and 2025 for the most in any year since 2000, excluding the 2020 pandemic season when all 32 teams held training camps at their own facilities. Covid seemed to be a turning point for training camp because prior to it there was typically a half to a third of the teams that went away for their summer work. Since then there haven’t been more than eight that have done it in any single season.

Per the NFL, here is a look at the number of teams that have stayed at home for training camp each season since 2000:

2000: 10 of 31 (32%)
2001: 9 of 31 (29%)
2002: 10 of 32 (31%)
2003: 14 of 32 (44%)
2004: 15 of 32 (47%)
2005: 17 of 32 (53%)
2006: 15 of 32 (47%)
2007: 16 of 32 (50%)
2008: 15 of 32 (47%)
2009: 17 of 32 (53%)
2010: 17 of 32 (53%)
2011: 19 of 32 (59%)
2012: 19 of 32 (59%)
2013: 20 of 32 (63%)
2014: 20 of 32 (63%)
2015: 21 of 32 (66%)
2016: 20 of 32 (63%)
2017: 21 of 32 (66%)
2018: 21 of 32 (66%)
2019: 22 of 32 (69%)
2020: 32 of 32 (100%)
2021: 26 of 32 (81%)
2022: 25 of 32 (78%)
2023: 25 of 32 (78%)
2024: 24 of 32 (75%)
2025: 26 of 32 (81%)
2026: 26 of 32 (81%)

The Giants' training camp travel history

The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia where the Giants will hold the first stages of their training camp this summer with practices starting on Wednesday, is quite a hike from the team’s headquarters in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It’s about 468 miles away, actually.

But that’s not even the farthest the Giants have ever gone for the annual summer rituals of preparing for the upcoming season. While most of their camps have been in the extended New York City area – that includes upstate at the University of Albany and at the Bear Mountain Inn, various sites in suburban New Jersey and Connecticut, and even two years on Long Island at C.W. Post College in 1970 and 1971 – they have also traveled as far away as Vermont, Ohio, Minnesota and Oregon!

Those trips to the Pacific Northwest took place in 1954, 1955 and 1958, so it’s not as if they were ever traveling on comfy jumbo jets. Those first two were the first two seasons Jim Lee Howell coached the team, taking over from Steve Owen, and the Giants went a combined 13-10-1. In 1958, though, the Giants went 9-3 and lost to the Colts in “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” Add that to the list of ways that NFL title game altered the course of the league. Had the Giants won the championship they might have returned to Oregon the following year to try to replicate their success. Instead, thanks to Alan Ameche’s overtime touchdown plunge, they never returned there again.

Here is a look at where the Giants have held most of their training camp throughout their history, from the inaugural one right in New York City in 1925 to their first real getaway camp in Pennsylvania in 1926 right up to this one in the mountains of West Virginia:

1925: New York City

1926: The Hotel Lake Ariel, Lake Ariel, Penn.

1927-28: New York City

1929: Asbury Park, NJ

1930-31: New York City

1932: Magnetic Springs, Ohio

1933-34: Pompton Lakes, NJ

1935-38: Blue Hills Country Club, Pearl River, NY

1939, 1941-24, 1946-48: UW Superior, Superior, Wisc.

1940: Blue Hills Country Club, Pearl River, NY

1943-45: Bear Mountain Inn, Bear Mountain, NY

1949-51: Saranac High School, Saranac Lake, NY

1952-53: Gustavus-Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minn.

1954-55, 1958: Willamette University, Salem, Oregon

1956-57, 1959-60: St Michael’s College, Winooski, Vermont

1961-69, 1974: Fairfield University, Fairfield, Conn.

1970-71: C.W. Post College, Brookville, NY

1972-73: Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ

1975-87: Pace University, Pleasantville, NY

1988-95: Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ

1996-2010, 2012: University at Albany, Albany, NY

2011, 2013-25: Quest Diagnostics Training Center, East Rutherford, NJ

2026: The Greenbrier Resort, White Sulpher Springs, WV

Get to know the Greenbrier

The Giants are holding the first two weeks of training camp at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, about 468 miles away from their training facility in East Rutherford, N.J. It's the first time the Giants are holding camp away from their training facility since 2012, when they were in Albany.

So what is the Greenbrier? Here's are some fun facts about the Giants' digs for the next two weeks:

Resort details

The Greenbrier has been open since 1778 and is designated as a National Historic Landmark. It's a luxury resort with 710 guest rooms, 20 restaurants and lounges and more than 35 retail shops. As of Monday night, rooms averaged about $553 per night on the resort's website.

A heavy athletic presence

The Giants are the sixth NFL team to hold at least a portion of its training camp at the Greenbrier, following the New Orleans Saints (2014-16), New England Patriots (2017), Houston Texans (2017 and 2025) and Cleveland Browns (2023-25). The San Francisco 49ers also stayed at the Greenbrier in between East Coast games from 2020 to 2022. The Greenbrier has also hosted training camp for the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans in 2015, and the Iraqi men's national soccer team trained there ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

However, the Greenbrier is most famous for its golf. it was the site of the 1979 Ryder Cup — the first under the U.S. vs. Europe format — and the 1994 Solheim Cup. The resort's course was affiliated with the PGA's TPC affiliation from 2011 to 2020, and it hosted an LIV Golf event in 2023. Tom Watson and Lee Trevino are currently the resort's pro emeriti.

'Project Greek Island'

A total of 28 U.S. Presidents have stayed at the Greenbrier. At one point, it was such a popular spot for politicians to stay that in 1958, the U.S. government asked the resort to build an emergency Cold War fallout shelter below the resort that could house the entire U.S. Congress in the event of a nuclear attack. The bunker, codenamed "Project Greek Island," was decommissioned in 1992 after the Washington Post reported on its existence. It's used as a data storage facility today but is open to the public for tours.

(Speaking of nuclear war, fans of the Fallout video game series might recognize the Greenbrier as a key landmark in Fallout 76, the series' online multiplayer entry based in West Virginia. The game's "Whitespring Resort" is directly based on the Greenbrier, complete with the real-life resort's lavish architecture, fancy decor, and yes, the underground bunker. So if you can't attend Giants camp in person, perhaps a virtual, post-apocalyptic tour of their arrangements is in order?)