The New York Giants are staring down one of the more uncomfortable roster realities of the 2026 offseason. Wan’Dale Robinson just had the best season of his career — 92 receptions, 1,014 yards, four touchdowns — and is about to get paid accordingly.
His contract could fly north of $17 million per year, with Pro Football Focus projecting a three-year, $63 million deal ($21M AAV) and Spotrac valuing him at $70.5 million over four years. The Giants, currently sitting at roughly $6.9 million in cap space, have to make some brutal decisions.
And if Robinson walks, the wide receiver room doesn’t just get thin. It gets skeletal.
The Robinson Departure Is a Real Possibility
It’s going to be difficult for the Giants to keep Wan’Dale Robinson at his market rate without seriously compromising the rest of this roster build. They have Darius Slayton locked in at $12 million per season with no out until next offseason.
Malik Nabers is coming off an ACL tear, and his mega-extension looms in the next year or two. Adding Robinson at $17-21 million per year could become a cap management nightmare.
Robinson could walk. And the Giants need a backup plan.
Enter Hollywood Brown — The Perfect Scheme Fit?
Marquise “Hollywood” Brown is entering free agency after two one-year deals with the Kansas City Chiefs — the second of which ended with 49 catches for 587 yards and five touchdowns. Not flashy. Not elite. But functional, proven, and experienced.
Spotrac projects his next contract at roughly $5.5 million annually. This is a receiver who’d cost roughly one-third of what Robinson would command.
That price tag matters enormously for a team in the Giants’ cap situation. But the value case isn’t just about dollars.
Two Coaches, One Roster Move That Makes Complete Sense
The familiarity angle is underrated. Brown spent the 2024 and 2025 seasons under Matt Nagy in Kansas City — the same Matt Nagy who is now the Giants’ offensive coordinator. Nagy knows exactly what Brown does well, what his limitations are, and how to deploy him in an offense built around pre-snap motion and quick reads. There’s no learning curve. No installation period. Brown walks in on Day 1 already understanding the terminology, the concepts, the timing.
But it gets better. John Harbaugh originally coached Brown in Baltimore, where the receiver posted his lone 1,000-yard season in 2021 — 91 catches, 1,008 yards, six touchdowns. Harbaugh knows Brown’s character, his work ethic, and his ceiling.
What Brown Actually Brings to This Offense
Brown is not going to replicate Robinson’s 92-catch, 1,014-yard output. His 1.49 yards per route run last season was his highest mark since 2022, but it hasn’t cracked 1.60 since his Baltimore days. He’s a role player, not a WR1.
But here’s the counter-intuitive part: in the context of the Giants’ 2026 receiving room, Brown doesn’t need to be WR1. Malik Nabers, when healthy, handles that. Brown’s job would be to serve as a reliable third option, a speed threat on the outside, and a safety valve for Jaxson Dart when the defense takes away the primary read. With 16 career receptions of 40-plus yards, Brown still has legitimate home-run hitting ability — the kind of downfield threat that forces safeties to respect the deep ball and opens up the intermediate routes that Dart executed so well in his rookie season.
At $5-6 million AAV, that skillset is a bargain.
The Giants Have No Margin for Error at Receiver
The Giants can’t approach 2026 with a receiving corps of Nabers (recovering from ACL), Slayton (good-not-great at $12M), and a collection of depth pieces. If they let Robinson go without adding a credible veteran replacement, they’re asking Dart to carry too much of the load against defenses that will key on Nabers every single snap. That’s a recipe for regression in Year 2.
Brown doesn’t solve the room. But he stabilizes it. And at $5-6 million on a one-year prove-it deal, he gives the Giants flexibility to address bigger needs — offensive line, cornerback — with whatever cap space they carve out. The Giants shouldn’t be signing Brown as their long-term answer.
They should be signing him as a bridge: a veteran who knows the system, elevates the room’s experience level, and gives Dart a trustworthy option while the front office builds through the draft.
The Bottom Line
The smart money says Wan’Dale Robinson’s next contract takes him out of Big Blue. When that happens, the Giants can panic-bid on a name they can’t afford, or they can make a calm, intelligent decision that fits the budget and the scheme. Hollywood Brown is that decision. Cheap, familiar, and connected to both coaches running this offense — there’s no more natural fit in this free agency class for what the Giants actually need.
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