Adam Schefter dropped the news that the Giants are signing linebacker Chandler Martin to a one-year deal, and the real story here isn't the position battle at linebacker — it's the guy on the other sideline calling the shots. Martin spent last season with the Ravens under John Harbaugh, and now that Harbaugh runs the Giants, the roster-building has a familiar theme: bring in the guys who already know the system.
Giants are signing LB Chandler Martin to one-year deal. Martin was with Ravens and John Harbaugh last year. Martin is coming off ACL surgery and now cleared.
Martin's path to this point has been rocky. He went undrafted out of Memphis, where he put up 206 tackles and 10 sacks across 2 All-AAC seasons after starting his career at East Tennessee State. He made the Ravens roster as a UDFA and carved out a role exclusively on special teams — the kind of grinder job that keeps a career alive in the NFL.
That role ended abruptly. Martin tore his ACL during the 2025 season after appearing in just 3 games, and the injury wiped out the rest of his year in Baltimore. He signed with the Eagles this offseason trying to rebuild, but Philadelphia waived him before training camp and officially released him on June 10 without ever playing a snap for them.
So Martin hit free agency again, this time with a cleared knee and no team. Enter Harbaugh, who left Baltimore for the Giants job earlier this year and now has the chance to bring in a player he already trusts on special teams — someone who doesn't need a crash course in what the coaching staff expects.
None of this is a splashy addition, and it's not supposed to be. It's the low-cost, low-risk kind of signing that new regimes make constantly: reunite with a guy who knows your system, see if the knee holds up in camp, and let him fight for a special teams job. If Martin looks anything like the player who made Baltimore's roster as an undrafted free agent, this is exactly the kind of depth move that quietly pays off in December.