Tayvon Gray had a direct hand in New York City FC goals in three straight matches to open the 2026 season.
He made the line-breaking pass to Nico Fernández Mercau that led LA Galaxy defender Carlos Emiro Garcés to concede a penalty and earn a second yellow card. The following week, Gray scored the winner in stoppage time in Philadelphia, then on Matchday 3, he assisted on the Keaton Parks goal that made it a 4-0 lead over Orlando in the laugher of a home-opener victory.
Gray did not enter the season as the likeliest source of goal contributions, mainly because of a 2025 season in which he recorded zero goals or zero assists – and the zero assists are inclusive of the generous Major League Soccer system, which rewards players for “secondary” assists when they play the successful pass before the actual assist.
Gray had seven assists and scored once in a 2024 season that was considered his attacking breakout, so it was a legitimate surprise to see the goal contributions dry up entirely last season. Even though they did, Gray still produced a strong all-around season in 2025, his first year playing under Pascal Jansen.
Now, while extremely early in 2026, Gray is showing signs of getting back to his 2024 level of attacking contribution. Through three matches, he’s touching the ball more, his passing has been sharper and more progressive, and he’s continued to make defensive contributions at a high level while part of a backline that’s conceded one goal from open play through 270 minutes of the season.
Under Pascal Jansen, the most notable statistical upticks for Gray have come in his defensive actions, his touch volume, and the number of passes Gray completes into the attacking third of the field.
So far in 2026, Gray has been on the ball more than ever, he’s been completing more passes and with the best accuracy rate of his career, and he’s completing far more of those passes in the opposition’s half of the field.
Passing-game growth
This is a continuation and expansion of how Gray played in 2025, since he’s also already surpassed last season’s total of goals and assists. According to even more data available at American Soccer Analysis, Gray’s rate of expected assists per 96 minutes (xA P96) was very similar between his 2024 and 2025 seasons despite Gray picking up zero assists. To go by ASA‘s goals added (g+) metric that is meant to measure the full scope of a player’s on-ball contributions, Gray’s passing improved in 2025, to coincide with a higher percentage of touches.
While three games is a very limited sample size to definitively say he’s going to continue to have the most touches per-90 of his career, Gray’s passing has still shown steady signs of improvement in 2025 and early this season.
Hudson River Blue asked Jansen about the difference between Gray’s goal contributions from 2024 and 2025 and if he was encouraging Gray to get more involved in his team’s attacking moves in 2026, and Jansen’s answer was in line with what the more advanced statistics show: Gray positively influenced NYCFC’s passing game last season, so the hot start to 2026 is nothing new.
“I see in the chain of passes that Tayvon has been involved quite a bit, also in last season. But if we can get ourselves to the next level and have more contribution from other players throughout the team, to either create the moments to score or score the goals themselves, I’ll be very happy with that, as well,” said Jansen while speaking prior to the 5-0 win over Orlando City SC in which Gray would go on to pick up his first assist since 2024.
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In that Keaton Parks goal, you see a mix of what has made Gray so effective, as well as what has made NYCFC collectively so effective even while playing down their star striker Alonso MartĂnez. Gray reads the above play brilliantly and pounces on the lazy, careless pass attempted out from the Orlando defense into an acre of unoccupied space Gray can run into.
That it’s the sizable midfielder Parks making the final run between the Orlando defenders is its own noteworthy wrinkle unpacked well here by Kevin Nelson of The Outfield, but for this piece’s purpose, Gray’s pinpoint cross is another reminder of what he did much more often two seasons ago. It’s an even better final product than the through-ball Gray executed to Fernández Mercau in Los Angeles on Matchday 1 to draw the penalty that got NYCFC their first point.
The Nico Effect
Speaking of Fernández Mercau, Gray’s passing style changed during the 2025 season, and you can draw a somewhat neat line to mark the change coinciding with the arrival of the club’s new Designated Player from Elche FC.
Once the No 7 was in the lineup and occupying advanced spaces on the right side of NYCFC’s attack, Gray started completing more and more progressive passes. They were not necessarily passes to teammates in the 18-yard box, but instead to the areas on its periphery, where the likes of both Fernández Mercau and AgustĂn Ojeda, a common second-half sub as a right-winger during the latter portions of the 2025 season, prefer to get on the ball and either dribble or play the more dangerous final passes into the box.
2025 pass map, February-July 2025 (pre-Nico)
2025 pass map, August-November (with Nico)
As these charts show, his completion percentage dropped slightly in the later portion of the season (from 83% to 81%), but Gray’s g+ contribution from his passing improved to coincide with a more progressive approach adopted late in the season.
Through just three games in 2026, Gray’s been attempting more direct, centering passes into the most dangerous areas of the opposition’s box, aiming for the likes of Nico and Parks when they’ve made their striker-like runs. Gray and his teammates haven’t had Alonso MartĂnez to rely on, but they’ve still been creating chances in the early going, with the Bronx native playing a major part in what’s gone right through the season’s opening matches.
His involvement in build-up and on the ball may not remain at this level all season, after all, NYCFC has played with a man advantage in every single game so far, and as a side-effect, they’ve enjoyed tons of possession, which might not remain the case when they’re more consistently playing 11v11 as expected.
2026 Pass Map
Peaking in his contract year?
Gray is now the longest-tenured Homegrown on the New York City FC roster. He’s played and earned the role of starter at right-back under three different NYCFC managers, beginning with his debut for Ronny Deila in April 2021, through the Nick Cushing years, and now with Pascal Jansen.
Are we witnessing the start of yet another career-best season for a Homegrown in his final year under contract with New York City FC? Gray, like Justin Haak in 2025, is playing out the last days of his contract before he’s eligible for MLS Free Agency after this season.
Todd Dunivant was asked about Gray’s status and future during a press roundtable held before NYCFC’s home opener, with the new Sporting Director saying, “I think Tayvon’s another guy who’s been part of this club for so long, part of that championship team, and part of the club’s history. He’s an important one, and there’s others that we’re looking to retain, as well,” alluding to the fact that Gray isn’t alone in facing end-of-contract decisions.
Gray has built-in chemistry with the defensive core that’s been consistently in place at NYCFC and appears to be clicking well with the club’s new most dangerous attacking player, Nico Fernández Mercau.
Even while his passing and progressive activity stand out early this season, he’s also among the Top 10 of MLS players in terms of interceptions of the ball, already with six, and continues to disrupt play by winning tackles and duels at a rate similar to what he did during his strong 2025 season. Gray increasingly looks like a two-way threat on the right of the team’s defense, and like one of the players who, in the very early going, is stepping up to offset the absence of Alonso MartĂnez.
Next order of business for Todd Dunivant & Co: Retaining him for 2027 and beyond so the Homegrown player born and raised in New York City is there to open Etihad Park next summer.
