After laying out the basic reasoning for releasing receiver Odell Beckham Jr., Giants coach John Harbaugh got a little testy when he was pressed on the question of whether Beckham’s fame contributed to the decision.
“It’s what’s best for the team,” Harbaugh said. “That’s it. And if you think it’s anything else, then you don’t know me and you don’t know what we’re doing here. . . . I’m not hiding anything. It’s not Watergate.”
Beckham apparently has a different viewpoint. He has posted multiple comments on Instagram about the situation. He said, among other things, that he doesn’t know why the Giants “gave me the run along” and he could’ve “been playing this year somewhere and making [an] impact.”
He also acknowledged that he should’ve known better than to join the Giants.
Beckham is now free to attempt to make an impact with another team in 2026. But he would be coming in cold, with no offseason, training camp, or preseason work. At best, he’ll get a spot on a practice squad and a chance to prove that he can eventually contribute to the cause.
For the Giants and Beckham, it was a good story until the Giants realized they needed the roster spot for a player who can contribute on special teams. He barely made the 53-man roster in August; if Calvin Austin III hadn’t suffered a torn ACL, Beckham may have been cut.
Either way, the other 31 teams have a chance to consider whether to bring him to town.
Giants Clips
Cornerback Joey Porter Jr. will make his first appearance of the 2026 season on Sunday.
Porter is active for the Cowboys less than a week after joining the team in a trade with the Steelers. Porter was listed with a back injury while in Pittsburgh, but his contract impasse with the team was seen as the true reason for his inactivity and Porter was not on the injury report for the Cowboys.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that Porter is expected to play a limited number of snaps against the Texans in his Cowboys debut, but his presence should be welcomed for a defense that has struggled to find consistency over the first month of the season.
Cowboys at Texans
Cowboys: LB DeMarvion Overshown, CB Cobie Durant, CB Caelen Carson, RB Emari Demercado, LB James Houston, OL Ajani Cornelius, WR Camden Brown
Texans: LB Azeez Al-Shaair, DE Chris Braswell, OL Febechi Nwaiwu, OT Nate Thomas, TE Marlin Klein
Titans at Ravens
Titans: RB Michael Carter, CB Jaylon Jones, G Drew Moss, OT Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson, TE Kylen Granson, DT Jackie Marshall
Ravens: QB Joe Fagnano, LB Trey Hendrickson, WR Chris Moore, DT Aeneas Peebles
Patriots at Bills
Patriots: OT Dametrious Crownover, TE Tanner Arkin, QB Behren Morton, CB Christian Gonzalez, DT Christian Barmore, CB Channing Canada
Bills: WR Skyler Bell, S Jalon Kilgore, CB Christian Benford, LB Mike Danna, G Ar’maj Reed-Adams, OT Jude Bowry, DL T.J. Sanders
Jets at Bears
Jets: WR Adonai Mitchell, RB Breece Hall, CB Nahshon Wright, LB Kiko Mauigoa, LB Kinglsey Enagbare, G Dylan Parham, TE Mason Taylor
Bears: QB Caleb Williams, OL Ozzy Trapilo, CB Cam Lewis, DL Jaydon Loving, DL James Lynch, DL Jamree Kromah
Jaguars at Bengals
Jaguars: CB Montaric Brown, WR C.J. Williams, CB Christian Braswell, S Jalen Huskey, LB Jack Kiser, OL Daniel Faalele, DE Wesley Williams
Bengals: S Bryan Cook, S Kyle Dugger, LB Swayze Bozeman, OL Myles Hinton, WR Colbie Young, DT B.J. Hill, DT Landon Robinson
Cardinals at Giants
Cardinals: QB Carson Beck, CB Starling Thomas, S Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, LB Cameron Robertson, OL Josh Fryar, WR Reggie Virgil
Giants: S Ar’Darius Washington, RB Devin Singletary, CB Nikko Reed, LB Jihad Ward, OL J.C. Davis, TE Thomas Fidone, DL Bobby Jamison-Travis
Rams at Eagles
Rams: WR C.J. Daniels, QB Ty Simpson, CB Cam Lampkin, CB Jaylen Watson, OL Bill Murray, TE Colby Parkinson, DT Aaron Donald
Eagles: WR Hollywood Brown, WR DeVonta Smith, QB Cole Payton, S Marcus Epps, LB Zack Baun, OT Lane Johnson, OL Fred Johnson, TE Dallas Goedert
Packers at Buccaneers
Packers: OL Jacob Monk, G Kevin Zeitler, G Aaron Banks, DT Anthony Campbell
Buccaneers: LB Rueben Bain, QB Baker Mayfield, DB Benjamin Morrison, TE Ko Kieft, OL Luke Haggard, OL Billy Schrauth, DL DeMonte Capehart
On the surface, Sunday’s game between the Cardinals and the Giants brings little if any sizzle to the NFL menu. But there’s a surprising amount of history embedded in the series.
Via NBC Sports research, the two teams first met 100 years ago next month, on November 7, 1926. Today’s game will be the 130th time they’ve squared off.
From 1950 through 2001 (with the exception of 1968 and 1982), they played twice per year. Even after the Cardinals moved to Arizona, they remained in the NFC East for more than a decade.
Since the realignment of the divisions in 2002, they’ve played 11 times. Most recently, they met in 2023. The Giants won that one, 31-28; the Cardinals had won four in a row before that.
A win for the Giants would give them a 3-0 record at home for the first time since 2008. A win for the Cardinals would end a 16-game losing streak against teams that entered the contest with a losing record.
Of the eight games in the 1:00 p.m. ET window, it still doesn’t generate a ton of excitement. But at least we tried.
The NFL’s announcement of fines for Week 3 featured six infractions for player safety fouls that qualify toward possible suspensions.
Two of those fouls were hip-drop tackles. 49ers linebacker Fred Warner and Rams safety Kam Curl were each fined $17,911. Warner was also fined $23,882 for illegal use of his helmet in a tackle.
Texans linebacker Jamal Hill, Giants tight end Isaiah Likely, and Steelers linebacker Cole Holcomb were each fined for blindside blocks. Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was fined for a hit on a defenseless player.
Any player with three fines for any one of those infractions will be suspended for one game. The same potential penalty applies to fouls for launching or horse-collar tackles. No player has been fined more than once for any of the qualifying infractions yet this season.
It’s the year of the backup quarterback, so far.
Through three weeks, six quarterbacks who didn’t start in Week 1 have since started six games. They’re collectively 6-0.
Vikings quarterback Carson Wentz started and won at Chicago in Week 2. Seahawks quarterback Drew Lock started and won at Arizona in Week 2. Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. started and won at Green Bay in Week 3. Giants quarterback Jameis Winston started and won vs. the Titans in Week 3. Washington quarterback Marcus Mariota started and won vs. the Seahawks in Week 6. And Bears quarterback Case Keenum started and won vs. the Eagles in Week 3.
In Week 4, two more quarterbacks who didn’t start in Week 1 are expected to start their first games of the season: Bears quarterback Tyson Bagent vs. the Jets and Buccaneers quarterback Jalon Daniels vs. the Packers.
The situation shows the importance of having two, if not three, quarterbacks who can be counted on to play, and play well. A game here or a game there in the absence of the starting quarterback could eventually make the difference between making the playoffs or missing the bus.
The Cardinals listed a key member of their defense as questionable to play in this Sunday’s game against the Giants.
Linebacker Josh Sweat landed in that category after a limited practice on Friday. Sweat was listed as limited on Thursday for a rest day, but the Cardinals added a groin injury to the report on Friday.
Sweat has three tackles and a tackle for loss so far this season. Baron Browning, Zaven Collins, Jordan Burch, and Eku Leota are the other outside linebackers on the 53-man roster in Arizona.
Safety Dadrion Taylor-Demerson has been ruled out for this weekend. Taylor-Demerson is dealing with a back injury.
The Giants have not said whether J.J. McCarthy will be Jameis Winston’s backup for this Sunday’s game against the Cardinals, but there’s a good chance that the 2024 first-round pick will get a chance to play quarterback for the team at some point in the near future.
McCarthy was acquired in a trade with the Vikings earlier this week as the Giants work out a plan to move forward without Jaxson Dart for the rest of the season. McCarthy said on Friday that there are “a multitude of things you could think of” to explain why his time in Minnesota did not go as planned, but that the only thing that’s important now is making the most of his current situation.
“When I got the call here, it was a shock. I didn’t anticipate it, but at the end of the day, it’s an opportunity,” McCarthy said, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com. “It’s an opportunity to take advantage of. And I love these guys already and I can’t wait to do it for them.”
It remains to be seen whether McCarthy’s results will be markedly different than his time with the Vikings, but things had clearly soured in Minnesota and his best chance to find a long-term role as a starter in the NFL was going to come with a different team. The Giants may not be that team once Dart is able to play again, but a good showing will open a door for McCarthy somewhere in 2027 and beyond.
Nick Saban’s two-year stint as an NFL head coach began in 2005. It could have started eight years earlier.
In a Thursday interview with Chris “Mad Dog” Russo of SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio, Saban admitted — eventually — that the Giants had offered him the head-coaching job after the Giants fired Dan Reeves, when Saban was the head coach at Michigan State.
“It’s very difficult in college, you know, and the NFL, you have an opportunity to go to the NFL, you’re still coaching, you’re still recruiting,” Saban said. “If you stay in college, you don’t want it to upset your coaching and recruiting and all that. So you don’t wanna say that I’m gonna go interview for the Giants job. So [G.M.] George [Young] and I worked out a deal. He said, ‘Well, where do you think we can meet and nobody would know it?’ And I said, ‘The least obvious place you would ever think. Just come to my house in East Lansing and nobody will ever know it.’ That’s what he did.”
In other words, Saban (like plenty of other college coaches over the years) had made various promises that he didn’t want anyone to know he was thinking about breaking, until the moment he decided to do so.
So did the Giants offer him the job in 1997?
“You know, I can’t really remember what we talked about and how we ended up there, but I think Ernie [Accorsi] was assistant general manager then,” Saban said. “And I love Ernie. He was at the Browns when I was there with Belichick. Yeah, they did offer me the job actually.”
Saban obviously didn’t take it. The Giants hired Jim Fassel, who took them to the Super Bowl in 2000.
It’s unclear whether the Giants made another run at Saban after Fassel was fired, after the 2003 season. A year later, Saban took the Dolphins job.
If he’d jumped to the NFL in 1997, Saban would have faced the same issues he did in Miami. The salary cap is the great equalizer, and there’s no way to recruit an annual flock of players who are the equivalent of NFL first-round picks. Saban learned that, at the college level, it’s a lot easier to stack the deck in his favor.
Jameis Winston will be starting at quarterback for the Giants against the Cardinals on Sunday, but the team’s move to add J.J. McCarthy in a trade this week has led to questions about how long he’ll remain in that role.
Winston struggled when he came in after Jaxson Dart’s injury in Week 2, but avoided turnovers while going 14-of-22 for 118 yards in the Giants’ 12-7 win over the Titans last Sunday. In his weekly press conference, Winston said he doesn’t feel any more challenged to play well because of McCarthy’s arrival.
“I mean, I have to play well regardless,” Winston said, via a transcript from the team. “It doesn’t matter who’s in the building. When you’re the quarterback for the New York Football Giants, you have to give your team a chance to win, and that’s just the business that we’re in.”
The Giants were clear about their intent to add to their quarterback options after Dart was ruled out for the rest of the season, so Winston knew something was coming before the McCarthy news came early in the week and he’s also been in the league long enough to know that job security is often determined on a week-to-week basis.
The Giants have made a move to add depth at outside linebacker in the wake of Brian Burns’s season-ending knee injury.
Jihad Ward was on the practice field Thursday, which confirms multiple reports that the Giants were signing him off of the Vikings’ practice squad. Ward signed with the Vikings in early September and did not appear in any games for the team.
It’s Ward’s second stint with the Giants and his second stint playing for John Harbaugh. He had four sacks in 21 games for the Ravens in 2019 and 2020 before moving on to have eight sacks in 34 games for the Giants in 2022 and 2023.
Ward has also played for the Titans, Jaguars, Colts and Raiders, who brought him into the league as a 2016 second-round pick.
