On any given Sunday of NFL games, expect the unexpected.
Week 4 resulted in an unexpected exchange between line judge Jeff Seeman and Cardinals tight end Trey McBride.
It happened after a non-call of pass interference late in the Cardinals-Giants game. It looked like a fairly clear foul. McBride made his case to Seeman. And while the cameras and microphones captured nothing McBride said, a CBS camera on the sidelines showed Seeman apparently saying to McBride, “Fuck you.” Twice.
NFL Players Association executive director JC Tretter issued a statement calling Seeman’s behavior “unacceptable” and expressing hope that the league will hold the officials to the same standard that is applied to the players.
Via Sam Neumann of Awful Announcing, CBS reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala witnessed the interaction. She heard no profanity from McBride.
“I was standing right there,” Kinkhabwala said on Twitter. “What’s wild is that it all started with Trey McBride saying ‘please’ when pleading his case for a PI flag. He was heated for sure, but I never heard a curse from him. The harshest he got was, ‘You’re ruining the game.’”
It was a bad call, to be sure. The latest in a recent epidemic of erroneous calls and non-calls of pass interference. The point is that, as players, coaches, and officials interact after such decisions are made, certain lines shouldn’t be crossed.
If McBride had said to Seeman what Seeman apparently said to McBride, there surely would have been consequences. During the Fail Mary misadventure of 2012, the NFL issued multiple fines to coaches for their conduct toward replacement officials.
The league has said it will review the situation. There’s not much that needs to be reviewed, however. The eye in the sky doesn’t lie, and it doesn’t take extensive lip-reading skills to understand what Seeman said to McBride.
Giants Clips
If Jayden Daniels is not ready to play in Week 5, rookie Athan Kaliakmanis may get more playing time.
According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, quarterback Marcus Mariota suffered an MCL sprain during Sunday’s loss to the Colts.
Mariota previously suffered an MCL sprain during the preseason.
Mariota went down during the first quarter of Sunday’s game in London and was not able to return. That came after Mariota was able to beat the defending-champion Seahawks in Week 3. In his three appearances with two starts this season, Mariota has completed 64.7 percent of his passes for 340 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions.
Kaliakmanis completed 15-of-33 passes for 186 yards with a touchdown and an interception on Sunday.
As PFT reported on Sunday night, the Commanders are hopeful that Daniels will be able to play in Sunday’s game against the Giants. But practice participation will be a key factor in Daniels’ return from a dislocated left elbow. Daniels was limited in practice on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday last week.
Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota is believed to have an MCL sprain. That increases the urgency to get starter Jayden Daniels back from a dislocated elbow.
The Commanders are hopeful, we’re told, that Daniels will be able to play next weekend against the Giants.
One key factor will be Daniels’s ability to fully participate in practice. He got some team reps this week, when he was limited in practice on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
If neither Daniels nor Mariota can go, seventh-round rookie Athan Kaliakmanis will get his first career start. It was a little rough at first, but a 47-yard touchdown pass to receiver Treylon Burks cut the score to 17-13 in the third quarter.
It was all Colts after that, dropping the Commanders to 1-3. Sunday’s game against the 3-1 Giants becomes critical to any effort by the Commanders to turn things around.
The Giants entered Sunday’s game with a chip on their shoulder. They were 2.5-point underdogs at home to the Cardinals.
The Cardinals?!
The Giants won 36-24 and offered a sharp rebuke to oddsmakers and naysayers.
“It’s dumb. It’s dumb to be underdogs at home, especially when you’re a good football team,” Giants running back Cam Skattebo said, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN. “When people want to bet against you at your own place and you have a team coming from a six-hour flight on a time change, it’s a pretty brutal feeling as a team when you feel you’re put underneath them. We came out here and handled business.”
The Giants are 3-0 at home, 3-1 overall and in first place in the NFC East.
The Giants?!
The Cardinals went into their previous 15 games as underdogs, and quarterback Jacoby Brissett had been an underdog in 25 games in a row.
“We talked about it as a team. I think we were underdogs with them coming into our house,” Skattebo said. “I think that was kind of BS. This is our home. This is our house. These guys love each other. They know we have to protect our castle. They got it done. We got it done -- 3-0 at home is pretty good.”
The Giants made a trade to add quarterback J.J. McCarthy to the roster this week, but Jameis Winston remained the starter against Arizona and put up the kind of rollercoaster performance he’s been known for over the years.
Winston threw a pair of interceptions that the Cardinals turned into 10 points, but he also threw three touchdowns and the Giants improved to 3-1 on the season with a 36-24 home win. After the game was over, Winston was asked if he drew any additional motivation from the trade and he responded by saying that he feels like he’s just getting warmed up.
“I’m just grateful for the opportunity I have now,” Winston said, via a transcript from the team. “And right now, I get to smile and say I’m the starting quarterback for the New York Football Giants. So, focusing on what I would love is winning games with my team, being the best that I can be. And I just feel like that, man, I’m heating up and I’m starting to get better, better, and better. Last week, I was questioning if I could even throw. This week, I’ve got people talking about the Jamis Winston experience again. So, I’m just still so curious and I’m so inspired to be the best me every single day. And that alone pushes me. Not another man, not another teammate, just my desire to be what I would love.”
As long as Winston’s good outweighs the bad and the Giants are winning, it’s unlikely that John Harbaugh will be in a hurry to make a change under center.
During Sunday’s game between the Cardinals and the Giants, CBS camera caught an interaction between line judge Jeff Seeman and Arizona tight end Trey McBride.
We’ll defer to the lip readers in the crowd to interpret. We have a feeling that Seeman didn’t say, “Thank you.” (Twice.)
The moment got the attention of NFL Players Association executive director JC Tretter.
Said Tretter, in a statement provided to Football Night in America before he thereafter posted it on social media: “This kind of behavior from an official towards a player is unacceptable. Players are consistently held accountable when the roles are reversed. We expect the NFL to hold officials to the same standard.”
An NFL spokesperson tells PFT that the league will look into the matter.
The Jameis Winston Experience struck again on Sunday, but the Giants were able to overcome giveaways to defeat the Cardinals, 30-24.
Winston and the Giants got off to a bit of a slow start in the first half. But the quarterback then got the offense in the end zone with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Malachi Fields and a 25-yard touchdown to Malik Nabers.
The Giants held a 19-17 lead at halftime and went down 24-19 when the Cardinals scored on a 2-yard pass from Jacoby Brissett midway through the third quarter.
But Winston then connected with Theo Johnson for an 11-yard touchdown, giving New York a three-point lead late in the third quarter. And Dominic Zvada hit a 52-yard field goal with just over two minutes left in the contest to extend the lead to six.
The Cardinals had a great chance to take the lead at the end of the contest, but New York’s defense kept Arizona out of the end zone and put an exclamation point on the victory. On fourth-and-goal from the 4, Deonte Banks picked off Brissett’s pass to Michael Wilson, returning it 98 yards for a touchdown.
Winston ended the contest 18-of-29 for 250 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. Nabers led with six catches for 112 yards and a TD.
On the other side, Brissett was 21-of-35 for 166 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions. Wilson has seven catches for 95 yards while Trey McBride was held to just seven catches for 31 yards.
Giants defensive lineman Chauncey Golston (neck), receiver/returner Braxton Berrios (foot), safety Jason Pinnock (concussion) all exited and did not return.
With the win, the Giants are now 3-1 and will take on the Commanders on the road next week.
The Cardinals are now 1-3 and will host the Lions in Week 4.
The Cardinals started Sunday’s game white hot on offense, but everything flipped in the second quarter and now the Giants have a 19-14 lead at halftime.
Marvin Harrison Jr. caught his first touchdown since Week 10 of last season when he hauled in a 12-yard score from Jacoby Brissett to give Arizona an early 7-0 lead. Then Tyler Allgeier put in a 22-yard touchdown on Arizona’s second drive to make the score 14-3.
The Cardinals averaged 9.4 yards per play over their first two possessions, gaining 132 yards to end up with a pair of touchdowns.
But that trend stopped early in the second quarter, with the Giants picking off Brissett on a deep pass to the right.
From there, the Giants took a 19-14 lead with a 50-yard field goal, a 12-yard Jameis Winston touchdown pass, and a 25-yard Winston touchdown to Malik Nabers — who exited the game briefly with an apparent shoulder issue. He was able to return to catch the scoring strike.
But when New York had another opportunity to extend its lead late in the half, Winston threw an interception. Arizona’s Chad Ryland hit a 60-yard field goal to end the second quarter, narrowing New York’s lead to just two points.
The Giants will receive the second-half kickoff.
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.
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
