It looks like Titans head coach Robert Saleh and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll won’t have to wait long for matchups against the teams they used to coach.
Saleh was the head coach of the Jets from 2021 until he was fired during the 2024 season and NFL reporter Jordan Schultz reports that his first game with the Titans will be a visit from his former employers. It will be the second straight year that the Jets go down memory lane to open the season as they faced Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers in Week 1 last year.
Daboll was hired by the Titans after his three-plus years as the Giants’ head coach came to an end 10 games into the 2025 season. Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post reports that the Titans will visit the Giants at MetLife Stadium in Week 3.
That stadium is also the home to the Jets, so the game will elicit some memories for both of the new Titans coaches.
Giants Clips
Cornerback Nazeeh Johnson is visiting another NFC East team as he looks for a place to play in 2026.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Johnson is visiting with the Giants on Thursday. Johnson visited with the Eagles last week.
Johnson was a 2022 seventh-round pick in Kansas City and has spent the last four seasons with the Chiefs. He was limited to two late-season games last year after injuring his shoulder in the preseason and he missed all of 2023 with a torn ACL.
When healthy, Johnson had 66 tackles and a sack in 29 regular season games. He also has eight tackles in the postseason.
Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers’s recovery from last season’s torn ACL reportedly included a second visit to an operating room.
Dan Duggan of TheAthletic.com reports that Nabers went for another surgery on his knee in order to remove scar tissue. Nabers, who initially had surgery in late October, had been experiencing stiffness in the knee prior to the operation.
Per the report, the operation took place “multiple weeks ago” and that the team has not altered its recovery timeline for the wide receiver.
Head coach John Harbaugh said in April that the team hopes to have Nabers on the field at some point during training camp and the larger hope is that he’ll be fully ready to go for the start of the season.
Quarterback Jaxson Dart has been in the building with new Giants head coach John Harbaugh for over a month now.
The young signal-caller is picking up what Harbaugh has been putting down when it comes to trying to set the tone for the upcoming season.
This week, Dart told Jordan Raanan of ESPN that each day, Harbaugh has been preaching how he’s expecting the Giants to be a physical and violent kind of team in 2026 and beyond.
“That’s the style he wants us to play at,” Dart said. “He has the right guys here for it and I just think that what he wants to do is what everybody on this team wants to be about. We’re hungry to win and I couldn’t think of a better coach to play for.”
Dart also noted his excitement for New York’s offense to enter the season healthy, after players like receiver Malik Nabers and running back Cam Skattebo weren’t about to finish the season due to injury.
“I just think we’re very versatile. I think it starts there,” Dart said of the offense, coordinated by Matt Nagy. “And then the other thing is, I just can’t wait for all my boys to be back healthy. I’m excited for the pieces we’ve brought in. They’re going to help us a ton. And we’re just going to be a physical, violent team. That goes on the offensive side of the ball, defensive side of the ball, and special teams.
“So, the boys and I can’t wait to get out there.”
In 14 appearances with 12 starts as a rookie, Dart completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 2,272 yards with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions. He also rushed for 487 yards with nine TDs.
Giants edge rusher Brian Burns said in mid-April that he did not want to play “this season or any other season” without Dexter Lawrence, but that didn’t stop the team from trading Lawrence to the Bengals a short time later.
Burns’s stance isn’t actually keeping him from taking part in the team’s preparations for the 2026 season, of course. He said on Tuesday that he was “just really going to bat for my teammate” and knows he will have to live with the new reality.
That new reality leaves Burns as the veteran leader of the defense and he said that he’s viewing that as a chance to make this his defense over the coming months.
“That’s how I’m kinda looking at it,’’ Burns said, via Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. “It’s kind of a nod to what I’ve done and the success that I’ve had, but I don’t take that lightly at all, and I’m very grateful for the opportunity.’’
That defensive shift is taking place alongside a larger shift for the organization in the wake of John Harbaugh’s arrival as head coach and the hope is that both contribute to the first winning season in a while for the NFC East club.
Cornerback Colton Hood has signed his rookie deal with the Giants.
Hood was a second-round pick last month and the team announced that he signed his four-year contract on Tuesday.
Five of the team’s seven picks from this year’s draft have now signed their contracts. First-round picks Arvell Reese and Francis Mauigoa are the two unsigned members of the rookie class.
Hood was projected by many to be a first-round pick and he was in attendance for the first night of the draft in Pittsburgh to watch as he went unselected. He had 50 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, an interception return for a touchdown, a fumble recovery for a touchdown and a forced fumble at Tennessee last season.
Former NFL quarterback Craig Morton, who led the Broncos to their first Super Bowl appearance, died on May 9 at his home in Mill Valley, California, the Broncos announced Monday. He was 83.
Morton, who spent six seasons with the Broncos from 1977-82, led Denver to its first playoff appearance and a berth in Super Bowl XII. The Broncos went 12-record in 1977 and had home playoff wins over the Steelers and Raiders before losing 27-10 to the Cowboys in the Super Bowl when Morton threw four interceptions against his former team.
For his performance during that 1977 regular season, Morton was named the AFC’s Offensive Player of the Year. He was also named the Sporting News Player of the Year, the PFWA Comeback Player of the Year and the NFL UPI MVP for the 1977 season.
In that AFC Championship Game win over the Raiders, Morton played through a hip injury that led to him spending days in the hospital ahead of the game.
During his Broncos career, Morton led the team to a pair of division titles and three playoff berths. He finished his career with the most passing yards (11,895), passing touchdowns (74), pass attempts (1,594) and completions (907) in franchise history to that point.
His 41 regular-season wins remain the third-most in franchise history.
Morton was inducted into the Broncos Ring of Fame in 1988, two years after his induction into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.
He began his career with the Cowboys as the fifth overall pick in 1965. He played in Dallas until 1974, and the Cowboys traded him to the Giants after he lost the starting job to Roger Staubach.
With the Cowboys, Morton threw for 10,279 yards and 80 touchdowns.
In his career, he threw for 183 touchdowns and 27,908 yards while winning 81 regular-season games.
The NFL will reveal the full schedule for the 2026 season on Thursday night, but they have announced one marquee Week 1 game on Monday.
The first Sunday Night Football matchup of the season will see the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to face the Giants on NBC on September 13. It will be the eighth time in 15 seasons that the two NFC East clubs have faced each other in Week 1.
It’s the second straight season that the Cowboys will find themselves in a featured game in the opening week. They were in Philadelphia for the first game of the 2025 season. We also know that the Cowboys will be in Rio to face the Ravens in Week 3 and they will be at home for their customary Thanksgiving game.
The NFL plans to announce all of this year’s international matchups on Wednesday and there will likely be a trickle of other games to prime the pump for Thursday’s big reveal.
The Giants have talked to receiver Odell Beckham Jr. about a potential reunion. Those talks continue.
Coach John Harbaugh told reporters on Saturday that he has talked to Beckham “probably three or four times in the last week” to discuss “where he’s at, where we’re at.”
“I think the goal for right now is for him to train and get as ready as he can be, and then we’ll see where we’re at at that time,” Harbaugh said. “It’s got to be right for both parties, and Odell wants to be the kind of player that can make a difference. I’m pretty sure that he can make a team in the National Football League right now. But can he make a difference? Is it something he wants to do? And is his body gonna hold up in the way he wants it to? And all those things are questions that need to get answered for anybody at that age, you know?”
Beckham, 33, apparently believes it can.
“Now, you know Odell, he’s confident, man,” Harbaugh said. “He’s confident, he’s working hard, and he believes in himself. So, I think we’ll just play it out over the next month and into training camp, and see where we’re at.”
It sounds as if the Giants don’t believe Beckham can have the same kind of impact that Beckham thinks he can make. And that Beckham perhaps believes he’d deserve a higher spot in the pecking order than the Giants would be willing to give him.
The other reality, when it comes to the receiver position, is that if a player is too low on the depth chart, he’ll need to be able to play special teams. Most older players (especially former superstars) won’t want to do that.
Beckham last played during the 2024 season. The year before that, he played for Harbaugh in Baltimore, catching 35 passes for 565 yards. Beckham’s last 1,000-yard seasons happened seven years ago, in his first season with the Browns.
Before that, Beckham had four 1,000-yard seasons in five years with the Giants. And it appears, frankly, that Harbaugh is simply being extra courteous to a player who once played for Harbaugh and who once was a key player with Harbaugh’s new team.
Harbaugh, we believe, doesn’t want to have to tell Beckham a reunion isn’t going to work, not the way Beckham envisions. And the likely hope is that Beckham will decide it’s not a fit for both parties without Harbaugh and the Giants having to tell him that directly.
The Titans were awarded wide receiver Courtney Jackson off waivers on Friday.
The Giants waived Jackson on Thursday after he signed a futures contract with the team earlier this offseason.
Jackson spent last season on the Seahawks’ practice squad.
The Broncos signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2025.
Jackson has never played a regular-season NFL game.
The Titans also announced they waived receiver Hal Presley in a corresponding move.
