Giants Clips
Before Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart made a Friday afternoon excursion into presidential politics, the chatter about the second-year signal-caller focused on his excursions when he runs the ball.
In a recent session with reporters, Dart explained that being careful with his body has been a focal point of the new coaching staff.
“That was one of like our first meetings with [quarterbacks coach Brian] Callahan, you know, just pulling up my tape and just going over situationally like, you know, is it worth the risk here in this situation? That’s what we talk about a ton is just situationally just being smart. . . . It’s important for the quarterback to make sure that how he’s feeling one play, that he’s going to feel that same way the next play. And then at the same time, just having the experience last year of sitting out two games. . . . I just hated that time of not being out there with my teammates. So I obviously understand the most important thing is to be out there. You just grow and learn from things. I think I’m gonna do a good job this year, for sure.”
How will he balance being smart with his competitiveness?
“My competitiveness isn’t gonna change at all,” Dart said. “I think just, like I said, it just goes into situationally, just what times it’s worth it, what times it’s not. And just making those mature decisions.”
He’s also taking steps to ensure he’ll be in better shape to take NFL-style hits by working on his physique.
“I’m actually, you know, pretty similar from a weight standpoint,” Dart said. “I just think that I’m just leaner, and our strength staff has done an amazing job.”
He said he won’t be “like Tim Tebow” when it comes to his bulk.
“I think that I’m probably the most mobile that I’ve been in my career right now,” Dart said. “Just my hips and the disassociation from my upper body to my lower body being able to make throws. I think that my body’s in the best shape it’s been.”
He still needs to keep it that way. The challenge becomes controlling the competitive nature during a given play. Knowing when to get out of bounds, when to slide, when to throw the ball away.
Giants linebacker Abdul Carter and Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart have resolved their differences. On the same day Carter publicly disclosed their differences via social media.
“Me & JD6 are good!” Carter tweeted. “We spoke earlier as Men. Yall can keep yall narratives.”
The narratives, of course, came directly from Carter posting a message on Twitter in response to Dart introducing President Donald Trump at a rally on Friday.
“Thought this sh!t was AI,” Carter said. “What we doing man.”
Carter, if he wanted to avoid the narrative, should have spoken directly to Dart without calling him out publicly. There’s a decent chance someone delivered the message directly — and pointedly — to Carter that it’s always better to address a disagreement with a teammate privately than to turn it into a public spectacle.
There has been a predictable external reaction to Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart introducing President Donald Trump at a New York rally on Friday. There has also been an unpredictable internal reaction.
Giants linebacker Abdul Carter, who like Dart was a first-round pick in 2025, posted a Saturday morning message on Twitter after Dart debuted as pro-Donald.
“Thought this sh!t was AI,” Carter said. “What we doing man.”
Carter’s public complaint will make for some interesting text messages among Giants players and coaches this weekend. Things will get even more interesting when the team reconvenes on Wednesday for the next cluster of OTA practices.
Months before the first game of his first season, it’s an unexpected test for coach John Harbaugh, who already has assumed a non-neutral position as to the man who has become one of the most polarizing political figures the nation has ever seen.
Let’s be realistic about the situation. Beyond the fact that the 47th president’s approval rating has fallen far below 47 percent, most of the players in the NFL will be inclined not to embrace his policies, practices, and petulant remarks — dating all the way back to when Trump weighed in on NFL players protesting during the national anthem by saying, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of the bitch off the field right now'? Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!’”
However this one plays out, the Giants have an issue that needs to be resolved. And it traces to a decision made by the second-year quarterback who is trying to establish himself both as a capable player, and as a competent team leader.
Dart has every right to do what he wants. To support who he wants. To say what he wants. But, as Carter’s response shows, the other players on the team have the right to say what they want, too.
And this is precisely the kind of thing that can get in the way of building the kind of rapport necessary to navigate a long and demanding NFL season.
Well, this won’t upset anyone.
Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart introduced President Donald Trump at a Friday event in Rockland County, New York.
It’s a risky move for any player who hopes to appeal to everyone. Especially since Dart plays for a team named for one of the bluest of the blue American cities.
Throw in the fact that Trump’s approval rating is currently tanking, the risk is greater than it would be to show up for and to support a popular political figure. Regardless, Dart can expect to get at least some of the same kind of blowback that those with a different perspective have gotten when they choose to speak out against the policies and practices of the current administration.
But perhaps not as much. One side is much quicker to say to dissenting views, “Shut up and dribble.” While also welcoming the input of athletes and entertainers who chime in with an opinion that meshes with their own.
My own view is this: Say whatever you want. Support whoever you want. But recognize that, yes, there may be some scrutiny and criticism that comes from doing anything other than staying above the fray.
For a guy who has yet to fully establish himself, it’s a bolder move than it would be for a quarterback or any other player who has become one of the best at the position he plays.
The Giants have lost a key member of their defensive line during Organized Team Activities.
Roy Robertson-Harris tore his Achilles during yesterday’s practice, according to Dan Duggan of TheAthletic.com.
Robertson-Harris signed a two-year, $9 million contract with the Giants a year ago and started all 17 games last season. He had been working with the first-string defense at OTAs.
Achilles tendon tears are almost always season-ending injuries. It’s possible that with a fast recovery, a player who tears his Achilles in May could play by the end of the year, but it’s a long shot.
The Giants traded away their best defensive lineman, Dexter Lawrence, last month, so they’ve now lost two defensive linemen who started all 17 games last season. Free agent signings DJ Reader and Shelby Harris become even more important now, as does the development of sixth-round rookie Bobby Jamison-Travis.
Robertson-Harris is the second Giant to suffer a torn Achilles during offseason work. Rookie cornerback Thaddeus Dixon tore his Achilles last week.
By rule, NFL offseason practices are non-contact: No tackling, no blocking, no physical pass coverage, certainly no touching the quarterback. That makes it hard for the players to get the competitive juices flowing.
But Giants coach John Harbaugh says he still wants to see players looking competitive. He just wants them competitive with themselves, trying to get better every day than they were the day before.
“There’s no there’s no contact at all,” Harbaugh said. “You got to work with the guys that do that because guys get fired up, they want to go and you got to make sure that you can’t get near the quarterback. You can’t pull and push guys. There’s no physical contests out here. There’s no competition in the sense of you’re competing one-on-one to make a play because there’s no contact, and football is a contact sport. So, it’s more about I’m competing against myself, my technique, my assignment, my ability to execute really fast.”
Harbaugh says he’s impressed that players manage to avoid contact as well as they do.
“I think one of the things that’s amazing to me, I tell these guys this. . . . You’re standing right here on the sideline and you’re seeing how fast these guys move, right? And how big they are. And there’s 22 guys intersecting full speed. I’m just surprised that there’s not more more collisions in the intersection which goes to show you how talented these guys are. And I think it’s across the league in the NFL. For them to practice fast like this on a no-contact basis and not run into each other is just an incredible thing and it’s a testament to their abilities,” Harbaugh said.
Harbaugh said quarterback Jaxson Dart is a good example of a player who’s competing with himself, demanding nothing but completions when he knows the defense isn’t really competing.
“We are competing against ourselves, against execution,” Harbaugh said. “The offense should complete most passes because passes aren’t being contested at the catch point right now. So if we’re executing and doing things the right way, we should be completing passes out here. The ball shouldn’t hit the ground too often. He understands that and that’s why he wants things to be right, play after play.”
Giants General Manager Joe Schoen lost a significant amount of internal influence when the team hired coach John Harbaugh. Schoen’s willingness to adapt has helped secure his future in New York.
The Giants have announced that Schoen has signed a multi-year extension.
Schoen, we’re told, had been entering the last year of his contract with the team.
The move necessarily means that Schoen has made a solid impression on new coach John Harbaugh. The long-time Ravens coach’s arrival transformed the long-time reporting structure with the Giants. For decades, the G.M. ran the show, with the coach reporting to the G.M. Now, the coach and G.M. separately report to ownership.
It’s no surprise that ownership was willing to make a major change to the way they do business. The Giants have struggled since winning Super Bowl XLVI, 15 years ago. They’ve had a revolving door at coach and G.M. Harbaugh instantly has stabilized the organization — and he has determined in less than five months that he’ll be happy to partner with Schoen in the coming years.
The Giants had their first three organized team activities this week, and starting left tackle participated in two of them. Head coach John Harbaugh said Thomas will get some maintenance days for foot and shoulder issues.
Thomas missed the first two games in 2025 as he worked his way back from a Lisfranc injury in his foot in 2024. He said he and the Giants’ medical staff are “doing our best to manage it” with the maintenance days. Thomas called his shoulder a “lingering” injury but said he thinks it’s “in a good place.”
“They have a nice ramp-up plan for me. Just a precautionary thing,” Thomas said, via video from the team. “Obviously, what we care about is September, being ready. I’ve been trusting that. It’s definitely tough sometimes, because I want to push and I want to get better. But I’m trying to trust the process to make sure I’m ready to go when it counts.”
Thomas missed the final two games of last season with a strained hamstring, but that is not an issue now.
The Giants have second-year swing tackle Marcus Mbow taking Thomas’ reps when he is out. First-round pick Francis Mauigoa is with the starters at right guard.
Malik Nabers’ second season came to a premature end when he suffered a torn ACL in Week 4 of last year.
While there is a chance Nabers is ready for Week 1 in September, right now the Giants wide receiver is in the dog days of his recovery process.
“He’s in the middle of [his rehab],” Giants head coach John Harbaugh said on Thursday, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN. “It’s a hard thing. It’s an ACL whatever else he had in the knee. Not a simple knee [injury]. So, he’s in the slog of it, the grind of it, I would say. So, he’s fighting through it. He’s here every day.
“Just impossible to predict [when he’ll be ready]. I mean, the goal is to start the season and for him to get out there sometime in training camp — that’d be the goal. And then, we’ll see what happens. If he’s out there, great. If he’s not out there, great. We’ll be ready to go either way. But, I know he’s fighting like crazy to do his best to be out there. And he’s with the guys every day.”
With this being Nabers’ first significant injury at the pro level, Harbaugh noted the Giants are doing their best to keep the young receiver engaged during the offseason program.
“[M]y experience with guys, the first time you have a serious injury, it’s tough because it’s new for him,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a tough process. Our job is to stay close to him, to stay with him, and his job is to trust, work hard. He’s doing his job and the trainers and docs are doing their job. And he’ll be back.”
The No. 6 pick of the 2024 draft, Nabers caught 109 passes for 1,204 yards with seven touchdowns as a rookie. He had 18 catches for 271 yards and two touchdowns in his limited action in 2025.
Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart’s penchant for risky runs that exposed him to injuries were a frequent topic of conversation during his rookie season and the team’s new coaching staff has been addressing the issue with him this offseason.
Dart missed two full games with a concussion and portions of others while being evaluated for them last year. He said on Thursday that he “hated that time” off of the field and that quarterbacks coach Brian Callahan and others have been working to establish that the “most important thing is to be out there” when he’s making decisions about when to take off with the ball.
“That was one of our first meetings with coach Callahan,” Dart said, via Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post. “Pulling up my tape and just going over situationally, is it worth the risk here in this situation. That’s what we talk about a ton.”
Dart’s play when healthy created some optimism about what the future holds for the Giants, but it will be a much tougher sell if Dart is going to continue to put himself at risk of missing time on a regular basis.
