Two months ago, the price point for a ticket for a specific event at MetLife Stadium landed as high as $39,704. On Sunday, it will be considerably cheaper to get in to the building.
At TickPick, the get-in price for Titans-Giants is as low as $17. At Ticketmaster, the league’s official reselling partner (by the way, it’s amazing how many previously seedy and illegal businesses became respectable and legitimate once corporate America figured out how to profit from them), there are plenty of tickets at $20 or $21.
There are good reasons for the football game to be viewed as far less desirable to attend than the World Cup Final. First, the Giants have lost their starting quarterback for the season. (Yes, Jaxson Dart supposedly could return for the postseason. But if they manage to get that far without him, why bring him back when he hasn’t played in months?) Second, the Titans aren’t exactly a road draw. Third, and perhaps most importantly, it’s a bad weather weekend in New Jersey, thanks to a nor’easter that will bring plenty of rain and wind to the region.
But if you’re willing to brave the elements and you’re willing to answer Cam Skattebo’s call and you’ve got a portrait of Andrew Jackson burning a hole in your pocket, you can go to the game.
Giants Clips
Titans offensive coordinator Brian Daboll will be coaching against the team that fired him when he faces the Giants on Sunday. He says that’s not particularly important.
Daboll, who was hired as Giants head coach in 2022 and fired last year, said he can set aside any emotions associated with facing his former team and just focus on doing his job.
“I’ve faced a lot of former teams before,” Daboll said. “It’s a one-week season every week, so you’ve got to put everything you got into it. You’ve got to get ready for scheme, new coordinators on their end, different players. As simple as it sounds, that’s what it is every week in the National Football League. I have a ton of respect for the people in that organization. Very grateful for the opportunity the Mara family and Tisch family gave me. From top down to the bottom, really good people in that building. But it’s about getting the players ready for a game. I’ve been on a number of teams that played my former teams before. But the focus is on our players.”
Daboll also downplayed any idea that he has an advantage because he knows the players on the Giants, noting that they’re a different team this year than they were last year. Daboll is treating Sunday like he’d treat any other game.
Titans running back Tony Pollard (ankle) had a second consecutive limited practice Friday after missing Wednesday. Pollard, though, did not receive an injury designation for Sunday.
That is good news for the Titans because running back Tyjae Spears (ankle) is questionable to play. Spears returned to practice Friday on a limited basis.
Rookie running back Nick Singleton made his regular-season debut in Week 2 and could see more work this week because of Pollard and Spears’ injuries.
“He’s doing a really good job,” Titans coach Robert Saleh said Friday, via Jim Wyatt of the team website. “He’s probably 50-50 on the read [on his runs], but to be expected from a young buck. So, hopefully we get him a couple more. But overall I think he’s going to be a good back, he’s going in the right direction.”
Singleton, selected in the fifth round out of Penn State, carried the ball four times for 10 yards against the Eagles.
The Titans also list cornerback Cor’Dale Flott (quad) as questionable after he had three limited practices this week.
Word this week was that Giants linebacker Brian Burns would miss time with the ankle injury he suffered in Week 2, but the Giants have not ruled him out for Sunday’s game against the Titans.
Burns is listed as questionable despite missing practice all three days this week. The report and the lack of practice time suggest Burns will need more time before he’s able to play, but final word on his status won’t come until closer to kickoff.
Left tackle Andrew Thomas (groin) returned to practice Friday and has no injury designation.
Cornerback Deonte Banks (calf) and safety Tyler Nubin (calf) join Burns with questionable designations on the team’s final injury report.
Through two games this season, Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham has still not had a single pass thrown his way. Giants head coach John Harbaugh hopes that changes soon.
Asked today when will be the right time to get Beckham involved in the offense, Harbaugh said Sunday’s game against the Titans would be ideal.
“That’s a great question. I would think Sunday would be great. I would be all for it for Sunday. That would be the perfect time in my mind. So I hope that happens this Sunday,” Harbaugh said, via Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News.
If Beckham doesn’t get involved soon, it’s going to raise questions about why he’s on the roster at all. Beckham is 33 years old and doesn’t play special teams, so it’s not like he’s a developing player, or a receiver who contributes even when he’s not doing much on offense. If it doesn’t happen on Sunday, it might not happen for Beckham.
The Giants are down to two healthy quarterbacks, but that should be changing soon.
Jaxson Dart was placed on injured reserve Thursday, which leaves Jameis Winston on the active roster and Jake Haener on the practice squad. Head coach John Harbaugh said the team is working to add someone else, but isn’t sure when that will get done.
“We’re in the process, that’s really all I can probably say right now,” Harbaugh said, via SNY. “We are going to have to do that. Whether we can do it before the game or not, I don’t know. But we’re working on that.”
Whether they add someone before facing the Titans or not, Harbaugh said Haener will serve as the backup on Sunday. Winston will make his first start of the season and the Giants will need him to be sharper than he was against the Rams to improve to 2-1 on the season.
Week 1 was bad. Week 2 was worse.
The ManningCast audience keeps shrinking. For the Broncos-Chiefs game to start the season, 705,000 of 23.2 million viewers watched the alternate broadcast on ESPN featuring Peyton and Eli Manning.
Via Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, the Giants-Rams Week 2 audience dipped to 661,000. The total broadcast generated 19.4 million.
The only good news is that the percentage of ManningCast viewership moved from three percent in Week 1 to 3.4 percent in Week 2.
No ManningCast is on the docket for the Eagles-Bears game in Week 3. The possibility of a Pat McAfee alternate broadcast has been mentioned, subject to league approval. There has been no further word on whether it will happen.
If it does, the bar has been set. If a McAfeeFest gets to seven figures (which the ManningCast once did, consistently), that will be a bad look for the Peyton and Eli show, which continues to experience a disconnect between the industry’s view of it and the audience’s response to it.
Jaxson Dart is going under the knife.
Per Dan Duggan of The Athletic, Dart will have his knee surgery on Friday.
Dart will undergo a full meniscus repair and, if necessary, the surgeon will address his MCL and PCL. But the meniscus is Dart’s primary injury.
The procedure will take place at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.
Dart’s recovery timeline is expected to be four-to-six months. That means if the Giants make it, he could possibly return for the postseason. But New York would have to make it there first.
Dart completed 26-of-34 passes for 250 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions across his two games.
The Giants learned this week that they will not have quarterback Jaxson Dart available for the rest of the 2026 season and that’s dimmed their prospects for contending in the eyes of many people.
Running back Cam Skattebo is not part of that group. During a press conference on Thursday, Skattebo was reminded of the good vibes at MetLife Stadium from the team’s Week 1 win over the Cowboys and was asked about how different things feel as they prepare to return to their home field against the Titans on Sunday.
Skattebo replied with a plea for the crowd to show up with the same energy because he doesn’t believe anything has changed for the team’s outlook.
“The crowd’s got to be lit, just like it was the first week,” Skattebo said, via a transcript from the team. “We have to have everybody’s support, just like we did week one. I think the entire city of New York still knows we have a really good shot at this. And they love Jameis Winston. So, we’re not going to take a step down. We’re going to continue to push, continue to work. If we have our fan base with us, if they’re giving everything they got towards us, I promise you they’re going to get everything from us.”
At 0-2, the Titans provide about as soft a landing after a tough week as the Giants could hope to find on the other side of the field. A strong performance in a win will help keep some hope alive, but a dud with Winston playing as poorly as he did in relief of Dart last Monday will make it feel real late real early for the Giants.
The Brian Flores case against the NFL and several teams (Dolphins, Texans, Giants, and Broncos) has recently focused on a document produced by Korn Ferry, in connection with a coaching search the company performed for the Ravens.
Korn Ferry and the NFL want the document to remain under seal and, as a result, not available to the public. Flores has challenged the designation.
In most federal civil cases, the presiding judge delegates disputes that arise during the discovery process to a magistrate judge. In this case, the magistrate judge has issued a ruling.
The ruling, as reported by Daniel Kaplan, is also under seal. For now.
The apparent reason for the decision is to give the party that lost the issue a chance to appeal to the presiding judge. And the fact that the decision is sealed doesn’t necessarily mean Korn Ferry lost. In order to issue the preliminary ruling, the magistrate judge likely had to quote from or otherwise describe key aspects of the currently secret document.
If the case goes to trial, the document undoubtedly will be presented and discussed in open court. But that’s a long way away. Securing the publication of the document sooner rather than later could create a bad P.R. look for the league, which could not only spark meaningful settlement talks but also prompt the media, the fans, and those with oversight of the league to sit up and take notice of the manner in which the sausage gets made.
For now, the question is whether the losing party on the issue of the sealed document will appeal within the 14-day time period for doing so. And whoever files the appeal necessarily will have been the losing party.
