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.
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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.
Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco is not on the trade block. That he knows of.
Flacco said today that after Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart got hurt, friends of his thought he was going to get traded to the Giants and reunited with coach John Harbaugh. Flacco had to tell them it wasn’t happening.
“It’s obviously not real and not true, but it was good enough to get people, certain friends of mine, to text me, ‘Hey I’ll see you in New York.’ I was like, ‘No, guys, you won’t, that’s not true,’” Flacco told Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Flacco said he’s committed to the Bengals unless and until they tell him they’re trading him.
“It’s not up to me. I’m on the Cincinnati Bengals, and because of that, that’s my focus, is just being here, and doing the things I need to do to get better each day while I’m here,” Flacco said. “I get a little bit of a kick out of it, but it’s kind of out of my hands. . . . I’m a Cincinnati Bengal and I’m doing everything I can to get ready for the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
Last year the Browns traded Flacco to the Bengals after Joe Burrow was injured, and Flacco acknowledged that he wouldn’t necessarily know if a trade was coming.
“I had no idea I was going to get traded last year, so you never know,” Flacco said. “But no, I have no reason to believe that. No.”
Titans running back Tony Pollard (ankle) practiced on Thursday, getting in limited work. Pollard did not practice Wednesday.
He has 21 carries for 99 yards this season, playing 55 offensive snaps (53 percent).
The Titans’ other running back, Tyjae Spears, did not practice again with an ankle injury. He has played 44 offensive snaps and has 14 touches for 94 yards.
The Titans added three players to their injury report. Tight end Daniel Bellinger (illness) did not practice; cornerback Micah Robinson (groin) was limited; and cornerback Marcus Harris (shoulder) was a full participant.
Defensive tackle Solomon Thomas (knee) was downgraded to a non-participant after a limited practice on Wednesday.
Cornerback Cor’Dale Flott (quad) was limited a second consecutive day.
Jaxson Dart’s season is over and the Giants officially moved him off of their active roster on Thursday.
The NFL’s daily transaction report shows that Dart has been placed on the injured reserve list. Dart will have surgery to repair damage to his MCL and meniscus after hurting his knee in Monday night’s loss to the Rams.
The Giants did not fill the opening on their 53-man roster, but it could be used to move quarterback Jake Haener off of the practice squad. Jameis Winston is currently the only quarterback on the team’s active roster.
Head coach John Harbaugh said the team will also be in the market for another addition to the position group, but it’s unclear when that move would come and a new addition would be unlikely to be ready to play against the Titans this Sunday.
Word on Wednesday was that Giants linebacker Brian Burns is likely to miss time with a sprained ankle and Thursday’s practice did nothing to suggest otherwise.
Burns missed practice for the second straight day and it looks like a long shot that he’ll be making it back to full enough health to play against the Titans on Sunday. The Giants will also be without quarterback Jaxson Dart for that game and left tackle Andrew Thomas may be missing as well.
Thomas was limited by a groin injury on Wednesday, but he was out of practice altogether on Thursday. The Giants will provide another update and issue injury designations on Friday.
Cornerback Deonte Banks (calf), defensive lineman Shelby Harris (toe), and safety Tyler Nubin (calf) were limited participants. Right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor (thigh), cornerback Nic Jones (shoulder), right guard Francis Mauigoa (neck), linebacker Micah McFadden (neck), wide receiver Malik Nabers (shoulder), and cornerback Greg Newsome (rib) were all full participants.
