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.
Giants Clips
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.
Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers returned to Monday night’s loss to the Rams after hurting his shoulder and he gave an update on how he’s feeling at a Thursday press conference.
Nabers, who was listed as a limited practice participant on Wednesday’s injury report, said that he had X-rays done on his right shoulder and said “I’ll be fine” when asked about his outlook for this week.
“Good result. I’m smiling, I’m out there, playing, catching the ball, so good results,” Nabers said, via SNY.
Nabers has dealt with previous shoulder issues, but declined to say if Sunday’s injury was related to anything he dealt with in the past.
The Giants will issue their injury designations for Sunday’s game against the Titans on Friday, but it doesn’t sound like Nabers has any question about his availability.
Giants offensive coordinator Matt Nagy says there’s still a place for wide receiver Odell Beckham in the offense.
Through two games this season, Beckham has played 14 snaps and has yet to have a pass thrown to him. But when Nagy was asked about Beckham today, he insisted that there’s a role for him.
“Odell is — he does a lot of good things well,” Nagy said. “We’re trying to slowly package him into some things offensively. It’s not that he’s just a backup. There’s times when, whatever it is personnel wise, we have it in the game plan and we just didn’t get to it. You’ve got to be ready, one injury away from being in all the time. He knows that, he understands that.”
Realistically, though, the Giants look like a rebuilding team, and Beckham is 33 and several years past his prime. If he doesn’t start contributing soon, it may be time for the Giants to move on, and give his roster spot to a younger player.
It’s no surprise that a game featuring the presumptive preseason Super Bowl champions and a surprisingly 1-0 team from the nation’s top media market performed well in a standalone window.
The Giants-Rams Week 2 Monday night game attracted a total average audience of 19.4 million on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes.
ESPN claims that Monday Night Football viewership is up 29 percent over the first two weeks of the season.
But it’s difficult to do a true apples-to-apples comparison. In Week 2 of the 2025 season, the NFL staged a consecutive doubleheader on Monday night. The first game, Buccaneers at Texans, started at 7:00 p.m. ET on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes. The nightcap, Chargers at Raiders, began at 10:00 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and NFL+.
The early game averaged 17.4 million viewers. The late game averaged 9.7 million viewers. The average viewership for the two games was 13.5 million.
So, yes, one game starting at the usual time on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes will outperform by a large margin a six-hour marathon with the first game on a big platform and the second game on a much smaller platform.
In future years, it won’t be an issue, because the NFL has pulled the plug on the Monday night doubleheader experiment. For this year, the fact that there were two games in Week 2 a year ago makes it very hard to credibly claim that there has been a dramatic increase in viewership through two weeks.
