Giants coach John Harbaugh confirmed starting quarterback Jaxson Dart is out for the regular season. Jameis Winston will assume the role of starter, but Harbaugh said the Giants will add another quarterback.
“We will,” Harbaugh said, via video from SNY Giants. “We plan on doing that, absolutely. Can’t say who at this point. We’re working on that.”
Harbaugh, who said he prefers adding a veteran, did not rule out acquiring a quarterback via trade.
“All options are open,” Harbaugh said, via Jordan Raanan of ESPN.
Jake Haener is the Giants’ only other healthy quarterback besides Winston, and Haener’s only experience is eight games, including one start, with the Saints in 2024.
Earlier today on PFT, Mike Florio laid out the options the Giants have for adding a veteran quarterback.
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With Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart reportedly heading for season-ending knee surgery, the Giants have to make a decision about the quarterback position moving forward.
Option A: The Jameis Winston experience, and everything that goes along with it — good, bad, and/or highly entertaining.
Option B: Sign a free agent and see if he would be a better option to win games. At this point, however, most guys who are available would be unlikely to be able to start. Jimmy Garoppolo is the best option.
Option C: Make a trade.
There are some options. Here are some of the ones we noticed after perusing the various rosters and depth charts.
Derek Carr: He’s still on the Saints reserve-retired list. A trade would be required, if there’s mutual interest.
Anthony Richardson: If the Colts would be comfortable with Riley Leonard as the understudy to Daniel Jones, the Colts could finally get value for the fourth overall pick in the 2023 draft.
Joe Flacco: John Harbaugh won a Super Bowl with Flacco in Baltimore. And Flacco has repeatedly shown he can still play.
Shedeur Sanders: If the Browns are willing to move on from Sanders, Harbaugh possibly would want Shedeur. The Ravens were going to draft him in 2025, but he didn’t want to back up Lamar Jackson.
Mason Rudolph: He has played a lot, and he may not have much of a future in Pittsburgh.
Sam Howell: He’s the backup to Dak Prescott, and he has plenty of starting experience; the Cowboys could elevate Joe Milton III to take Prescott’s place.
J.J. McCarthy: Jim Harbaugh loves him. John Harbaugh could be intrigued by him.
Gardner Minshew: If the Cardinals are content to have Carson Beck as the backup to Jacoby Brissett, why not? He has 47 career starts.
Mac Jones: He’s in the last year of his contract, and he played well last year in place of Brock Purdy.
The Giants also could pilfer a player from a practice squad. Possibilities (not many) include Will Levis (Jets), Josh Johnson (Bengals), Joe Milton III (Cowboys), and Max Brosmer (Vikings).
It’s not yet official, but it’s getting there.
NFL Network reports that Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart “is expected to have knee surgery that will lead to a full recovery but end his 2026 season.”
The tweet from Ian Rapoport adds that Dart has been seeking opinions about the injury, and his ACL “is intact.”
“But surgery is coming,” Rapoport adds.
That thrusts Jameis Winston into the starting job for the balance of the season, unless and until the Giants make a move for another potential starter.
When Colin Kaepernick was being ignored by the NFL teams, he didn’t have much to say. Now that he’s selling a book, interviews with Kaepernick are popping up everywhere.
We haven’t paid much attention to his various sit-downs and sound bites because, frankly, it’s an old story. The NFL has long since moved on from Kaepernick, freezing him out long enough to make it unrealistic that the now-38-year-old quarterback would have a plausible path to a roster, a practice squad, or even a tryout.
Still, one news item caught our eye in recent weeks. With Kaepernick’s book tour putting him back in the vicinity of the front burner, Giants coach John Harbaugh told Ian O’Connor of The Athletic that Harbaugh wanted to add Kaepernick to the Ravens in 2017.
Through it all, Kaepernick got one workout, five years ago with the Raiders. With the Giants now desperate for quarterback help (and with Jake Haener and Brandon Allen as the most viable options behind new starter Jameis Winston), why not bring Kaepernick in for a look?
Kaepernick continues to say that he’s staying in shape, and that he wants to play. It should be immediately obvious whether he still has the abilities that made Harbaugh interested in him nine years ago.
Harbaugh’s New York staff includes Greg Roman, who was the offensive coordinator during Kaepernick’s first four years in San Francisco. It would be easy, in theory, to configure the offense to fit Kaepernick. If Kaepernick still has the skills he had when he last played.
It starts with a workout (and quite possibly ends with one). There’s no reason not to give it a whirl. The anthem controversy has subsided. (Harbaugh and the Giants surely would want assurances that Kaepernick wouldn’t dust it off, if he ended up on the sideline before games.)
The threshold question is how does Kaepernick look? And there’s only one way to find out. The Giants, who now face not having Jaxson Dart for up to the rest of the season, have plenty of reasons to give Kaepernick a chance to show them what he can do.
It would be different if John Harbaugh hadn’t recently spoken in such glowing terms about Kaepernick. With not many viable options available in free agency — and with Harbaugh having considerable power in New York — let’s see if Harbaugh puts his recent words into current action.
With Jaxson Dart’s injury worse than expected, Jameis Winston will become the Giants’ starting quarterback. The team, though, is in the market for a third quarterback.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that the Giants could re-sign Brandon Allen.
They have Jake Haener on the practice squad.
Allen, 34, has spent five of the past six seasons with Giants quarterbacks coach Brian Callahan. He backed up Cam Ward with the Titans last season.
Allen, though, struggled in three preseason games, going 26-of-38 for 224 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions.
He has played 19 games with 10 starts in his career, completing 56.7 percent of his passes for 1,882 yards with 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He has made at least one start for the Broncos, Bengals and 49ers.
Giants head coach John Harbaugh isn’t ready to make any announcements about the extent of quarterback Jaxson Dart’s knee injury.
A report on Tuesday indicated that an MRI showed more damage than doctors initially believed Dart sustained early in Monday night’s loss to the Rams and that he could be out for the rest of the season. Harbaugh spoke to reporters on a videoconference shortly after that report and said that the team is still working to determine next steps with their starter.
“I’m not sure exactly what news or how anything’s been stated,” Harbaugh said, via SNY. “Right now, evaluations are ongoing. We haven’t got any final decisions yet, we’ve learned a lot more. I wouldn’t want to share too much until decisions get made and that takes more than one person.”
Harbaugh said that the team has confidence in Jameis Winston, but Harbaugh said it’s “pretty self-evident” that losing a starting quarterback is a big blow to what the team would like to achieve this season.
One day after an apparently serious injury to Bears starting quarterback Caleb Williams ended up being not nearly as bad as it seemed, an injury to Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart has turned out to be far worse than believed.
Via NFL Network, an MRI showed that Dart’s knee injury is worse than expected. He’s now expected to be out an extended period of time, and possibly for the rest of the season.
It’s very bad news for a team that showed great promise in Week 1, and it moves Jameis Winston into the starting job. He struggled in relief of Dart on Monday night, completing 11 of 27 passes for 111 yards and an interception.
The Giants have no other quarterbacks on the 53-man roster; Jake Haener is on the practice squad. Which means that the Giants will likely be scouring all available options for another player at the position — from free agency to a potential trade with a team that has a surplus at the position.
Originally, it was believed that Dart had an MCL sprain. Coach John Harbaugh told reporters on Monday night that the injury was in that “neighborhood.” Clearly, it wasn’t.
The 2023 season featured more than a few serious quarterback injuries. The 2026 season has started with four of 32 starters suffering injuries during the first two weeks of action.
In Week 1, the Seahawks lost quarterback Sam Darnold for at least one game with a glute injury. (He could be back in Week 3.) In Week 2, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams pulled a hamstring and is week-to-week. In the late-afternoon window, Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels dislocated his left elbow, again. On Monday night, Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart sustained what is believed to be an MCL sprain.
More recently, the next man up in Chicago (Tyson Bagent) has landed in the concussion protocol.
The situation highlights an ever-present risk when it comes to playing football. Quarterbacks get hit, in all sorts of ways — after weeks of practice in which they’re insulated from contact.
As Mike Tomlin said in Week 1, the inability to hit quarterbacks in practice put defenses at a disadvantage. The quarterbacks are at a disadvantage, too; they’ve gone from bubble wrap to fair game.
On Monday’s Let’s Go!, North Carolina coach Bill Belichick (who is far chattier than he is during games) suggested that limited padded practices make it harder for the blockers and, in turn, the quarterbacks.
“The offensive line has really gotten shortchanged because they’re not in pads very often,” Belichick said. “Basically 20 times a year, 10 in training camp, 10 during the regular season. And I think 20 practices is just not really enough for those guys to develop their skills. And the defensive players are ahead of them and offensive lineman gets beaten and you know who’s getting hit. And so I think one thing that would really help the situation would be some type of developmental program for offensive linemen who don’t play. Not saying guys that have played 16 games, but talking about guys that don’t play, that need that development coming into the NFL and type athletes they face and pass protection and blitz pick[up] and all that. It’s so involved and so difficult that I think that would help the quarterback’s longevity as much as anything.”
Even with a highly competent offensive line, a quarterback is always one play away from taking a big hit, and possibly from being injured. And nothing can change a team’s fortunes faster than losing their starting quarterback.
UPDATE 9:10 p.m. ET: Actually, the number is five. Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray suffered a concussion on the third drive of the Week 1 win over the Packers. Carson Wentz replaced Murray, who has been cleared for Week 3.
The Rams didn’t have receiver Puka Nacua on Monday night. It made Davante Adams the focal point of the passing game.
And it added up to Adams catching nine passes for 175 yards and two touchdowns.
“He’s wide receiver one to me,” coach Sean McVay told reporters after the game. “He ain’t a two. He was special and it showed all night. That’s what he’s consistently done and I’m really happy for him. I thought he made some great plays, but you could see there’s a lot of trust that he and Matthew [Stafford] have. They were able to get a lot of work together this offseason, and it’s only going to continue to build. I was really happy for him. He did his thing tonight.”
And the Giants didn’t seem to do anything to adjust to Adams doing his thing.
Giants coach John Harbaugh was asked whether the Rams did anything that made it hard to cover Adams.
“They didn’t do anything special,” Harbaugh said. “He just made plays.”
Should the Giants have assigned cornerback Greg Newsome II to cover Adams wherever he goes?
“We had a lot of ideas,” Harbaugh said, “a lot of things we tried to do.”
They apparently didn’t try to double Adams, or to rotate the safeties in his direction.
It couldn’t have hurt. Yes, it would have made it easier for others to get open. And while that may have meant more opportunities for the tight ends, the Rams got very little from other receivers. Tutu Atwell caught one pass for 19 yards, and Konata Mumpfield caught one pass for 12 yards.
So, yes, maybe the things the Giants tried should have included taking Adams away. On Sunday night, the Broncos presumably will.
The first real sighting of Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. on Monday night happened when ESPN cameras captured him giving his former head coach, Sean McVay, a post-game hug. During the game, OBJ made even less of a cameo appearance.
Beckham was on the field for only three snaps. Out of 58 total offensive plays.
By way of comparison, Malachi Fields had 47 snaps. Malik Nabers played 43. Darnell Mooney was on the field for 42.
Even Braxton Berrios — primarily a special-teamer — had five offensive snaps.
Making the lack of involvement from Beckham more surprising is the fact that starting quarterback Jaxson Dart made an early exit with a knee injury. Beckham and backup quarterback Jameis Winston have a strong rapport, and Winston struggled in relief of Dart, completing 11 of 27 throws. Why not give Beckham and Winston a chance to connect?
The other question is whether Beckham has frustrations regarding his lack of involvement. Yes, he’s apparently happy to simply be back in the NFL after a year out of football. But, with only three snaps in a prime-time game, is he really back?
In Week 1, Beckham was on the field for 11 of 69 snaps. He has been targeted zero times, through two games.
From the Giants’ perspective, it’s fair to wonder whether a game-day roster spot is being wasted on someone who isn’t contributing to the cause. As MDS points out, the Giants have receiver Dalen Cambre on the practice squad. He was second in the NCAA in special-teams tackles as a senior, and he blocked two punts at the college level.
Yes, the Giants bringing Beckham back to Big Blue is a good story. The fans love him. But the early-season trends aren’t encouraging. At some point, they’re going to need his roster spot.
Especially if they don’t put Dart on IR and add another quarterback (other than Berrios) to serve as the backup to Winston.
