Third-and-8, the opening drive, SoFi Stadium. Jaxson Dart dropped back, felt the pocket collapse, and did what he always does. He went up to throw. Byron Young hit him from the right and drove him into Josaiah Stewart, who arrived low. The left knee bent awkwardly beneath him. Seven snaps into Monday night, the Giants’ quarterback was on the turf, and by the end, the Rams had won 28-6 and outgained the Giants 481 yards to 182.
The sideline hoped it was an MCL sprain. Tuesday’s MRI said otherwise: a torn MCL, a torn meniscus, damage to the PCL. The ACL held, which was the only mercy in any of it. By Wednesday, GM John Harbaugh had confirmed surgery. Dart went under the knife on Friday, and his regular season was over.
Injury-Prone Dart Downed Again
That’s what makes this one hurt. Dart tore a meniscus as a USC freshman. He missed two games with a concussion as a rookie, which is why LeSean McCoy was already calling him “always hurt” this week. And this was supposed to be the season that made all that history irrelevant.
One week earlier, he’d become the first quarterback ever to open a season with three touchdown passes, 50 rushing yards, and a 130-plus passer rating, in a win over Dallas. The bookies had the Giants’ playoff odds at 43 percent before kickoff at SoFi. Now, the latest odds from 7signs online sportsbook position them way out at +500.
Winston Handed the Reins
So now it’s Jameis Winston’s team, and it’s worth being clear about what that means. This is the former No. 1 pick who threw for 5,109 yards in Tampa Bay in 2019 and led the league with 30 interceptions in the same season. In New Orleans, he started 5-2 in 2021 before tearing his ACL, then lost his job to Andy Dalton.
He started seven games in Cleveland in 2024, beating both Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Last November, filling in for a concussed Dart, he threw for 366 yards against Detroit and even caught a touchdown pass in an overtime loss. That’s Winston: big throws, big mistakes, never boring. His career record as a starter is 36-53.
Monday night, he was mostly just the mistakes. He went 11-of-27 for 111 yards with a red-zone interception and was sacked twice. Among starting quarterbacks that week, he ranked dead last in both EPA per play and completion percentage over expected. Two days later, he stood at the podium and said, “This is what I’ve always dreamed of, to be a starting quarterback.”
Harbaugh, meanwhile, was far more practical. “The game plan this last week was built for Jaxson, obviously,” he said, four days before Tennessee headed to MetLife. Now the Giants have to build a new one for a pocket passer who had one yard rushing on Monday. That’s the real football problem.
Nagy’s offence depends on motion, RPOs, and a quarterback who can make defences pay for ignoring him. Plugging in a statue won’t work. You either reinvent the offence or go find some legs. Here are the options should the Giants opt to twist rather than sticking with Winston.
Jimmy Garoppolo (free agent)
It’s odd that the favourite on this list is a man who was thinking about retiring in the spring. Jimmy Garoppolo has two Super Bowl rings, and the Rams drafting Ty Simpson at No. 13 shut the one obvious door he had left. Reporter Mike Garafolo says there’s been contact with the Giants.
He’s the likeliest option because he costs nothing but a one-year deal. That also shows how low the ceiling is: The Giants’ best bet hasn’t thrown a regular-season pass since 2024. He’d be a steady QB2 and a safety net, but he wouldn’t solve anything.
Gardner Minshew (Cardinals)
Gardner Minshew has the scheme knowledge from his time around Nagy in Kansas City, $5.75 million guaranteed on his Arizona deal as Jacoby Brissett’s backup with rookie Carson Beck behind him, and a real schedule problem. The Cardinals visit MetLife in Week 4. Would Arizona hand its backup, and a week of game-plan secrets, to the team it’s about to play? Ian Rapoport has floated the name, but it’s hard to see this happening before that game. After it, maybe, for a conditional late-round pick.
Tyler Huntley (Ravens)
If you want Dart’s legs, this is the closest you’ll get. In his Week 8 start against Chicago last season, Tyler Huntley went 17-of-22 for 186 yards and ran for 53 more. He started 12 games under Harbaugh, and Greg Roman, his old coordinator, is on the Giants’ staff. But that’s exactly why Baltimore won’t sell cheaply: with Lamar Jackson’s recent injury history, Huntley is their insurance. To pry him loose, the front office would have to give up something real.
Justin Fields (Chiefs)
The Jets gave Fields $40 million, benched him for Tyrod Taylor after he went 2-7 with a 38.7 QBR, then shipped him to Kansas City for a 2027 sixth-rounder and paid $7 million of his salary to do it. Now he’s Patrick Mahomes’s backup, months removed from Mahomes’s torn ACL, which is exactly why the Chiefs may not want to move him.
At a sixth-round price, it’s the cheapest way to get a dual-threat quarterback back in the building. Whether he can hit a downfield throw on time is a separate question.
Joe Flacco (Bengals)
Every Harbaugh fan has pictured it. The Super Bowl XLVII MVP turns 41 and is reunited with the coach he won it with. Joe Flacco made his first Pro Bowl last year after averaging 272.7 passing yards a game in Cincinnati and re-signed there for $6 million. But he’s Joe Burrow’s insurance policy, and the Bengals know better than anyone what happens without one. It’s a nice story, but it doesn’t work on paper, and a 41-year-old pocket passer is the opposite of what this offence was built for.