Jaxson Dart was the one. He was the heir. In this 50th year since Broadway Joe Namath took his talents to Los Angeles for the final forgettable chapter of his career, New York has long sought the successor to the character Namath created and no one else had seen fit to copy: the big-city QB1 who liked the bright lights as much as the lights love him.
A franchise quarterback must prove he can stay on the field, and between this injury and his frequent trips to the blue medical tent as a rookie, there is no evidence that Dart can pass that test. No one is questioning the former Ole Miss passer’s toughness, and sure, Dart might prove to be a stable, 17-game starter with better luck (and decent blocking).
The Giants’ braintrust can’t count on that, though, especially not when Dart hasn’t proven that he is the guy in his short career and not when this is a rare draft loaded with top-end quarterback talent.
That’s why the 2026 Giants season is already locked in a life-and-death struggle. As one of the best coaches of his generation, John Harbaugh was worth the $100 million investment the Giants made in him. He will earn all of that cash this year if he can somehow keep his team breathing.
John Harbaugh raises the floor for an entire franchise and Jaxson Dart raises the ceiling. If you’re the New York Giants today, especially a fan base that has come to expect the worst for a decade-plus, you can’t help but feeling like the ceiling just caved in on the season and so much more.
Which is why it’s Winston-or-bust for this star-crossed team in 2026. The Giants will say that’s not so bad. After all, they liked Winston enough to sign him to a two-year, $13 million contract extension just two weeks ago, making him one of the highest-paid backup QBs in the league.
But their faith in him was mostly a short-term proposition. They saw him, according to a team source, as a solid veteran who was smart and talented enough to get them through a short stretch if Dart went down. Their faith gets shakier when it’s a long-term proposition they were hoping to avoid, especially since Winston last started more than seven games in a season seven years ago.
How does the offense adjust under Winston? It’s going to look different. Winston doesn’t have the same running ability as Dart. That much was obvious against the Rams when Winston rushed for 1 yard in three-plus quarters. That will hurt their traditional running game, too, since they designed an offense around Dart’s athletic skill set.
The Jameis experience comes with fire quotes, plenty of chuckles and a wide range of play. It’s not uncommon to see a spectacular tight-window throw down the field followed by a pass that sails 15 yards over a receiver’s head. It will be on this veteran offensive coaching staff, led by coordinator Matt Nagy, to limit the latter. Don’t ask Winston to do too much. Rely on the physical running game to downplay his proclivity for mistakes and interceptions.
“Joe Milton is a young quarterback that can run,” ESPN’s Jordan Rodgers, a former college QB, said Wednesday on Get Up. “Not that he’s a dynamic runner, but he can do what Dart did in the zone read. He did it in college. He’s a big, physical guy, he could push the ball downfield. I think you kick the tires on Joe Milton, see if he can be traded for a late-round draft pick just so the identity of your offense doesn’t have to completely change with Jameis Winston and you could maybe still compete.”
21. New York Giants (up 1). The Giants struggled more up front in Week 2 than Week 1, with left tackle Andrew Thomas the only starter to muster a PFF grade above 70.0. Rookie right guard Francis Mauigoa had flashes in the run game, receiving a positive grade on 14.3% of run-blocking snaps compared with a 9.5% negatively graded play rate, but he concluded with just an 84.2% PFF pass-block win rate.
New expectations: Vie for another early draft pick. There is no sugar coating the Giants’ outlook without Dart. What had all the makings of a (finally) exciting year is already down the tubes. That history suggests that so long as Winston is the man under center, New York will stand among the worst teams in the NFL. The silver lining is that the Giants should be able to add more premium young talent to their enticing core in the 2027 draft, but this was supposed to be a season in which that group elevated them out of the early draft pick range and into playoff contention.
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