In their idea of a perfect world, the New York Giants would be building towards a better future right now under the leadership of quarterback Jaxson Dart, and Jameis Winston would be standing nearby offering smiles, wisdom and moral support. But that plan blew up in Week 2 when Dart went down with a knee injury that will keep him out for the rest of the regular season, at least, and what he left behind is a bit of a mess. For now, Dart\u2019s job belongs to Winston, but the Giants were so uncertain about him that they went out and traded for J.J. McCarthy. And even John Harbaugh confirmed that McCarthy might be able to give Winston a push. “Jameis did all the things as a quarterback that we needed to do to win that game [against the Titans on Sunday],” Harbaugh said on Monday afternoon. “But that doesn’t mean that’s where we stand. We’re going to keep growing. There’s going to be new challenges in front of us.” Indeed, both now and maybe \u2014 just maybe \u2014 in the future too. This is not a team headed towards an inevitable quarterback controversy. In the end, they might only have one viable NFL quarterback in the room. But there\u2019s too much uncertainty \u2014 from Dart\u2019s recovery, to Winston\u2019s ability, to whether McCarthy can salvage his own career \u2014 to rule anything out. So with that in mind, here\u2019s how the Giants\u2019 new-look quarterback situation shakes out: The now:\u00a0The Giants love the 32-year-old Winston so much that it was just three weeks ago that they gave him a two-year, $13 million contract extension. Sure, a lot of that was about how loved he was in the locker room and what he meant to Dart. But teams don\u2019t hand backups that kind of money just for being a swell guy. They believed Winston was one of the better backups in the NFL and that he could carry them if Dart went down. That was about a short-term injury, though. Their faith is shakier when it comes to Winston carrying them almost the entire length of the season, and they couldn\u2019t have liked what they saw in his first two games since Dart went down. That\u2019s why the Giants went shopping for alternatives. They felt they needed Winston insurance. That said, their preference is for Winston to play like he did when he was a full-time starter in this league, albeit without all the interceptions. A team source said they believe they can win games with a run-first attack, and some big plays from the cannon-armed Winston, as long as they can manage him away from situations where he might throw games away. So the job is his for now, and probably for a few more weeks. But his performance will dictate how long he holds it. The future:\u00a0Once McCarthy is up to speed on the playbook, probably in a couple of weeks, Winston will have to watch his back. His hold on the job could very much be week-to-week. Some of that is because of how one team source described the Giants\u2019 interest in McCarthy: “He\u2019s just a better fit for what we want to do. He\u2019s athletic. He\u2019s much more like Dart than Winston is. He may not be better, but he\u2019s a better fit.” Longer term, Winston is what he is at this point: A career backup. The Giants like him in that role, so it seems likely he\u2019ll be asked back in that role next year. The now:\u00a0There isn\u2019t much for him to do right now other than rehab his injured knee. The recovery from surgery \u2014 believed to be to fix a torn meniscus \u2014 and whatever else was wrong with his knee is expected to last into the offseason. Yes, John Harbaugh left open a return for the playoffs and anything is possible. But one team source said that was overly optimistic, meant more as an aspirational statement to keep everyone\u2019s spirits up. What the Giants are focused on with Dart is making sure there are no setbacks so he can at least ease through the spring and be fully ready to go when training camp begins \u2014 a timeline one source indicates shouldn\u2019t be a problem at all. The future:\u00a0Make no mistake, this is Dart\u2019s team. The Giants love him and his potential. Even Harbaugh, who wasn\u2019t around when the Giants traded back into the first round to get him in 2025, fell in love with Dart quickly. He made it clear that Dart was a big selling point when he took the Giants job. There are almost no scenarios where he doesn\u2019t enter camp with his old starting job. But never say never because McCarthy is a 23-year-old former first-round pick too, and he\u2019s also under contract for 2027. It would be unexpected, and a pleasant surprise, but what if McCarthy took over in a few weeks, played like the former first-rounder he is, and led the Giants to the playoffs? Suddenly there would be some Phil Simms-Jeff Hostetler vibes in New York. Again, it\u2019s unlikely and probably improbable. But not impossible. The Giants, however, are absolutely going into this believing they will be Dart\u2019s team in 2027, too. The now:\u00a0The Giants wanted to add a veteran quarterback as insurance in case Winston got hurt and stumbled, and the best they could do was acquire McCarthy from the Vikings for a fifth-round pick. It\u2019s a pretty low price for a young, inexpensive quarterback with starting experience, who the Giants believe can fit their offensive scheme. But there are certainly people around the league asking “Why?” The Vikings invested the 10th overall pick in McCarthy in 2024, and as recently as last season they were talking him up as the future of their franchise. Yet on a roster with a fixer-upper in Kyler Murray and 33-year-old Carson Wentz, he still couldn\u2019t get on the field. Yes, he\u2019s had injury issues. But Vikings coach Kevin O\u2019Connell has a well-earned reputation as a quarterback whisperer. If he was willing to give up on McCarthy so soon, for so little, it\u2019s fair to wonder if he\u2019s just irreparably damaged goods. The future:\u00a0It\u2019ll take a few weeks to get McCarthy up to speed, but the Giants didn\u2019t get him just to be ready if Winston gets hurt. If they see anything out of him at all, any sign that he can run the offense they want to run better than Winston can, they will make a move and give him a shot. A lot of that is up to Winston. If he plays well and the Giants start winning, there\u2019ll be a change. But McCarthy will be pushing from behind, just with his presence. And don\u2019t think for a second Harbaugh will hesitate to switch if he thinks the season is on the line. As for the longer-term future, barring a really unlikely run deep into the playoffs, the best the Giants are hoping for is that McCarthy develops into a viable backup for them, or plays so well they can flip him in the offseason for a relatively high draft pick. They have absolutely no intention of giving him a shot at Dart\u2019s job, ever. Unless their hand is forced, of course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In their idea of a perfect world, the New York Giants would be building towards a better future right now under the leadership of quarterback Jaxson Dart, and Jameis Winston would be standing nearby offering smiles, wisdom and moral support. But that plan blew up in Week 2 when Dart went down with a knee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}