NFL
By: Mark T. Wilson
The New York Giants are going through it. Forget the losing; it has to be driving the organization, players, and fans crazy watching NFL highlights and thinking what could have been.
The Giants didn’t value Saquon Barkley enough, and all he did was sign a lucrative contract with division rival Philadelphia Eagles. To make matters worse, he would go on to rush for over 2000 yards and help lead the Eagles to a Super Bowl win. Talk about having a rough offseason. Oh, wait, we forgot to mention that all this was done in front of cameras for the entire world to see.
Then, if things could get any worse, they agreed to release their starting $40M QB, Daniel Jones, and watch him join the playoff-bound Minnesota Vikings. Now, in 2025, Jones is the starting QB for the Indianapolis Colts, who are off to a great start to the season. Oh, and Jones is playing like the QB the Giants paid him to be.
Now they have another QB controversy on their hands with Russell Wilson and Jaxson Dart. Wilson was just benched this week in favor of the rookie Dart. This is important to keep an eye on, because if Dart fails, then what?
The New York Giants are not done with the heartbreak section. They have to play in a division that houses the defending champions, the upstart Washington Commanders, and yet, they still found a way to lose to the Dallas Cowboys, who many figured would be cellar-dwelling thanks to their own offseason issues.
How does a team with such a rich NFL history keep making these types of mistakes? There is no way a GM should still have a job after the sloppiness with which he has handled the team. Letting Barkley go could be viewed as a mistake. The Jones fiasco is still a head scratcher, and then this Wilson/Dart nonsense is more for the fans than anything. Yes, the Giants’ front office has lost the team.
Instead of trying to win games, they are trying to appease the fans. With the praise surrounding Dart and his preseason play, the Giants were wise to keep the rookie out of the starting unit. The plan was to let Wilson deal with the tougher part of the schedule and ease the young Dart in. But no, Brian Daboll and the Giants decided this week not to listen to logic and throw caution to the wind.
This could come back to bite them in the ass. Dart will make his first regular-season NFL start against the tough defense of the Los Angeles Chargers. His next 4 games following the Chargers will be against the New Orleans Saints, the Eagles, the Denver Broncos, the Eagles again, and then the San Francisco 49ers. Ouch!!!
On the flip side of things, maybe they believe that Dart could change the course of the season. But are the Giants really that good as to where the rookie can come away from these games with at least 3 wins? Their opening schedule was brutal for a team that didn’t make the playoffs.
I can understand the rookie getting his chance; this is not about whether he can play or not. No one in Tennessee is saying not to start Cam Ward because he’s a rookie. The issue here for me is how the front office has handled the team over the last 2 seasons.
What I fear is that Dart will struggle. The upcoming schedule is unforgiving, and if he can’t add wins to the column, will the fans stick by his side? This is the New York Giants we are talking about, and they have not had a good track record of QBs since the retirement of Eli Manning. Daboll was brought in to be a QB whisperer of sorts, and that didn’t work out too well for Jones. They gave up on him, and now he’s lighting the league up for an undefeated team.
If Dart does struggle, the Giants are right back where they were last season. They will enter the 2026 NFL Draft looking for a new leader at the position. And the reason that will be is that they made a change for a rookie in the middle of a season with tough competition ahead.
Playing preseason ball is different from playing meaningful Sunday football. The front office and coaching staff of the Giants are already on the Hot Seat as is. This decision could not only set them back as a staff, but it could also cause the New York Giants to waste a future draft pick on another QB, fracture the locker room, and, most importantly, it could damage the psyche of another young QB.
