John Harbaugh took over the New York Giants in part because of the promise presented by second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart.
Dart is out for the season with a knee injury suffered Monday night in a 28-6 defeat at the Los Angeles Rams, and the popular opinion in New York now holds that Harbaugh might be in for a long debut season.
Yet there are reasons to believe New York (1-1) might be able to salvage a respectable season, starting with Sunday’s home game against the winless Tennessee Titans.
One of those is the presence of veteran Jameis Winston. While turnover-prone across most of his 12 NFL seasons, Winston also owns a 5,000-yard season and has thrown 156 touchdown passes, including 33 in 2019.
Winston completed only 11 of 27 passes on Monday night. He can be expected to be more accurate Sunday because he’ll take all the practice reps with the starters. Harbaugh and the coaches will also fit the offense more to Winston’s skill set instead of Dart’s, which allows them to feature his mobility.
Winston made two starts last year when Dart was sidelined with a concussion, throwing for two touchdowns, running for a third and even catching a score. In the short term, keeping Winston healthy is critical. The only other quarterback on New York’s roster is Jake Haener.
“Jameis is one of our guys who obviously is here for a reason. He’s a very good football player,” Harbaugh said. “Injuries in the National Football League are part of it and that’s at any position. You got to find a way to overcome those kind of things.”
Also helping New York: its next five games are against teams that are a combined 2-8. Three of those games are at home.
Tennessee (0-2) nearly pulled off an upset last week but fell 24-20 at home against Philadelphia, allowing the winning touchdown pass with nine seconds remaining The Titans were dominated for most of the first half but outgained the Eagles decisively until Jalen Hurts led the game-winning 65-yard drive.
Lost in the news about Dart is that Tennessee brings back the Giants’ former head coach — Brian Daboll calls the plays for Tennessee — and top receiver from last year in Wan’Dale Robinson, who had 92 catches for 1,014 yards. Robinson has six receptions for 47 yards in two games with his new team.
“I have a whole lot of memories,” Robinson said of his years with New York. “I grew up so much from the time I got drafted there and it’s part of the reason I’m the man that I am today.”
Daboll served as the Giants’ coach from 2022-25 and earned NFL Coach of the Year honors after the 2022 season. Daboll was fired last year after New York stumbled to a 2-8 start.
Daboll is attempting to help develop second-year quarterback Cam Ward, much as he did with Josh Allen during four years in Buffalo. Ward has been hampered by a lack of talent around him but has shown flashes at times, including during the second half last week.
Ward will face a short-handed defense as Giants linebacker Brian Burns (ankle) is expected to miss the game. The Titans face injury questions of their own as running backs Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears are dealing with ankle soreness.