Month: September 2026

With Caleb Williams out, the Chicago Bears needed Case Keenum to provide a steady presence in their Monday matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles. Keenum delivered, and then some. Keenum, who entered the season as the Bears’ third-string quarterback and hadn’t started a game since 2023, played nearly flawless football. He completed 24 of 34 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns to go with a rushing score, leading the Bears to a decisive 27-7 victory. Here are my takeaways from the Monday night matchup that Chicago fans will forever know as the Case Keenum Game: Monday night brought a new challenge for Ben Johnson’s reputation as a top offensive mind: Can he pull off a big win with a backup quarterback? Taking the field without Caleb Williams for the first time, Johnson’s answer, a 38-year-old Case Keenum in his first NFL snaps since 2023, was a resounding yes. Chicago’s defense helped out with three takeaways, but Keenum earned the win himself, throwing for touchdown passes to Luther Burden and Kalif Raymond against an Eagles team that came into the game 2-0. The Bears had already seen highs and lows offensively, scoring 59 points in an opening win over Carolina before a three-point showing in a rainy slog of a loss to Minnesota. For Keenum, the journeyman now has a cool piece of NFL history, joining Ryan Fitzpatrick as the only quarterbacks to start and win games with seven different NFL teams. For Keenum, that covers the Texans, the Rams (in both St. Louis and Los Angeles), the Vikings, the Broncos, the Commanders, the Browns and now the Bears. For the Bears and Johnson, they continue to keep pace in a talented NFC North, behind the surprising 3-0 Vikings and even at 2-1 with the Lions. Chicago stays home to face the Jets on Sunday before a biggest test at Green Bay in Week 5. With the Eagles’ loss, they fell into a tie with the New York Giants at 2-1 atop the NFC East, on a day that New York traded a fifth-round pick to acquire quarterback J.J. McCarthy from the Minnesota Vikings. The Washington Commanders got their first win Sunday, upsetting the Seattle Seahawks, and the Dallas Cowboys are 1-2 with the highest-scoring offense (and defense) in the division. Philadelphia’s offensive woes continued on Monday, though. The Eagles mustered only seven points against a Bears defense that gave up 37 two weeks ago to Carolina. Jalen Hurts threw for just 153 yards on 25 attempts, and Saquon Barkley rushed for 82 but couldn’t get into the end zone for a third game in a row. What’s more, the Eagles’ next two games are at home against the Los Angeles Rams and Jacksonville Jaguars – neither an easy opponent – while the Giants host the Cardinals and go to the Commanders, so it’s reasonable to think the Giants could be alone atop the NFC East entering Week 6. The Giants and Eagles play in Philadelphia in Week 9 and then close the regular season against each other at MetLife in Week 18, with plenty of division games for Washington and Dallas to get involved as well. The first half had two and nearly three drives that got to the 1-yard line but did not result in any points. First, the Bears thought they had a Colston Loveland touchdown, but after review, he was ruled down inside the 1-yard line. D’Andre Swift was dropped for a 2-yard loss, Case Keenum threw an incomplete pass and the Bears went for it on fourth-and-goal, with Keenum’s pass broken up by Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell. The drive that followed was even tougher, with the Eagles also driving to the 1-yard line. Jalen Hurts was hit hard as he went out of bounds and was pulled for the game to check for a concussion. While he was out, Saquon Barkley ran to the 1-yard line, and again, the drive stalled. Barkley was dropped for a 1-yard loss, and on third-and-goal from the 2, backup Andy Dalton was intercepted in the end zone by rookie safety Dillon Thieneman. The Eagles nearly did it again just before halftime. With no timeouts and 11 seconds left, Hurts threw a pass to DeVonta Smith, but he was stopped at the 1. With the final seconds ticking off, the Eagles quickly lined up and got the snap off in the final second, with Hurts diving in for a touchdown. Had he attempted to spike the ball to stop the clock, it didn’t look like he’d have done it in time. And just like the Eagles, the Bears avenged their previous 1-yard line shortcoming when Keenum scored a 1-yard QB sneak that extended the Bears’ lead to 27-7. How rare is it for an NFL team to drive 90-plus yards and not score? There were 81 drives of 90 yards and longer last year, and only five of them failed to yield points: 74 touchdowns, two field goals, three interceptions, one fumble and one turnover on downs. It’s worth noting that two of those came against Chicago: one field goal and a Dak Prescott interception for Dallas. Before Monday, the Eagles’ last 11 drives of 90-plus yards had all resulted in touchdowns.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

The biggest disappointments in the NFL so far this season? That’s easy: Patriots quarterback and 2025 MVP runner-up Drake Maye and the 1-2 Packers. What about the biggest surprise? The 3-0 Raiders, even with No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza yet to take a snap. Meanwhile, pressure is already mounting on 2025 No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward just three games into his second season with the Titans. All these teams are represented in my best and worst superlatives coming out of Week 3. In this edition, I focus on individual plays, offenses and overall team performance. Let’s dive in. Remember last season when kicker Tyler Loop missed the field goal in Baltimore’s regular-season finale against Pittsburgh that would’ve sent the Ravens to the playoffs? Afterward, remember how then-Ravens coach John Harbaugh consoled Loop on the way to the locker room? That’s part of what makes his 56-yard, game-winning field goal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — the kick that lifted the Ravens past the Dallas Cowboys 34-31 as time expired — so awesome. In his first chance at a walk-off field goal since that Week 18 miss last season, Loop rose to the occasion. And he’s been delivering since the season began. A brief competition with veteran Jake Moody after Loop went 3-of-8 on field goals in the preseason ended when he went 2-for-2 in the Ravens’ 41-23 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1, hitting from 57 and 45 yards. Baltimore released Moody from its practice squad after that performance. A sixth-round pick last year, Loop is 5-for-6 on field goals so far this season, showing that he can be a reliable scorer for a Ravens team expected to contend. It was all set up for Cam Ward to have his moment. The Titans were knocking on the end zone at the Giants’ 7-yard line, trailing by five points with 24 seconds left. Ward’s second career game-winning drive was at his fingertips … but it slipped through when he made a very bad decision. The second-year Titans quarterback rolled to his left and fired a pass intended for wide receiver Elic Ayomanor at the back of the end zone, failing to see Giants safety Jevon Holland lurking around the goal line. It was an easy pick for Holland, sealing the game for New York. It wasn’t a do-or-die situation for Tennessee. Ward could’ve thrown the ball away if he had any doubts about the window he was seeing. It was a first-down play, after all. He had space to run, too. Even if Ward couldn’t get out of bounds, the Titans had two timeouts to stop the clock. So time wasn’t an issue either. It was just a terrible decision all the way around by Ward, who had flushed a shaky performance through three quarters with a terrific final period up until the interception. Now, the clock must be ticking on last year’s No. 1 overall pick. And not the clock for a benching, to be clear — another Titans season appears to be headed nowhere, so to sit Ward in favor of veteran backup Mitch Trubisky and miss out on reps doesn’t make sense. But at the current trajectory, the franchise could be having the quarterback conversation this offseason — whether to bring in veteran competition or to draft a QB to compete with Ward in 2027. We’re 20 games into the Ward era in Tennessee. He’s 3-17 in those games. Ward has had a lot of dysfunction around him for much of that time, and he’s flashed at times in spite of that dysfunction, but his development has been headed in the wrong direction to this point in Year 2. The Titans have invested heavily at the wide receiver position with No. 4 overall pick Carnell Tate and free-agent acquisition Wan’Dale Robinson. The pass protection has been fine — Ward has been sacked just five times through three games and has faced a 34.3% pressure rate, 12th-lowest amongst qualified quarterbacks, according to Next Gen Stats. So the onus is on Ward to start playing better. We’re running out of excuses to make for last year’s No. 1 overall pick. Turns out that the return of quarterback Michael Penix Jr. was the solution to the Falcons’ problems. After missing Atlanta’s first two games as he worked his way back from the torn ACL that ended his 2025 season, Penix returned for Thursday Night Football against the Packers, leading an electrifying Atlanta offense that netted 500 yards before his back-to-back kneel downs to end the game. Superstar running back Bijan Robinson had 29 carries for 194 yards and two touchdowns. Standout wide receiver Drake London caught nine passes for 194 yards. Robinson and London became the first teammate duo in league history to finish with 150-plus rushing yards and 150-plus receiving yards in the same game three times, according to Next Gen Stats. So the Falcons’ biggest stars led the way in what was a thorough whooping for Atlanta, which recorded 242 yards rushing and had a 37:05 time of possession. All of a sudden, the Falcons become an intriguing team. It remains to be seen whether Penix can stay healthy and replicate his Week 3 success (72.0% completion rate for 256 yards and a touchdown with an interception). But with competent play at the quarterback position, Atlanta is a legit NFC playoff contender given its talent at the offensive skill positions and on the offensive line. Right now, it’s difficult to believe that the Patriots were in the Super Bowl just seven months ago. Their offense continued to sputter Sunday, when they were blown out 35-6 by the Jaguars. New England reached Jacksonville territory seven times but failed to score a touchdown on any of those possessions, its most drives in plus territory without a TD since Week 8 of 2023, per NGS. The play of quarterback Drake Maye is the biggest concern. Against the Jags, he completed just 56.0% of his throws for 199 yards with no touchdowns and three total turnovers (two interceptions, one lost fumble), giving him a league-high seven giveaways. His throw to a tightly-covered Efton Chism III in the end zone just before halftime that was picked off by Travis Hunter was a shockingly bad decision — awfully similar to his game-sealing interception in New England’s season opener in Seattle. The Patriots need to figure out what’s wrong with their young quarterback and fix it fast, because things could get even spookier for New England. Its offensive line, which was an Achilles’ heel in the Super Bowl run last season, is already becoming problematic again. The Patriots were down to their third-string right guard against the Jaguars because starter Mike Onwenu (broken ankle) is on IR and backup Greg Van Roten didn’t finish the game because of a thigh injury. How about those Raiders? They improved to 3-0 with their 35-27 win over the New Orleans Saints. And it was truly a complete victory — the Raiders scored four touchdowns and forced four turnovers, all of which came in the fourth quarter. It marked their first 30-plus point performance since Week 15 of 2023, and the four takeaways in the final period were more than what the team had in the fourth quarter of the entire 2025 season (3). No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza will be the Raiders’ starting quarterback eventually, but Las Vegas has no reason to move off the Kirk Cousins wave right now. The veteran QB has thrown three touchdown passes in each of the first three games of the season. He’s leading a team that has far exceeded expectations under first-year coach Klint Kubiak. And Las Vegas just got one of its best players back in star tight end Brock Bowers, who had a team-high 10 catches for 116 yards in his season debut Sunday. We knew that the AFC West would be tough, with the talented Broncos and the return of Chiefs star QB Patrick Mahomes, but didn’t anticipate the Raiders being part of the equation. Now, here we are. No NFL team is inspiring less confidence right now than the 1-2 Packers, relative to the expectations for Matt LaFleur’s squad this season. The Packers were completely overwhelmed in their 35-14 loss to the Falcons. Green Bay’s run game produced 17 net yards, while quarterback Jordan Love completed just 52.8% of his passes and was pressured 23 times. Defensively, the Packers gave up 242 rushing yards and pressured Penix just five times on 25 dropbacks. As lead running back Josh Jacobs sits on the commissioner’s exempt list, Green Bay is averaging an alarmingly-low 48.7 rushing yards per game through three weeks, by far the NFL’s worst. Its offensive line is in shambles. The defense has no identity without Micah Parsons. Parsons is eligible to return from his ACL rehab in Week 5, but nothing changes in Green Bay’s outlook until the offensive line play improves. And that’s difficult to imagine right now, considering right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele — the team’s best lineman — suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 2 and Green Bay’s struggles at the guard position. The team signed veteran Laken Tomlinson off the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad and free agent Mekhi Becton in recent days for reinforcements.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Well-executed football was in short supply across the NFL in Week 3. But, as always, the slate provided plenty of drama. The Bills rallied from a double-digit hole to avoid an upset against the Chargers; the Ravens and Cowboys gave football fans in Brazil quite the show; and the Broncos, with some help from the refs, knocked off the Rams with late defensive heroics. All three games turned on pivotal fourth-quarter plays, from Justin Herbert’s poorly timed interception to Lamar Jackson’s last-second pass to Zay Flowers and Talanoa Hufanga’s pick-six. As always, we’ll dive into the strategies, the matchups, and everything else that created those memorable moments – along with what those moments mean for the future. Tom Brady just has a way with words, I guess. A week after sending the internet into a frenzy by calling a Dak Prescott throw a “piss missile,” he used a more PG descriptor for Justin Herbert’s fourth-quarter interception in Sunday’s loss to the Bills. “There’s a safety in the middle of the field,” Brady said. “Poor awareness, poor decision. Throws him a meatball sub.” It’s never good when the greatest quarterback of all time is comparing your throws to Italian sandwiches. This was a new low for Herbert in a season full of them. So what, exactly, did Herbert see before serving up that meatball sub to C.J. Gardner-Johnson? Here’s the all-22 angle of the interception, which took points off the board for the Chargers and set up Buffalo’s go-ahead drive. Herbert wasn’t asked about the play after the game, so we’ll have to do some guesswork. Herbert’s eyes go to Gardner-Johnson, and he sees the Bills safety turn his hips toward the sideline. It looks like Gardner-Johnson is bailing to the deep half, and Buffalo is rotating into a Cover 2 look. In theory, Marquez Valdes-Scantling’s post route would be open against Cover 2, which leaves the deep middle of the field vacated. But as soon as Herbert’s eyes left Gardner-Johnson, he changed direction and worked back to the middle of the field, taking away that route. It’s unclear whether the Bills were actually playing Cover 2; either way, Gardner-Johnson made a heady play baiting the throw. And, either way, Herbert has to do a better job holding the safety with his eyes, since there’s no deeper route to the right to pull Johnson out of the middle. Herbert (wrongly) assumes the deep middle is wide open and tosses up a meatball sub that Gardner-Johnson devours for a momentum-swinging play. The takeaway: The Chargers’ deep passing game is a mess. Herbert is 1-for-12 with three interceptions on deep pass attempts this season. There have been some drops, and receivers are struggling to separate, but Herbert has also served up a few sandwiches. L os Angeles has had no issues moving the ball, but the lack of explosives and the repeated blunders in enemy territory have prevented the offense from taking off like everyone expected before the season. This play was a good microcosm of the issues. The play design doesn’t stretch the safeties to open up the deep middle; the Chargers are relying on a receiver who was just signed off the street; and Herbert makes a disastrous decision while trying to do too much. Seven seconds. That’s all Lamar Jackson needed to get the Ravens from their own 35-yard line into range for Tyler Loop’s game-winning kick. Here’s how he did it. As easy as Jackson makes it look, that’s a remarkable throw. Per Next Gen Stats, the pass traveled 36.4 yards in 1.6 seconds. Based on my back-of-the-napkin math, that works out to a 46-MPH throw. As much as I’d like to heap praise on Jackson for the game-winning effort, the Cowboys’ defense really botched this one. Some have blamed deep safety Alijah Clark for the coverage bust, but he’s actually doing his job by retreating downfield. The blame falls squarely on two Cowboys defenders who were nowhere near Zay Flowers when he caught the ball. The first culprit is safety Marquise Bell, who’s playing the “robber” role for Dallas. The robber’s job is to help with in-breaking routes over the middle, which Bell does—he just picks the wrong route to help on. Bell latches onto Mark Andrews, who’s running a crossing route that’s about 15 yards short of field goal range. With only seven seconds on the clock, Andrews didn’t pose much of a threat, and Bell didn’t need to jump his route. That put our second culprit, Caleb Downs, in a tough spot. Once Bell takes Andrews, Downs becomes the new robber. Downs needs more depth to get into deeper passing windows. Instead, he parks himself around midfield and is in no position to help on the routes behind him. Reddy Steward, the cornerback responsible for Flowers, expects help inside and plays with outside leverage. Could he have been tighter to Flowers? Absolutely, but his teammates left him out to dry. The takeaway: The coverage was poorly executed on the field, but this epic failure ultimately falls on first-year defensive coordinator Christian Parker. Man coverage, with just one deep safety, is a bold call in that scenario. And if the young Cowboys secondary lacks the situational awareness to take up a deeper position, Parker should have gone with a more conservative call, like a soft zone. Over three weeks, this Dallas defense has played like a poorly coached unit. Parker was brought in to clean up last year’s mess and help out the offense. That hasn’t happened and the 2026 Cowboys look an awful lot like the 2025 version of the team. Let’s stay on the subject of coaches not putting their players in a good spot to succeed. Only in Denver, Broncos safety Talanoa Hufanga found a way to make a play for his team despite his defensive coordinator, Vance Joseph, putting him in a precarious situation. Hufanga’s game-changing pick-6 of Matthew Stafford came on a play where he was left to fend for himself in a two-on-one situation. The Broncos sent an all-out blitz on third-and-6 and disguised it by lining up a safety in the deep middle. With only Hufanga lined up over the two receivers to Stafford’s right, the Rams quarterback assumed one of the potential blitzers on the line of scrimmage would have to drop into coverage. That didn’t happen. Denver sent the house and asked Jones to come out of the deep middle to cover one of those receivers man-to-man. Stafford recognized it instantly and targeted Kyren Williams’ quick out route. Quick outs are typically a good answer against the blitz, with defenders often playing with inside leverage to guard against quick slants and in-breakers. So, this was a bit of an I-know-you-know situation. Hufanga knew Stafford would be looking for the quick out against the blitz and fell off his original assignment to jump that route. Hufanga made a similar play to seal the win. With the Rams needing a touchdown and only seconds on the clock, the Broncos sent another blitz, leaving the secondary in man-to-man coverage across the board. Knowing Stafford would likely target Davante Adams, Hufanga left his man and made a break on the ball to pick it off and end the game. “Your [thought] is, ‘best player on the field, they’re trying to get him the ball,” Hufanga said after the game. “So I kind of left my coverage and just went over there and made a play.” The takeaway: After a rough start to the season, this Broncos defense is rounding into championship form. Zach Allen was the hero in the Week 2 win over the Jaguars. This week, it was Hufanga, who also had a key third-down sack in the fourth quarter. Joseph has an ideal collection of plays to run his chaotic brand of defense. When this unit is at its best, even the league’s most experienced quarterbacks can struggle to figure out what they’re seeing. Next week’s matchup against the 49ers and the league’s hottest quarterback, Brock Purdy, will be a real test. The Broncos defense looks up to the challenge. 1. NFL teams should be running more lateral plays like the one the 49ers used to score an 82-yard touchdown on Sunday. That play inspired me to look into how effective those plays are, and the results are stunning. I excluded desperation plays in the dying moments of a game or half and focused on lateral plays called in more typical situations. I found 25 of them dating back to 2021. Those plays have averaged 18.9 yards and resulted in 15 first downs. Almost all of them have come in second- or third-and-extra-long situations. Ben Johnson has been the tactic’s biggest advocate. The Lions ran the play five times over his three seasons as offensive coordinator, and he used it once last year in Chicago. Kyle Shanahan had used it once before Sunday’s game. In last year’s loss to the Jaguars, Christian McCaffrey picked up a first down on second-and-16 after receiving a lateral from Ricky Pearsall. Maybe Sunday’s big play will convince Shanahan to lean into the strategy a bit more. After all, Purdy is now averaging 56 yards per attempt on those plays. 2. The Jets lost in Detroit on a sack-fumble by Geno Smith, but the veteran quarterback was hardly to blame. New York’s protection broke down, giving Lions safety Chuck Clark a clear path to Smith. So who was to blame? It looks like left guard Jordan Meredith caused the bust. The Jets are sliding three linemen to the left, with running back Braelon Allen working away from the slide. With six in protection, the Jets should have enough to pick up Detroit’s pressure. Instead, Meideth gets hung up on the defensive tackle and pins center Josh Myers inside. Myers and Allen both end up on Jack Campbell, leaving Clark unblocked. 3. As FOX Sports’ Joe Davis observed during Washington’s upset of Seattle on Sunday, Marcus Mariota looked like Peyton Manning orchestrating the Commanders’ offense at the line of scrimmage. Seahawks coach Mike MacDonald noticed it too, and credited Mariota’s pre-snap checks for making the difference. Mariota’s most important change came on the final drive. With the Commanders facing a third-and-9 and holding onto a two-point lead late in the fourth quarter, Seattle’s defense lined up in a blitz look with seven defenders on the line of scrimmage. Mariota had seen this look before. Earlier in the game, Seattle aligned the same way on second-and-long, and Mariota checked into a run that went for a 48-yard touchdown, but an illegal formation penalty negated it. Mariota made the same check on the key third-down play. This time, Washington lined up correctly, and Rachad White ran for 19 yards to pick up a key first down. A few plays later, Mariota iced the game with a zone-read keeper.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

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’s 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 — just maybe — 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’s too much uncertainty — from Dart’s recovery, to Winston’s ability, to whether McCarthy can salvage his own career — to rule anything out. So with that in mind, here’s how the Giants’ new-look quarterback situation shakes out: The now: The 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’t 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’t have liked what they saw in his first two games since Dart went down. That’s 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: Once 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’ interest in McCarthy: “He’s just a better fit for what we want to do. He’s athletic. He’s much more like Dart than Winston is. He may not be better, but he’s 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’ll be asked back in that role next year. The now: There isn’t much for him to do right now other than rehab his injured knee. The recovery from surgery — believed to be to fix a torn meniscus — 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’s 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 — a timeline one source indicates shouldn’t be a problem at all. The future: Make no mistake, this is Dart’s team. The Giants love him and his potential. Even Harbaugh, who wasn’t 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’t 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’s 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’s unlikely and probably improbable. But not impossible. The Giants, however, are absolutely going into this believing they will be Dart’s team in 2027, too. The now: The 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’s 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’t get on the field. Yes, he’s had injury issues. But Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell has a well-earned reputation as a quarterback whisperer. If he was willing to give up on McCarthy so soon, for so little, it’s fair to wonder if he’s just irreparably damaged goods. The future: It’ll take a few weeks to get McCarthy up to speed, but the Giants didn’t 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’ll be a change. But McCarthy will be pushing from behind, just with his presence. And don’t 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’s job, ever. Unless their hand is forced, of course.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports