Giants will consider all options at QB after Jaxson Dart injury

0:00Coming up on today's PFT live, where will the New York Giants go from here now that quarterback, Jackson Dart is out for the rest of the regular season. We'll get you ready for week three, the Falcons, visiting the Green Bay Packers, plus a look at the various receiver injuries that may be affecting their teams abilities to win games this weekend. All that and more on this Thursday edition of PFT live. Six months, 162 games, an entire season, earning your place. Then, the Wildcard arrives. Just when you proved you belong, you have three days to prove it all over again. Someone's moving on, someone's going home. The MLB Web Card Series, presented by Fee, begins September 29th on NBC and Peacock. It was purpose in this. You know, and we all know what it is at some point in time. But it's okay to feel bad right now.

1:05I think I might have mentioned the world, the sun is going to come up in the morning, the world is going to keep spending. Not exactly a glass half full assessment. Yes, the sun will come up. We think the world will keep spinning. We hope that. Giants have encountered an unexpected divot in the early stages of their season. That's obviously one of the top stories in the NFL Jackson Dart now expected to be out for the year or as we'll explain coming up out for the regular season, which implies that the Giants will somehow get to the postseason without him, which is not impossible. But it will be much more difficult without their preferred quarterback. My preferred co-host Chris Sims had to take yesterday off because he was so distraught at the news that Jackson Dart's injury was worse than believed.

2:08He had to take a sick day. He was home sitting on the floor, turning the light on and off repeatedly at the dashing of any and all hopes that he had that the G men would turn 2026 into a season to remember. He's recovered and he's back. Hello. Hello. How are you, man? Yeah, that was depressing. It wasn't the re you called your shot. You know, you said it. You said it with my college football ball and all that I'm doing. You're going to need a day here and there. And yes, yesterday yesterday was one of those days. It wasn't because of the Jackson Dart injury, but regardless, that just, yeah, that's such a damper, a Debbie Downer, whatever you want to say there. It just it stinks at the Giants this year as you know, you felt it the same way. More hope this year than that I can remember in a long, long time. It'd be back to the prime Tom Kaufflin Eli Manning days to where we had this kind of hope as a Giants fan base and not for Super Bowl, but just everything was going in the right direction. It seems like we got our quarterback. We got a lot of other guys to that come along. We got the coach and yeah, now it just is like, I don't know what's going to happen here and what James Winston will we get and just all of those things of course are percolating through all Giants fans minds.

3:22Or to cover as much ground as we can over the course of the next two hours on PFT live here on peacock NBC SN series XM 85 NBC sports now channel, which I try to mention more often than I have in the past guys sports whenever they decide to put the show on podcast, where we get your podcast and look, it's Packers Falcons tonight at Lambo field will get to that at some point if this was a clash of the Titans coming. In the land of the cheese we would lead with that we will get there be patient Packers fans and any remaining Falcons fans that are out there. For now though, we need to better process this whole Jackson Dart situation. They've gone with multiple starting quarterbacks every year since 2019 Eli Manning the last one to play the full slate and obviously every team wants to have its starting quarterback all year long.

4:22That was something Kevin O'Connell told us back at the combine the idea is we want to have a starter and the year that we have the same starter every week we go to the playoffs the year we don't we fail to make it there's a consistency there. It helps everyone you don't adjust to the way the guy makes his reads the way the guy throws the ball where the catch radius needs to be because of how the ball comes in just everything it affects the other 10 guys tremendously when you change from one quarter back to the next so you want to keep the same one and five starting quarterbacks have been injured so far this season will that trend continue I don't know the giants don't care it happened to them lightning struck for them and now they're going to have to figure out what to do and we still haven't seen Chris exactly what the injury I know other than me right it goes from the neighborhood of the MCL to this veg he needs surgery and he's out for the year. And we still haven't seen what it may be what it is what they think it is and I don't know maybe they don't know until they get in there I've heard different theories the MCL fully torn that would require surgery and a lengthy rehab possibly when the MCL's been injured you get a meniscus situation maybe they need to repair the meniscus that's what wiped out JJ McCarthy's rookie year takes three months at least to recover from a full meniscus record.

5:50Full meniscus repair the trims easy you take off a little piece and you recover and off you go the repair takes longer a lot longer. Long term because you don't want to give up that cardelage you don't want the carlers to go away. Yeah money it's a finite amount of money in the bank and once it's gone it's gone so we still don't know but we know it's not good and that has just been the the trickle that became a title wave when we realized yesterday that's it. Season over with the caveat that maybe he'll be back if they make it the postseason really by then why would you go back to exactly right makes no sense missing in all this yeah if you make it to the playoffs with James Winston or whoever we're going to talk about the whoever yeah option if there is one but if you make it to the playoffs with the backup why would you throw Jackson dark back out there of course not right you're exactly right I mean you're you're in the playoffs you're playing good obviously that quarterback. That's been playing instead of Jackson dark hopefully James Winston's playing so well that you go hey he's playing play off caliber football well we'll see the team as we always know is going to have to pick up the slack for no Jackson dark here for a few weeks or at least

7:05till James Winston can really get to a spot where certainly he can function at a higher level than he did on Monday night because that was pretty poor as we know but yeah until he gets going and really starts to feel like okay I'm I'm back into the starting quarterback mode here and play on that way but yeah the injury I mean it's it's things it's it's it's one most I think when you listen to a lot of the giant people that kind of you follow the team beat writers it sounds like it's MCL PCL and repair cartilage that's what it sounds like now I don't know that definitively but but that's where it is it's it's it's shocking but not shocking right it's not shocking because if anybody saw that injury you're like something's hurt like something's torn there's no way he's that flexible in his knee is that rubbery that it can bend like that and totally be okay now maybe the giants dropped the ball to a degree I think people are making a bigger deal that they are at first it was the four to six weeks things yeah they tested his ACL was in the back so I think they were like yeah his ACL still intact he might be okay right and then of course the whole reading the lips thing on the

8:12sideline like I did and so many others did where I think it let everybody to go who maybe there's some hope but they get home they do more test he gets MRIs he does that and now here we are and you know doctor with the grim reaper came yesterday and told us all that you know to pump our body is hurt and he's out for the year it's just it's a blow to the football team as we know let's hear a little bit from a head coach who is now digging very deep into the jack harbob bag of motivational phrases to try to try to find a path forward given the worst case scenario for the giants only five quarters into their 2026 season john harba making it official yesterday with the news that jacks and dart has a serious knee injury and will be gone for a while. Yeah it's a big loss for sure you know it's it's a you're starting quarterback tough loss.

9:17What's the time line? uh regular season at least. He's out for the regular season john. What is the injury? It is an issue. It's a knee injury. When you said regular season are you like hopeful that maybe he can come back for the post season is that what you're saying here? I think I said it. Yeah. I said it. Regular season. Hey look. I'm not trying to get political here. This is just a comparison between a head coach in a very prominent political figure of the past 40 years. There have been comparisons made between john harbob and Joe Biden. That was peak Joe Biden john harbob. It was a facial expression. That was a little bit. I know what you say in there. Yeah. Well unfortunately there's a lot of memes going around that the you know the current president was the touch of bad luck here which continues to go on to. I didn't mean to open the door.

10:17Well the list is pretty incredible when you go through it. It's hard to kind of like you know avoid it when you start to throw out like holy cow. Yeah he met him and he's done for the year. He met him. He's fired. He went to that game. They never lost. They lost like it's it is crazy. Uh but whatever. But I hear what you're saying there regardless. He's a hard list. Hard ball. He's pissed. You could see that. He is pissed. I mean yeah it's his it's his his his chance. I think he felt like hey we we got a team here. We got a team here that we can I think sneak up on the league in the MFC with a little bit as we saw in week one. And who knows where week two would have gone if Jackson dark didn't get hurt. Of course the first drive was promising. It looked okay. You know hey he I'm sitting there writing my notes to myself. Going man. Darts just got great feel. He's got great feeling the pocket you know but then of course it all comes crashing down. And now we're going to see what the and not only that Brian Burns has heard on top of that. He's going to miss a few weeks. So they got a battle here. It's just crazy as we know you know the NFL. It just can change like that in one second for a team a player.

11:21And now we're going to see yeah not only a James Winston but like we always talk about I had this conversation with Mike Tomman on my show. Yesterday Mike. It's like you got to go into all the rooms now and go hey running back you got to be better. Hey oh line we got to be better. Hey past rushers we got to be better. Hey special teams we might have to make a play every week now and then until James Winston gets going and can really run the offense the way you want it to. And that's where we always hear the phrase of like yeah the rest of the teams got to pick it up. Well that's you know that's a saying for a reason. There's truth there to that. And now we're going to see if the giants and the coaches can come up with game plans and play a style football that can still keep them competitive and win some games here. Jim Jim John. They're going to earn their money. I mean this has the potential to be full blown disaster for the Harbour Brothers this year. We've already spoken it like about what's going on with the Chargers and now the giants have to worry what comes next. But for John this is the the opportunity to really coach these guys you're not on autopilot not that he would have been anyway.

12:26Yeah. But now you got to get these guys to dig deep you got to get guys to believe you got to get your players to be confident that they can just take it. Let's go one week at a time. Let's go one drive at the time. Let's go one play at a time. Let's do we're professionals. We know what we're doing. We know what we are capable of. We can go do this. We just have to do it. We just have to do it and we have to find a way to do it. So it is an opportunity. There are different words you can use to describe a horrible set of circumstances in a positive way. It's a challenge. It's an opportunity. And it really is an opportunity for John Harbour and the giants to take this specific unwanted adversity and try to turn it into something positive. And we have no idea what's going to happen. It's going to play out one game at a time starting this weekend with the Brian Debal Homecoming to MetLife stayed in. He's the offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans. Yeah. But you just don't give up. You just don't forfeit your remaining games. You go out there and you play and you do your best.

13:26But it's a reminder of the importance of the quarterback position and the impact of losing your quarterback for as Harbour said, at least. Yeah. The regular season, which means as a practical matter the whole year because as we've established if they get to the playoffs, the last thing you're going to do. Now Jackson Darts going to be champing or chopping it the bit. People think it's chopping. I think it's technically championing and now I've just bought myself 17 emails on that question. But either way, he's going to want to come back. He wanted to come back during the game. Probably wants to try to come back week four. I mean, the guy wants to play. The guy wants to do his job. Yeah. That's why we love him. That's why giant fans love him. Yeah. And so he's going to be pushing and pushing and pushing. You know, you think of other quarterbacks that have been injured. You hear the time tables accelerated. Remember, these are elite human beings. These are people who heal faster than the average person. So I fully expect Sunday splash reports and various other updates as we get deeper into the season that, oh, maybe, oh, maybe he's had a schedule.

14:31Yeah. So that's going to be part of his narrative is it all unfolds, especially if they're still kind of hanging around. And they're still kind of, you know, not clear cut playoff team, but maybe with a little kick in the ass post Thanksgiving, they can get there. Yeah. Yeah. That's the hope. Hey, the hope is and what you got to do is change the psyche of the locker room because that's a big deal, like you're mentioning. I mean, it's the starting quarterback. He's a starting quarterback for a reason and one of the biggest reasons other than like his talent on the field is his ability to kind of routily the troops get the team to believe. And Jackson Dora Dart has that kind of that kind of aura. He does. He has that kind of charisma where I think the locker room and the fan base, of course, especially is kind of like, hey, he's out there. We got a chance. He can make plays. He can do some special stuff. He never seems to be rattled or bothered by anything. It's just go forward and keep ballin that way. And that's what's been awesome about Jackson Dart.

15:32You know, he definitely is not buckled under the big lights of New York City or the pressure of that. In fact, he's derived in it. He's he's he's in, you know, embrace the city. He goes to all the cool restaurants. You see him around doing all that. You know, the city loves Jackson Dart. So yeah, that's that also plays into the locker room in the organization. And then where the organization's got to be careful is not to fall into the trap this week of, oh, it's 10 to see. They're not very good. And you know, we lost our quarterback and all of a sudden you lose a game. You shouldn't lose to to a team that's not as good as you because you're kind of feeling sorry for yourself. You do got James Winston. He has thrown for 5,000 yards. He can, as we saw last year when he played in Detroit, he can still make some big time plays. Plays that starting quarterbacks can make or even some that can't make. And so within that, you hope he can capture the locker room and have that charisma too to where everybody will believe in him. The problem with James is that he can do that, but also through, you know, pick sixes and interceptions.

16:34And that's where they're just going to have to find the fine line of how to play with James Winston. And hopefully he knows how to play as well. But they're still hope here that they can be competitive and a pain of the butt here in the NFC. I do believe that. Six months, 162 games, an entire season earning your place. Then the Wildcard arrives. Just when you've proved you belong, you have three days to prove it all over again. Someone's moving on. Someone's going home. He did it again. The MLB Wildcard series presented by Fee begins September 29th on NBC and Pcock. It's the James coaster. Yeah, it's going to be up. It's going to be down. It's going to be throws. It's going to be chills and you just hope that the car stays on the track. And it's going to be entertaining. Whatever it is, it's going to be entertaining. This isn't backup quarterback. He's going to be handing the ball off. That's right. 45 out of 50 plays.

17:35This guy is going to be trying to make things happen. He's going to be doing his stuff on the sidelines before the games. The cameras and the microphones will be trained to James Winston with whatever he is saying to try to get his guys inspired. And that's exactly the kind of guy that a hard ball would want to have around. He leans into that same quirky goofy but somehow weirdly effective way of getting everybody in the right frame of mind. So that's part of the challenge. The other challenges once they're in the right frame of mind can they go out and make it happen with the guys that they have. So that leads to the next question, the conundrum, the dilemma going forward this week. It's a short week. It's a no brainer. James Winston backed up by Jake Hainer. Yeah. That's what the giants are going to be going with. But what about the future? So here's Harbaugh asked about the possibility of adding a quarterback and there was a little back and forth with the reporters.

18:38Let's have a listen to the 46 president. I mean, John Harbaugh, talk to reporters about what their options may be at the quarterback position. Why does it burn in any other borrower? We will. We will plan on doing that absolutely. I can't say who at this point but work on that. Do you prefer a veteran there, but that's not an option. A veteran. You as opposed to a rookie like right now. A younger guy. Someone who has experience playing in the NFL. You know, I think I would probably, but you kind of got to go with what's available as well. And you never know if a younger guy comes available that's interesting. You know, that would fit. I think we're looking at all that. It just depends on really what our options end up being. Would you be open to trading for someone or is it who's available? I think all options are open. Yeah, all options are open right now. All options are open and there are really three categories.

19:40One, you find a guy who's available in free agency. Two, you trade for someone. Three, you grab a guy off of someone's practice squad. Now, you may not get him because when you start sniffing around the team that has him, they say, hey, we'll elevate you to our active roster. And when you do that, I think the guys are guaranteed at least three weeks on the active roster. Thank you. Right. There are those three main categories. And this is one of the arguments he gets expanding the league. There aren't enough good quarterbacks to go around for the 32 teams we currently have. And anybody that's got a good backup isn't going to let it go. You're going to have to target a team that's got three, maybe four quarterbacks that they feel good enough about to keep around. And that you feel good enough about to go say, this is our James Winston break glass in event of emergency option guy that we can maybe get up to speed. So as the resident giants fan,

20:42when all of this first happened and you called off work on Wednesday because you were so distraught, who's the first name that came to mind for you? What's the first name that popped into Christopher Sim's head as to a guy that you have in the event that it just doesn't work with James? Yeah. Well, my mind works more like what you said. So I don't, I don't just go to like one guy, right? I hear, I hear, I hear right away. I hear like, oh, maybe they could trade for Mac Jones. Maybe they could trade for Mitchell, Trubisky. And I'm like, yeah, I want to, you know, comment on these articles and go, are you guys serious? You have the 49ers going to throw it out, throw it out. They're super ball hopes to go. Yeah, we'll trade our backup who saved us last year so we could get to the playoffs. But we'll let you have them. Like, come on, what are people thinking? Yeah, Mitchell, Trubisky, yeah, the Titans, Camor just coming off on injury. We're going to trade Mitchell away, Tug. And just if Cam gets hurt, we're just going to let the season fall apart. I mean, so yeah, so you, you have to think like what you said, it's about who's out there.

21:44Jimmy Garoppolo's out there. Okay. Is this he want to play football anymore? I don't know. That's where your mind goes first. Then you go into what you said. All right. Who are the teams that have three guys? Who, who is that? And you go through it. The one and the first ones that comes to my mind is Gardiner Menshu, right? To the Arizona Cardinals with Carson Beck there. As we know, they were impressed. He got a little banged up in the preseason, but I think he's probably worthy of, oh, hey, he might be a guy we want to play anyways if the season goes down and see if he's a starter. And I think he can be a backup. One of the cults, guys, would that, would that be an available option? You know, whether it's Richardson or my man Lincoln or Riley, what the hell is his first date? Riley Leonard, sorry, I got, see, I got college football. Lincoln Riley Leonard. I know. So I got it on my head. You got that. You got the Philadelphia Eagles who have Dalton, Andy Dalton and Tanner McKee. There's, there's two there. Would they make an individual, an individual trade there? Your Pittsburgh Steelers, Mason Rudolph.

22:46Would he be a guy that maybe would be available because they like their younger guys? Or you go to the New Orleans Saints who have Zach Wilson and Spencer Ratler. But it, to me, yes, Mike, you said it, right? It's got to be one that's got three and they're certainly comfortable with two and probably have a guy on practice squad to go, hey, we could trade this guy. And then we do have a third on practice squad or we put him on the roster or whatever. We still feel good about our situation of something happens to us. That's kind of where my mind went and that's kind of the names that I kicked around here. I know we've heard Joe Flacco, but I want to be like, guys, the bangles aren't going to throw away. They're super ball hopes to give the Giants Joe Flacco. Come on. Let's move on from that. And so we'll, we'll see where this goes, but that's someone's that made sense to me, Mike. The question then becomes though. And the Vikings went through this when they lost Teddy Bridgewater 10 years ago right before the start of the season. The Vikings then led by Rick Spielmann start making phone calls and. The price instantly goes up.

23:48Yeah, right. The first round pick and a fourth round pick for Sam Bradford that year, because they thought they had a pretty good team in place. And they wanted to try to plug a guy in who could compliment what they had. And obviously it didn't work, but they gave up a one and a four to get Sam Bradford. So, and that was an Eagles team that was sending out the signals that Bradford was going to be the week one starter. And then they get the opportunity to get a one and a four and they're willing to go with Carson Wentz. Yeah. So I think that. What we don't know is what the team secretly thinks about. The guy who would still be the backup Curtis Rork in San Francisco. Yeah, that's right. Now, you may know what Kyle thinks of Curtis Rork, but they're looking at Mac Jones leaving after this year anyway. You get a compensatory draft pick consideration in 2028. There's a complicated analysis you look at. And hey, you want to make us an offer we can't refuse. Okay. Yeah, right. We feel good enough with the guy we have or maybe they bring back Jimmy freaking Garoppolo to be the backup.

24:51I don't know. But if the giants are willing to give up a premium to get a guy who seems currently indispensable, that's what could change the analysis. The giants aren't going to want to mortgage their future. Exactly. For a placeholder. Yeah, that's right. That's a tough thing. You mentioned Minshue and I've talked to some people. Minshue is the most common obvious. Cardinals don't need him. Yes, right. Cardinals have Carson back. He's not the insurance policy for a Super Bowl roster. And this is an opportunity to get draft pick compensation at a time when the giants have a need and you can maybe get a little bit more. Yeah, for the desperation. Right. For Gardner Minshue. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. There's a couple of names that intrigue me. Yeah. I think. There's a car is one. He's on the Saints Reserve retired list. And if yesterday afternoon, I'm told the Saints hadn't heard from the giants. They'd have to do some sort of a deal with the Saints if the giants want Derek car. Now does Derek car want to play?

25:51Do the giants want Derek car? But if you're looking at all options, you put out the big board. You put all the names. Let's not forget Derek cars out there and he's made noise periodically about coming back. He hasn't followed that up with a droopries style. I can't throw the football anymore. He by all appearances has gotten to the point. He had the shoulder thing. He retired in May of 25. And he's just there. And every once in a while, he pops his head up and says, yeah, I would still possibly play. So that's an option. I just don't know that it's an option that materializes for John Harbor on the giants. Yeah, I hear you. You know, I don't think that would be the option. I would want there as far as that. But it'd be worth a phone call. I mean, I hear you there. I don't think that's crazy. The other one that does come to my mind, come to my mind a little bit too. And this is where I thought you were going to go. Is the JJ McCarthy thing? Because if they do have the situation again, I was going there next. Okay.

26:51Well, let's go there now. Because I do think that's a. Jim loves him. Hey, Jim loves him. Jim loves him. Jim loves him. If Jim loves him, I'm sure John loves him. Right? There's as we know, head coaches, what makes them feel warm and cozy in life is that, hey, I know this guy. I know how he operates. You know, it might be time for a change of scenery for JJ McCarthy altogether. Yeah, they got Carson Wentz. We expect Kyler Murray back this week. They got Max Prozmer on the practice squad. Would you want to kick the tires on JJ McCarthy and deal with that and then have him be the back up to James Winston? I don't know. Maybe it's not a crazy thought. Now, you know, the thing is, is will you feel like it, you know, makes things messy in the offseason? They just gave James Winston a contract extension. So now you got JJ McCarthy with Jackson Dart coming back and then then, you know, it's hey, he's a top 11 pick. You know, we got first rounders and that's because sometimes teams don't want to deal with all that crap and that talk there. Then Jackson Dart plays one or two bad games next year and everyone's like, oh, JJ McCarthy's there.

27:54It was a first rounder. You think you should put him in, but, but, you know, right now, desperate times. And they got to figure out what they want to do here with the football team. That wouldn't be my choice for JJ, JJ McCarthy as far as that's concerned because of all things. But I certainly would make that phone call no doubt. It puts him a step closer to playing than he currently is. It puts him at two. Yeah. He's currently at three. And if James Winston struggles and they like what they see from JJ McCarthy and they decide to tailor the offense to fit his strengths and abilities and skills limitations, etc. Maybe you could cobble some wins together, but there's a trust level there. I'm sure John's been around JJ McCarthy. That's right. Games for Michigan where John's been on the sideline. So he's had a chance to eyeball him to scout him up close. So it's one that we have to put on the board. He said all options are on the table. We're just looking at all the options that are on the table. Here's one for you. Let me throw this one at.

28:54Okay. Remember when it came out after the 2025 draft, the Ravens wanted to draft Schudur Sanders and he said, no, thank you. He didn't want to back up a little March, Jackson. Yeah. Right. Who's coach of the Ravens at the time? It was John Harboh. Yeah. And if the Browns are just like looking to go all in with the Sean Watson and get off this Schudur Sanders thing and there are other considerations and how would the fan based react? I haven't seen anything to suggest it Todd Monkin gives a shit about that. But those are all factors. But if he would be available, if the Browns are looking for an exit ramp from Schudur Sanders, we have objective facts linking Harboh to Shedur. What would you think of Shedur Sanders as the alternative to James Winston or as the failsafe in the event that it goes cuff Fluey with James? I like, you know, the idea of the football field, but it's the other stuff that I think would be scary and then leading into next year and just what that does. As we know, I mean, yeah, the Cleveland Browns are dealing with a lot of crap just from the people that support Shedur Sanders and they're having to hear about that all the time.

30:00You know, it's a different situation to me than Baltimore where it's like, hey, it's Lamar. You know, you're the backup. You're not playing. He comes here to the Giants. People are saying, you know, it's going to be worse than what we just said with JJ McCarthy. Next year, it's going to be like, should he start? He should start and you're going to have these people with all this talk and it's going to overtake the team. I don't know if I'd want that if I'm John Harboh on the Giants right now. And if I'm the Cleveland Browns, I wouldn't want to give away Shedur yet. I still, we got to see. I want to see first before I just, you know, send him packing and dealing, I mean, and deal him away that way. So I would, I find that not great for the Giants. And if I was the Cleveland Browns, I wouldn't want to do it either. Now, you know, Dylan Gabriel, that's another name that you could throw in there because they do have tail in grain too. So they got the four quarterback situation. Could I see that maybe more? I think you could, you know, as we know, see, you know, these teams don't want to deal with, oh, we have a guy that's a backup who's going to be the main attraction for the media to talk about.

31:02And he's going to be the main thing team anybody talks about on our team is the backup quarterback. I don't think John Harboh wants to deal with that right now. So that's where I could see Dylan Gabriel maybe making more sense than should your Sanders as far as that's concerned. I am in the process of taking a quick look at Dylan Gabriel's game logs from 2025. I'm curious if he faced the Ravens during any of his starts. He played against the Vikings, the Steelers, the dolphins, the Patriots, the Jets. His final game was a 26, 13 loss to the Ravens. He was seven for 10, which tells me that's a game that maybe they gave him the hook for Shedor. That may have been the day that they pivoted to Shedor because Shedor started the following week against the Raiders. So seven for 10, no touchdowns, no interceptions. And that's pretty much it for Dylan Gabriel that day. So it's a limited sample size directly head to head with John Harboh seeing what Dylan Gabriel can do.

32:02Six months, 162 games, an entire season, earning your place. Then the Wildcard arrives. Just when you proved you belong, you have three days to prove it all over again. Someone's moving on. Someone's going home. He did it again! The MLB Wildcard series presented by FV, begins September 29th on NBC and Peacock. I agree with you though. And there's a broader conversation to be had about the future. I want to get there. I do want to address one thing though. I engaged in something of a sociological experiment yesterday, coupled with calling someone on their possible BS. And let me give you the background real quickly. Colin Kaepernick's got this book out now and he's been doing interviews everywhere and I have ignored 99% of it because my general thought is why didn't you say all this stuff back when they were blackballing you.

33:04He made a strategic decision 2017, 18, 19, did not say a damn word. And now because he has a book out he's talking to everybody. So that's one of the reasons I just haven't paid any attention to it. It's everywhere. Okay, but the one exception to that is John Harbaugh decided a couple of weeks ago to pop up and say I really wanted him in Baltimore. We had to deal with this guy in the Super Bowl. We couldn't stop him. Jim believes you can win championships with him. So I threw out yesterday, hey, if that's what you think, just bring him in and see what he can do. Bring him for a workout. And I knew that there were various people whose heads would explode at the mere suggestion of that. They would jump to conclusions. They would assume that I was saying make him the starter. All I'm saying is the guy's available. He claims he stays in shape. He claims he's ready to go. How hard is it to bring him in and say, all right, here's a football show us what you can do. How hard is that if you're looking at all options? And if John Harbaugh loved this guy and he's 38, which Aaron Rogers is 42, Kirk or Cousins is still playing. Throw him out there and just all I said is if John Harbaugh loves the guy, Jim Harbaugh loves the guy.

34:10The guy says he's still training every day and he's ready to go. Just throw him out there and see what he can do. And I did that with kind of an impishness because I knew, I mean, I made the list. I knew whose heads were going to explode. And you're welcome for the content that it gave you yesterday so you could have somebody you could chastise for suggesting that the guy should be the starter, which I didn't do. But hey, Chris, all options are on the table. What's the harm? Show us. Show us what you can do. What else are you can do? Come on in. Show us what you can do. We probably can't do much after 10 years out. But if John Harbaugh loves the guy, he's an option. He loved the 2012 version of him, Mike. I mean, my head didn't blow up, but I go, that's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. It's been a decade. And he had a workout down in Atlanta that wasn't that impressive and not even organized. And he hasn't even shown that he really wants to get back all the way. It's been a lot of talk. Oh, I know. It's calling him on his possible BS, calling Harbaugh on his possible BS. The whole point is people are hovering around this.

35:12Oh, I can still play. Okay, fine. Go try out. Oh, I love calling Kaepernick. Fine. He says he can still play. Try him out. It's like if you people mean what you say Kaepernick, Harbaugh and anybody else who still thinks Kaepernick can play. This is a golden opportunity. And it's not going to happen. But my point is there's so much noise that's kind of rotating around now about I can still play. And I love this guy. Here's a prime example to prove that it's true between Kaepernick and Harbaugh. And it's not going to happen. And I just, I wanted to have some fun yesterday. And I knew that it was going to cause people to get a little bit, get a little bit feisty, get a little bit upset. And we can see the move on here is where we spin it forward. Yeah. Here. And this is this is the question I have. And you've touched on this as it relates to what some of these options would mean down the road. What would JJ McCarthy mean down the road? What would you do? Sanders mean down the road? Yeah. At what point does head coach who didn't draft Jackson dark? Take a look at the bigger picture and say

36:17is it prudent for me entering year two as head coach of the New York Giants to say, hey, all right, Jackson, you're 100% go out and play 17 games. Or do you have somebody else there? Do you make another plan? Are you committed long term? Like I think that getting injured week two, not his fault. But he does hold the ball sometimes a little bit longer. He's got a fearlessness that is admirable, but it puts you in a bad position. We've seen him in the blue tent more often than a, than a cup scout. So I, I think that at some level, you have to at least do the long term planning is Jackson, dark 10 to 15 year guy. Is he guy that we're still not quite sure and we need to have a more viable plan B who's not just veteran, but developmental. I just think those are questions that if I'm John Harbaw, I'm at least pondering them. I at least want to resolve them. I don't just want to assume Jackson, dark is my guy indefinitely into the future because he suffered a season end in the end of the week two of the first year that I worked with him.

37:25Yeah, no, listen, I hear what you're saying that he plays a physical brand of football. So there is a little worried about that as far as how long that'll last, but like, you know what you said earlier, it's hard to find 32 starting quarterbacks and they got one. And they got one that I think's got potential to be in the top half of football and a top 10 type of quarterback. And so that's where I think you don't want to upset that apple card. For now, I think you just go, hey, the way he plays, we better make sure we have a high end back up. And I think that's why they invented invested in James Winston. I think that's where it goes for now, you know, but, but you know, he has shown the ability to be something special. And I don't think you want to mess that up for where you are. He got it's unfortunate. It happened. It is. And I don't know if you, you know, one of the things that drove me crazy about the moment. And like I said on Tuesday morning a little bit, I just wish they would have called time out on that damn play. I really do. They were so mixed up. The whole play was messed up. And both tackles got off the ball just a hair late. They were in the wrong formation. He got them over here. They got over there at the snap. I showed it on my show yesterday. Theo Johnson, the tight ends looking back at him like this.

38:34When the balls being snapped. And then they say, said, huh, and I could tell you in my, my wife and my son will tell you I was going, just call time out. It's the first drive of the game. Call time out. We're next up messed up. And then yeah, he gets hit like that. But, you know, back to the point of, no, I don't think you think of the future yet. But you, you protect him a little bit and your team with high quality backups. And maybe that means you draft a quarterback in the mid rounds. That next year too. To even have that as your third guy behind James Winston for one more year. So then maybe the next year he supplants, you know, James is the backup. James moves on or tires, whatever. And you just have that guy. I think that's what you got to do. At least for now, a Jackson Dart, because he doesn't have an injury history. And as far as, you know, college and all that, you got banged up last year. I know that. But nothing serious until right now. Well, I think part of what you also have to do is you got to coach some of that. Yeah, they're trying to hire out of it. Yeah. And maybe maybe it's just a product of age. The brain doesn't fully develop for the male of the human species until age 25. And maybe through some of the experiences. And that's the thing too. Is it brain development or is it just as you do dumb things you learn from it? It's both saying it was dumb for him. But it's

39:54he's got that he's got a fearlessness that straddles the line with recklessness. That's the challenge. And Winston is signed through 2028. They gave him a two year $13 million extension. Yeah. Before the season, which is money well spent now that he's going to be starting 15 games if all goes well. He may want to he may want to go back. And he does have he does have playtime in the South. That are tied to four years. He's got 40% 50% 60% 70% so it's not huge money. But he gets it 40% he gets another 250,000 50 another 250,000. And it goes up in the same increment 60 70 if they make the playoffs. If they if he plays 70% they get to the playoffs. It's 500,000. So he's going to make some extra money if he goes out there and plays and delivers. But they are comfortable with him as the guy behind Jackson. And it's just be there's so much you got to configure on the fly when the backup comes in. We talked about that with the Sam Darnell drew lock. It makes what drew lock did even more impressive. Because it's not just the guy who comes off the bench to play. It's the other 10 guys figuring out on the fly how we're going to adjust to this other quarterback with the game plan that we have with the plays that we put in the game plan.

41:12And what is going to work and it's all happening quickly with 10 seconds between plays to make a decision as to what you're going to do on the next play. So the numbers weren't great, but he gets a week to prepare. And I think what he does this week is going to be far more telling what he did on Monday night agreed there. Give him a week of preparation throwing the ball again. You know getting his mind right as far as you know being able to practice some of the moments going through some of the moments in your head there. And he certainly didn't seem ready to go the other night, which was the shame. I mean that that was disappointing like we talked about even throwing the ball wise, you know, I'm usually a pretty big fan of James's ability to throw the ball. I didn't think he was sharp in that department. But no, you bring up the Seattle sea hawks and drew lock and yeah, that's why you got a great that's why you get good backups. And hopefully that's where James can come through in the clutch here for the New York Giants drew locks leading the NFL and pasture rating right now. And some of that is because of drew lock the other part is what you just talked about the rest of the team picking it up the defense, the run game, everybody.

42:15The offensive coordinator may be going, you know, I usually wouldn't call this play, but I'm going to have to help him out a little bit and make a play maybe jumpstart the offense. It's going to take all of that for the New York Giants and James Winston. And yeah, you know, the other point you made with Jackson Dart, you know, as far as can you coach it out of them, probably not totally you're right. It probably is going to come with age and maturity as a card carrying. And so you know, I was the one who got a good choice to be a member of an asshole who thought he was indestructible in the pocket. And that's why I lost my spleen in my career is over is because of that's that thought right there. I was 26. I was. Yeah, young dumb and full of it. Okay. And I thought I was indestructible. And of course, that's what a lot of guys out and football thing and and quarterbacks especially can think that way. And yeah, you paid the price and he's got a little of that too, which is admirable. And you love it, like you talked about the team rallies behind it. Look, our quarterback. He's not really a quarterback. He's a football player. look at our quarterback. He's not really a quarterback. He's a football player. They love that. The locker room loves that. But it comes with, you know, a casualty cause as we know. And then that's what we saw on Monday night. And that's, that stinks.

43:19By the way, I don't know if this was some sort of a cosmic message. I don't know how you thought to mention it today. The planets lined up perfectly. I had forgotten. We talked about this last week. But today is the 20th. Oh, Lee crap. I did not mean to do that. That's crazy. That's crazy. That came up. Yeah. September 24 2006. Jesus. Panther's bucking ears in brutal heat. Brutal heat. Brutal. Yeah. Brutal heat. Brutal heat. Brutal humidity. It was so hot. And like I told you, when it happened to me, I mean, of course, I was extremely uncomfortable. But you don't think of your, your, your, your organs getting hurt in a football game. I thought I like broke a rib and it was, it was like puncturing my lung or pressing against my lung. I couldn't catch my breath. I didn't know what the hell was going. I could not find a position. I mean, that, you know, I could, it was one of those where, you know, you probably were going to just with your back all summer early in the summer. You just can't find a position to ever go like, wait, it's relieved or, oh, I feel a little bit better. But, you know, to the point that we always

44:25talk about on this show, we were o and two. I love football. I wasn't going to let the backup go in. I was playing good. I threw an interception on the first play of the game. But other than that, played really well. And, and just wasn't going to go down like that. Um, and yeah, it's crazy. That is a, that's 20 year anniversary. It's, it's crazy. I'm that old and it's crazy that it happened in general. You remember the final score of the game? Gosh, I, you know, so, God, I got, he kicked a 58 yard field goal. I'm going to say 27 24. 26 24. Oh, I mean, it was, we dropped an interception late in the game. I, I went in for the IV, right? Because I, as I've told you this story, but I'll tell it once again, it was the greatest fall start. Dan betting my left guard and the history of my career. I called the play to go on a hard to. I'm sending the guy in motion. As I'm sending the guy in motion, I'm going, wait, everything's getting darker around me. The curtains were coming down. And of course, I was losing blood. As you know, I lost nine pints of blood that day. And

45:30you only got 14 in your body. And thank God the left guard jumped off side and went down to my knee because I was like, Oh my God, I'm going to have to hand the ball off and just basically just stick my arm out and hope Cadillac Williams takes the ball. And I went in and got a IV. I missed a series. I came back. I took us. I think on two drives late that I thought we're going to win the game. And what was the kicker's name? Carl Carlson? What the hell was his name? John Casey. Casey. That was a dammit. And he crushed it. And that crushed me. And that was it for my year. 46 yard field goal with two seconds left. It says in the item that I found you were replaced by. Do you remember who replaced you? Is that Bruce Greikowski? Bruce Greikowski. Last play of the third quarter in the first play of the fourth. That's all you missed. Yeah. Last play of the third, first play of the fourth went to the ground on one knee before leaving the field and walking into the locker room on his own power. The Buccaneers had punted two plays later. You returned to the game. Tampa Bay got the ball back. You let a fourth quarter field goal drive with a punctured ruptured

46:33spleen that gave Tampa Bay a 24 took some big hits. Yeah. And I thought the Buccaneers had a good defense. I mean, come on Warren. Come on guys. Your quarterback's got a ruptured spleen. He wasn't there anymore. That wasn't there. Yeah. Yeah. 2006. Yeah. He was on the Raiders already. Yeah. Well, that was that was one of our teams. That was that they played us tough always. John Foxx and the Carolina Panthers as you can imagine. But Julius Peppers and Chris Jenkins and Thomas Davis and Chris Gamble in the background. I mean, man, they had players. Keeshawn was still a receiver. They had good running backs. Jake Deloam was a hell of a quarterback. One of the most underrated quarterbacks really of our era. They were damn good and they gave us fits and they were big and physical and we were small and fast and big and physical one that day. Well, I would have not remembered if that hadn't come. That's crazy. It came up. I did not mean to do that. Yeah. And I'd like to think in today's NFL, someone would have noticed that you were in distress a hell of a lot sooner and someone

47:40would have gotten you proper medical attention, a hell of a lot sooner. And I'm not blaming John Grood or anyone else. No, no, no. It was a different era. Definitely. 20 years ago, there is a sensitivity to player safety now. Yeah. That didn't exist then. And it's mainly because of head injuries. But there are other potentially serious health conditions that can manifest themselves during a game that you need to have someone paying attention to a guy who's in distress. That's why they need the neutral doctor. Like you talked about, you know, that's the big thing. You go down to a knee and you go to the locker room. It's not just, let's get him back out there. Let's get him back out there. It's a close game. We got a chance to win. Yeah. Somebody's got to be the adult in the room says, hang on. Let's make sure these guys are okay. It was tough. And it's why you do need the neutral doctor because I certainly will never fault anybody on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I could tell you that. I mean, you know, nobody was forcing me. I was forcing myself. I was going to play. Now the problem was I had a great relationship with the team doctor and Joseph Diacco, the late great Joe Diacco. He was the man. He was my buddy, like my legit buddy, like would go to his house and have a barbecue kind of guy.

48:45So he knew I didn't want to come out. And that's where the personal part can maybe affect things at times. He was worried about me. I could see the concern on his face. Like he wanted to do something. But I was giving him the look like, Hey, F you, I'm playing. Shut your ass up. And we were that close to where he knew that. And he trusted me. But right away when I got in the locker room after the game, I mean, if he wasn't for Joe Diacco, right away going, Hey, it might be a spleen. I think we got to get him the emergency room right now. Those few minutes and the fact that he diagnosed that that quickly, that ultimately did save my life. As you know, because they brought my wife in to say, but I mean, I didn't even take my football pants off. They just cut them off and started doing all kinds of crazy things to me. And all the next thing I knew I remember. I can remember Mike last thing I'll say is the surgeon standing over me eating an apple, right? And I'm like, who was this guy eating an apple? And I didn't know he was my surgeon at the time. And he was kind of just like sitting there evaluating the situation. And I remember when I came

49:45out of surgery, like a day later when I saw him, I was like, Oh, you were the guy that was eating an apple. And he's, Oh, you remember that? He goes, I usually can tell, you know, if the guy's going to make it or not by their attitude right before we go under, right? And so that's where I was. I was certainly at a 50, 50 point there as far as making it or not. He was eating the apple in the in the operating room. No, I was like right outside the operating room. And I think they were putting all the yeah, you know, they were giving me all the, you know, whatever the hell the drugs that make me knock me out and all that. And it was in that process. And I was at a moment there where I was like, take him a shity out. Take your chainsaw. Open me up. Please, I'm miserable. That's where I was at. And of course, Dr. Ishevaria, he saved the day there. I still don't, I still don't easily picture the doctor standing out in the hallway, chomping on an apple. He's getting ready to perform life-saving surgery. But that whole mindset, skill set, everything about it. Yeah. When you have people's lives in your hands,

50:49it I guess you can. I guess eating an apple is a sign that you're in the right frame of mind. You're calm. You're ready to go down, eat my apple. And then we'll go cut this bastard open. That's right. I kind of felt that way. I remember thinking at the moment, this guy's pretty cool and calm right now. He's like a fourth quarter quarterback. I think I'm going to come out all right on the other end here. All right. Let's take a break. We have talked a lot this week about quarterback injuries. There are also some fairly significant receiver injuries. We'll get you the latest on some of the big names when P.F.D. Lot continues right after this. Six months, 162 games, an entire season earning your place. Then the Wildcard arrives. Just when you've proved you belong, you have three days to prove it all over again. Someones moving on. Someones going home. The MLB Wildcard series presented by FB, begins September 29th on NBC and Peacock.