When will it end? It seems that every time the New York Giants have gained traction in the past decade, they have suffered a catastrophic injury that sent them back into NFL purgatory.
Many of these injuries have come to key players who were high draft picks: Saquon Barkley, Daniel Jones, Andrew Thomas, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Tyler Nubin, Malik Nabers, Cam Skattebo, and now Jaxson Dart.
The Giants can't catch a break. The Dart injury could not have come at a worse time for Giants fans. Just as the Giants have shown signs of becoming a force again in the NFC, Dart goes down with a knee injury, which will likely sink their 2026 playoff hopes.
For Giants fans of a certain age, losing their starting quarterback for an entire season has happened before.
In the 1980s, Giants Ring of Honor quarterback Phil Simms missed time due to injuries twice while the Giants were in contention.
In 1981, he suffered a separated shoulder in November and was lost for the season. Scott Brunner stepped in and led the Giants to their first postseason appearance in 18 years. He even won a wild card game over the Philadelphia Eagles before losing to Joe Montana and the eventual Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers in the Divisional round.
In 1990, Simms led the Giants to an 11-3 record before breaking a foot bone in December, which sidelined him for the rest of the season and beyond. Jeff Hostetler replaced him and led the team to Super Bowl XXV, where they beat the favored Buffalo Bills, 20-19.
“When you lose your quarterback, that’s kind of a devastating blow,” Bill Parcells, the coach of the 1990 Giants, told Steve Serby of the New York Post. “But you know what they’re gonna want to know next Monday? Who won the game? That’s all they’re gonna want to know. Players are used to the Next Man Up kinda thing. That’s the way it has to be.”
“I just told my team: It’s not gonna be because of Jeff Hostetler that we lose,” Parcells added. “It’s gonna be one of you other guys.”
Current Giants head coach John Harbaugh, an upbeat leader whose glass is always half-full, couldn't mask his disappointment after the Giants' 28-6 loss to the Rams in Los Angeles on Monday night. In his postgame comments, he appeared sullen and genuinely upset, a side of him Giants fans have not seen since he became their head coach in January.
On Monday, Harbaugh had gathered himself and began to see where his team stands. He initially held onto the narrative that Dart's injury was not long-term. Now that he knows Dart's fate, he began to devise a plan to move forward.
With 15 games still to play and one win already in his pocket, it was time to make chicken salad out of you-know-what.
Harbaugh knows he has plenty of time and resources to salvage this season. He has a veteran coaching staff, a veteran replacement at quarterback in Jameis Winston, and a loaded roster that now must galvanize and become a team.
Dart will not be around to rescue them. They need to find another path to success. Someone asked Harbaugh if his message to the team was "next man up?"
"That was probably the basic message," he said. "But we’ve got a game to play. We’ve got a really good football team. We’ve got a football team that's going to be way better than it is right now. And that's what we're going to be attacking. So, looking forward to it. Can't wait to get on the practice field tomorrow."
And there you have it. Giant fans should come in off the ledge. This thing isn't over. Ask Brunner. Ask Hostetler. Ask Kurt Warner, who led the Rams to a Super Bowl a quarter century ago when they lost their starter, Trent Green, early on.
Winston was once the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and first overall pick in the NFL draft. He's only 33 and has a lot of gas left in the tank. Can he pick up his game and lead these Giants? It would be one helluva story if he can.
Harbaugh will use the loss of Dart and the team's failures in Los Angeles as a motivational tool to spark this bunch. It's them against the world, now.
The Giants brought him and Winston in here to lead, and that's just what they intend to do.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: The New York Giants have been here before and beaten the odds
