Giants Chase Jimmy Garoppolo After Dart’s Knee Gives Out

The New York Giants have real interest in free agent Jimmy Garoppolo, a two-time Super Bowl champion who has started one game since 2023. Jaxson Dart will miss the rest of the regular season after left-knee surgery, and Jameis Winston is the starter against the Titans on Sept. 27.

New York agreed to a two-year, $13 million extension with Winston on Sept. 6. Fifteen days later, Dart’s left knee gave out in Los Angeles, and the only other quarterback under contract sat on the practice squad.

Five Passes, Then a Season on Ice

Dart, the 25th pick in the 2025 draft, had just opened John Harbaugh’s first season with a 28-20 win over Dallas. He completed 23 of 29 for 230 yards and three touchdowns, posted a 134.2 passer rating, and ran 11 times for 54 yards. On Monday night in Inglewood he got five attempts. He completed three of them for 20 yards, then two Rams defenders sandwiched him on the first drive of a 28-6 loss.

The first read was a sprained MCL. Testing on Tuesday showed damage to the MCL, the PCL, and the meniscus in his left knee, with the meniscus the main problem. The ACL is intact. After more opinions, Dart and the club chose surgery, and Harbaugh said Wednesday the 23-year-old is out for the regular season. Mike Garafolo said the Giants placed him on injured reserve on Thursday.

Ian Rapoport and Garafolo, with Adam Schefter, put the combined recovery at about six months, with a full return expected for 2027. Harbaugh would not name a surgery date and left a playoff return on the table if the Giants get there and the knee cooperates. He also said Dart sat in the Wednesday morning meeting, determined and “bummed.”

The season’s not over, but it is for him.

John Harbaugh, Giants head coach, Sept. 23 availability

For 2026 that closes the book on a two-game sample of 26 of 34 for 250 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. As a rookie he started 12 of 14 games, threw for 2,272 yards with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions, and ran for 487 yards and nine scores. The season-ending knee surgery now hands the offense to the veteran New York had already paid to stand behind him.

HOW THE ROOM EMPTIED IN 18 DAYS

1. September 6, 2026: The Giants agree to add two years and $13 million to Winston’s deal, keeping him through 2028.
2. September 13, 2026: Dart beats Dallas in Harbaugh’s opener, 28-20, with three touchdown passes and no picks.
3. September 21, 2026: Dart goes down on the first drive at the Rams; Winston finishes 11 of 27 for 111 yards and an interception in a 28-6 loss.
4. September 23, 2026: Harbaugh says Dart is out for the regular season, names Winston the starter, and says the club will add a quarterback.
5. September 24, 2026: Dart goes on injured reserve.
6. September 27, 2026: Winston starts against Tennessee at 1 p.m., with Jake Haener listed as the backup.

The Giants are 1-1. Sunday’s kickoff does not wait for the next signature.

Winston Starts Sunday Against the Titans

Winston, 32, was never supposed to be a 15-game starter in the first month of this deal. The club still built the contract as if Dart’s physical style might need a grown-up behind him. Over The Cap logs a two-year, $13 million extension at $6.5 million a year, with $12.24 million guaranteed, a 2026 cap number of $3,516,666, and $4.8 million in cash this season. He is also on Harbaugh’s leadership council, a rare spot for a backup.

Monday was a hard drop-in. Winston had not been scripted as the starter, the game plan was built for Dart, and he missed throws Harbaugh later declined to autopsy, saying the staff was on to Tennessee. Last season Winston appeared in three games with two starts and went 37 of 66 for 567 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. His last season as a full-time starter was 2019 in Tampa Bay.

Harbaugh called the shift a lane change, not a new offense, and said the plan this week will be built around what Winston does well. “He can throw it,” Harbaugh said. “He’s a big, strong, passing quarterback.” Winston, asked if he had pictured this job again, did not dodge it.

This is what I’ve always dreamed of, to be a starting quarterback. Obviously, my respects and gratitude is just going to be with Jaxson, but at the same time, this is what I dream of. I dream of being what I am right now and executing at a high level.

Jameis Winston, Giants quarterback, Sept. 23 availability

That is the part the Garoppolo talk talks around. Winston already has the job, the meeting reps, and the money through 2028. A new veteran would walk into a room that just told him the next four months are his.

A Champion Who Has Barely Played Since 2023

Garoppolo is 34 and turns 35 on Nov. 2. New England took him in the second round in 2014, 62nd overall, and he collected championship rings as Tom Brady’s backup in Super Bowls XLIX and LI. He started Super Bowl LIV for San Francisco and lost 31-20 to Kansas City, going 20 of 31 for 219 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. As a starter he is 43-21 in 64 career starts, with 15,828 yards, 96 touchdowns, 52 interceptions, and a 67.4 percent completion rate.

The recent tape is thin. His last start was Jan. 5, 2025, a Week 18 game against Seattle in which he went 27 of 41 for 334 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. He appeared in three games for the Rams last season and did not attempt a pass. He remained unsigned after Los Angeles wanted him back, talks with Arizona fell apart, and he spent part of the offseason weighing retirement. Garafolo said in July that Garoppolo had not decided to retire and would play “in the right situation,” which might take a starter getting hurt.

That situation is now on the table in New York. Garafolo said this week that Garoppolo has been working out, that retirement is not the path he wants, and that the Giants look like one of the few stops he would actually consider. “My feel is that this would be one of the right situations for Jimmy Garoppolo here,” he said. “So I would not be surprised if there’s some discussion regarding him.”

THE QUARTERBACKS IN PLAY

A deal would not make Garoppolo the starter. It would put a playoff-tested backup behind a quarterback the Giants already extended, which is a polite way of saying the $13 million net still felt one injury too thin.

Four Weeks Ago, Haener Doubted His NFL Future

Jake Haener is the name the Garoppolo chatter treats as a footnote, and he is the one who has to take the snaps if Winston goes down on Sunday. The Saints drafted him in the fourth round in 2023, 127th overall. He has 18 completions on 39 career attempts for 226 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Kansas City cut him in May. The Giants signed him in August, waived him at cuts, and put him on the practice squad.

In the preseason he went 9 of 10 for 116 yards and a touchdown against the Jets and posted a 158.3 rating. That was enough to keep him as the emergency third quarterback. It was not enough to get him on the 53-man roster while Dart and Winston were both healthy. After Dart’s injury, Garafolo said Haener will be the backup against Tennessee.

Haener said Thursday that four weeks earlier he did not know if he would be in a camp, or on a team, and that the signs pointed to being out of the league this year.

I thought I might have to play in the UFL or the CFL. I thought, ‘Should I go to Canada? Is the NFL done?’ All these things were on the table.

Jake Haener, Giants quarterback

That is the depth chart as it actually exists. Winston starts. Haener is one play from the huddle. Garoppolo is the veteran the front office can add so that sentence does not have to stay true through December.

Harbaugh Will Add a Quarterback

Harbaugh did not make the search a secret. Asked on Wednesday whether the Giants would bring in another quarterback, he said they would, they plan on doing that, and he could not say who. He leaned toward a veteran over a younger player “like right now,” then added that a younger name who fits would still be in the mix. On a trade, he did not close the door. He said all options are open right now.

THE PATHS LEFT OPEN

• The free agent: Garoppolo is the veteran who can sign without a trade, with Garafolo saying New York is one of the few places he would consider.
• The practice squad: Haener is already in the building and will be the No. 2 this week even if a veteran arrives later.
• A trade: Harbaugh left that route open. Adam Schefter has named San Francisco backup Mac Jones, who “will not be cheap,” and Arizona’s Gardner Minshew, who has worked under Giants offensive coordinator Matt Nagy.

Other names in circulation, from Tyler Huntley to Justin Fields, run into the same problem. A club that just paid Winston is not shopping for a new face of the franchise in Week 3. It is shopping for a competent third helmet so a 1-1 team does not have to put a practice-squad quarterback into a live game if Winston gets hurt.

Spending draft capital on a rental starter for a team that still talks about Dart returning in January is a different bet, and a worse one. The cheap version of this week is a short-term veteran on a prove-it deal. Garoppolo fits that box if he wants the job.

What the Giants Would Be Buying in Garoppolo

They would be buying a quarterback who has run playoff offenses and lost a Super Bowl with a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. They would also be buying rust. One start since 2023, zero pass attempts last season, and a summer spent on the couch thinking about walking away is not a hidden ace. It is a veteran who can operate if the starter fails a physical in November.

The loud objection writes itself. Championship rings do not complete third downs in 2026, and a 34-year-old whose last pass came in January 2025 is not a scheme fit for an offense that just spent a year around Dart’s legs. The quieter objection is the one that should bother the building more. New York already identified its veteran, paid him through 2028, and put him on the leadership council. Shopping Garoppolo 19 days later is a tell that the room behind Winston was never built for a full season.

Harbaugh’s own words cut both ways. He wants another quarterback, and he wants Winston to have a game plan that matches his arm. Those can be true at once. They still leave Garoppolo as complementary football, a run-game caretaker, the man who knows how to take a sack and live to punt. That is useful. It is also a long walk from the two-time champion framing that makes the rumor travel.

If he signs, the depth chart becomes Winston, Garoppolo, and Haener, with Dart on IR and a six-month clock. If he does not, Sunday still starts the same way it starts now.

Sunday’s Kickoff Does Not Pause for a Deal

The Titans visit at 1 p.m. on Sept. 27. Winston will take the first snap. Haener will be the backup. Dart will be on injured reserve, waiting on surgery and a recovery that the club has pegged around six months. Garoppolo will still be a free agent unless a deal lands in the next two days, and nothing in Harbaugh’s presser sounded like a signing was already done.

Harbaugh told the team the world keeps spinning, the games keep getting played, and nobody feels sorry for them. Sunday at one o’clock, he said, the ball is going to get kicked off. The Giants will roll out a quarterback they paid in September, a practice-squad arm who almost went to Canada, and a rumor about a champion who has not thrown a pass since the last week of the 2024 season.