losing 21-6 to the Commanders<\/a>?<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s an emotional game, it\u2019s a tough game,\u201d Daboll said. \u201cIn terms of making any of those decisions \u2014 really at any position or schematic changes \u2014 I\u2019d like to do it with a clear head and watch the tape. That game doesn\u2019t fall on Russell Wilson. We\u2019ve got to do a better job collectively \u2014 coaching, playing \u2014 but Russ will be the starter.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seems like a no-brainer considering that the Giants committed to Wilson, 36, as their starter in March \u2014 before the team ever practiced or finalized its draft plans \u2014 in conjunction with signing the 10-time Pro Bowler to a one-year, $10.5 million free agent contract<\/p>\n
Russell Wilson looks to throw during the Giants\u2019 game against the Commanders on Sept. 7, 2025. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n
And then the Giants spent the next six months publicly and privately praising the co-captain Wilson\u2019s leadership as well as his practice performance \u2014 even as rookie first-round pick Jaxson Dart simultaneously passed every test to claim the No. 2 quarterback spot ahead of Jameis Winston.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s the natural thing these days in the sport of football, which is unfortunate at all levels,\u201d receiver Darius Slayton said after going without a catch in Week 1. \u201cEverybody wants \u2018new\u2019 as soon as they think that things aren\u2019t going well.<\/p>\n
Jaxson Dart warms up before the Giants\u2019 game against the Commanders on Sept. 7, 2025. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the reality is that things take time and not everything is just a 9-1-1 situation. We have good coaches, we have a good quarterback in Russell Wilson and it\u2019s one week. If you kind of look at the history of football, it hasn\u2019t always served people well to just throw people in the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe completing 17-of-37 passes for 168 yards was just one stinker from Wilson, who was sacked twice, hit eight times and pressured 13 times.<\/p>\n
But there were signs of what has caused three Hall of Fame-caliber coaches \u2014 Pete Carroll, Sean Payton and Mike Tomlin \u2014 to move on from Wilson in the past four seasons. Most notably, getting jittery in the pocket.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussell\u2019s first thing to do, consistently, versus any form of pressure: drops his eyes and looks at the rush,\u201d ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky wrote on X after watching the Giants-Commanders film. \u201cThat, to me, screams \u2014 time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giants head coach Brian Daboll (l.) looks on as Russell Wilson (3) walks off the field during a game against the Commanders on Sept. 7, 2025. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n
Wilson experienced the third-largest drop-off in the NFL last season (-31.6 percent) in completion percentage when not under pressure (72.6 percent) compared to when he faced pressure (41.1 percent), per NextGenStats. <\/p>\n
He attempted 24.4 percent of his passes last season while on the run \u2014 the second-highest rate in the league by a starting quarterback since 2016.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
All bets on Wilson\u2019s job security are off if the offense again has trouble reaching the end zone and the Giants start 0-2. <\/p>\n
Especially with a prime-time home opener against the AFC champion Chiefs and a potentially restless crowd awaiting in Week 3.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Remember, the Giants benched franchise icon Eli Manning after an 0-2 start to go with rookie first-round pick Daniel Jones in 2019.<\/p>\n
If owner John Mara signed off on that decision, it\u2019s hard to imagine he would stand in the way of replacing the rental Wilson with Dart if that\u2019s what both Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen want.<\/p>\n
Daboll and Schoen were among the Bills decision-makers who planned to sit rookie Josh Allen in 2018 \u2014 until a 47-3 season-opening loss to the Ravens prompted the dawn of The Allen Era in Week 2 at Nathan Peterman\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo behind the scenes with Big Blue\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Giants by Paul Schwartz, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cI have confidence in Russ, and we\u2019re doing everything we can do each week to develop Jaxson,\u201d Daboll said. \u201cHe spends a lot of time in the building. He spends a lot of time after practice going through things that he needs to go through to prepare himself to be ready if he gets called upon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giants had a package of plays installed for Dart that were never used in Week 1. <\/p>\n
Inserting Dart behind an overmatched offensive line without a supportive running game isn\u2019t going to help him build confidence, so it\u2019s unclear what will be deemed the right spot to debut him.<\/p>\n
\u201cUrgency doesn\u2019t always mean \u2018Oh, we have to fix this and fix that, change this and change that,\u2019 \u201d Slayton said. \u201cNo, sometimes you have the right people, you have the right things established, you have the right culture, you have the right everything aligned, and it\u2019s just a matter of people doing better. Doesn\u2019t take massive changes, doesn\u2019t take a brain trust, doesn\u2019t take calculus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Russell Wilson Era with the Giants will last at least two starts. After he left the door…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":212685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[49262,12949,4716,1232,12116,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-212684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-brian-daboll","9":"tag-jaxson-dart","10":"tag-new-york-giants","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-russell-wilson","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115174091355168244","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}