New York Giants football is officially back, like so back... couldn't be more back, and the first bit of drama has absolutely nothing to do with any game. One would think that all the noise would be about whether Jaxson Dart might see the field or how the offensive line holds up without Andrew Thomas (if he can't go). Instead, it’s about press conferences.
More specifically, the fact that Brian Daboll and the G-Men did everything they could to make sure two quarterbacks weren’t allowed to speak during them, according to Giants beat writer Pat Leonard. It's Week 1, and we're talking about press conferences.
Reporters wanted to talk to Dart and Jameis Winston this week. That's not asking for anything outrageous — just a few quotes ahead of the season opener, especially after the rookie leapfrogged Winston on the depth chart. Pretty routine stuff. But Big Blue shut it all down. And not just once. Multiple requests were blocked. Which is against the league's media policy. Someone should ask Dabs if he cares.
This isn’t about precedent. This is about perception, and someone in that building is being way too nervous about hot mics and hurt feelings.
Jaxson Dart and Jameis Winston being hidden from the media feels like a Russell Wilson problem
The Giants can spin it however they want, but the optics are pretty telling. They slide Jameis Winston to QB3, then go out of their way to make sure nobody can speak on it? That’s called insecurity. And the only person who really benefits from that kind of silence is one person: Russell Wilson.
This is the same 36-year-old who famously had his own office in Denver. This is the same guy who had PR people gatekeeping access in Seattle. Now he’s holding solo podium sessions in New York while Dart’s stashed across the locker room, far away from his new mentor.
Dabs swears all three quarterbacks are “ready to play” in Week 1, but only one is allowed to talk about it. And it’s the one who has looked fine during the preseason. Dart, meanwhile, was the best player on the entire roster this preseason.
This whole thing reeks of fragile locker room politics. Whether they’re trying to avoid Wilson feeling some type of way, Winston sounding off on his demotion (which he wouldn't), or Dart getting crowned early, it all feels weirdly overthought.
Whatever the plan was here, it only made things... stranger. This is a team coming off an electric, practically flawless preseason. So why raise more questions by doing something pretty dumb for a quarterback room that didn’t need it?