Follow the latest updates from 1925 Giants Drive as the team gears up for Week 4 against the Cardinals.
Monday, September 28
3:51 p.m. -- Coach John Harbaugh confirmed that OLB Brian Burns suffered a torn ACL in the fourth quarter of the Giants' 12-7 victory over the Titans and will undergo surgery.
"(He's) not just a great player, which he is," Harbaugh said. "I mean, in many ways (he's) the leader of the defense, I would say, just as a veteran leader and star player, also a worker, out front kind of guy in everything he does. Just, you hate to see it. I mean, and really for him, too. He was just such a rock for us. Freaky play, kind of turning the corner, puts his foot in the ground, gets hit from the side right at the same time. Again, doesn't look much like these knee injuries sometimes, most of the time don't, these crazy contact injuries. So, just a tough deal, but it's one we've got to deal with."
It marks back-to-back weeks the Giants lost a key player and leader. QB Jaxson Dart suffered a knee injury last Monday night and will be out for the rest of the regular season at least.
"So, again, you feel it," Harbaugh said. "It hurts emotionally. You feel it more for the player even than for the team. But the team is resilient. The team, the next guy will step up. We'll have to grow stronger. You kind of grow over the wound. You heal the wound, you grow over it, you scar up, and you move on. And we're not the only team that faces losses or will face losses. And the fact that there's been, yeah, we've got our quarterback one week and probably our top defensive player, you might say, the next week is shocking. But you've got to overcome the shock, and you've got to get ready to play the next game and find a way to win the next game. That's what we'll be doing as a team. But I feel bad for Brian more than anything. My heart breaks for him that way."
Burns, who went down with 11:02 remaining in the game, was already playing through an ankle injury sustained last Monday night against the Rams. He did not practice all week and was listed as questionable on the final injury report. Burns has never missed a game as a Giant, making 37 straight appearances since he was traded from the Panthers in 2024. Burns had started all of them until Sunday, when Kayvon Thibodeaux opened the game in his place.
Thibodeaux and Abdul Carter will now shoulder a bigger workload.
"They're going to have to, for sure," Harbaugh said. "And they've been playing a lot. Abdul especially has been playing a ton. And Kayvon's been playing a lot. So, it's not going to be a problem for Kayvon to play more snaps. What we just need to do is get on track up front in terms of the pass rush. I think they're doing a really good job. All those guys have done a very good job against the run. We've been pretty darn consistent against the run. We've had a few runs against us in the second half of the last two games that we aren't happy about. But generally, we've been a good run defense. And we want to keep building on that. But we need to get to the quarterback more. And some of that's – yeah, some of that, the ball comes out quick. Sometimes they're chipping. They're doing a lot of things to offset our pass rush. But they're having a little too much success offsetting it right now. So, we've got to keep finding ways to get the quarterback on the ground. And those two guys, obviously, are going to be a massive, massive part of that going forward."
The injury will cut short an encore to Burns' banner year.
Burns racked up the accolades in 2025, when he was named second-team All-Pro by the Associated Press. He was also voted to his third career Pro Bowl, first with the Giants. Burns also made the Pro Bowl in 2021 and 2022 as a member of the Carolina Panthers. In his seventh NFL season, Burns set career highs in sacks (16.5), quarterback hits (31), tackles for loss (22) and forced fumbles (tied with three) while starting all 17 games for his second consecutive season with the Giants. His 31 quarterback hits were the most by any Giant since the statistic started being tracked in 2006.
Another streak will come to an end for Burns.
He is one of eight players ever to record at least 7.5 sacks in each of his first seven seasons. The others are Reggie White, Derrick Thomas, DeMarcus Ware, Jared Allen, Aaron Donald, Ryan Kerrigan and Yannick Ngakoue.
Last month, Burns was voted No. 14 on the NFL's "Top 100 Players of 2026." It made him the highest-ranked Giants defender ever to appear on the list, which debuted in 2011 and is decided annually by current NFL players.
Burns has 71 sacks since he entered the league in 2019 as a first-round pick from Florida State, tied with Maxx Crosby for fifth in the NFL in that span.
TRADE-DETAILS-PENDING-PHYSICAL
12:28 p.m. -- The Giants acquired QB J.J. McCarthy from the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for a 2027 fifth-round draft choice. The trade is pending a physical.
The 10th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, McCarthy spent his rookie season on injured reserve and returned to start 10 games for Minnesota in 2025. He completed 57.6 percent of his passes for 1,632 yards and 11 touchdowns with 12 interceptions. He also added 181 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 37 carries.
McCarthy is 6-4 as a starter and joins a Giants quarterback room that recently lost starter QB Jaxson Dart for the season due to a knee injury.
"Well, we've been talking about it ever since I think Jaxson got hurt, that we would need to add a quarterback, quarterbacks," Harbaugh said later in the day. "That's part of the process. We've been turning over every stone. This was an opportunity that kind of came up and able to finish the deal off this morning, late morning. Really glad, really happy, very excited to add J.J. McCarthy. I think he's a strong, young quarterback, has some experience in National Football League. Obviously, was a very high draft pick, very talented player and is going to make us a stronger football team. So, excited about it, think it makes us better and get him in here as soon as we can. Get to work on learning the offense. Obviously, that's going to be a challenge, but we'll go to work on that and that's where we're at."
QB Jameis Winston started Sunday's 12-7 victory over the Titans in place of Dart, and QB Jake Haener was signed from the practice squad to serve as his backup.
Haener was then waived on Monday.
The Giants (2-1) will next face the Arizona Cardinals (1-2) at home on Sunday.
"Jameis is starting," Harbaugh said. "You guys asked me that last night. He's our starting quarterback and that's why we're rolling. We'll be ready to play this next game and going forward, excited about Jameis. I think we're going to find ourselves. I mean, we won the game. We did what we had to do to win the game and that's what we had to do. And I think Jameis did all the things as a quarterback that we needed to do to win that game, but that doesn't mean that's where we stand. We're going to keep growing. There's going to be new challenges in front of us. He's not going to be coming into a game kind of out of the blue, so to speak. Or is he going to be coming into a nor'easter every single week going forward here. So, I'm looking forward to seeing where we go and we'll build around. As we go too, we'll get a chance to build around Jameis' strengths, all that kind of stuff. So, I feel good about it."
Harbaugh later added, "What I don't know is who the number two quarterback is going to be. It could be Jake or it could be J.J. We're going to have to see how it plays out during the week. And that's really as far in advance as I'm even willing to think about. And that's really the answer to that."
Sunday, September 27
7:21 p.m. -- The Arizona Cardinals fell to 1-2 with a 36-30 loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium. Arizona dominated the time of possession, 38:44-21:16, as QB Jacoby Brissett completed 38 of 52 passes for 280 yards and two touchdowns. Rookie RB Jeremiyah Love, the third overall draft pick, had 21 carries for 90 yards on Sunday after rushing just 20 times for 70 yards in the first two weeks combined. The 2025 Heisman Trophy finalist also had five catches for 19 yards and a touchdown against the 49ers.
GIANTS-WIN-JEVON-HOLLAND
4:03 p.m. -- Undrafted rookie K Dominic Zvada accounted for all Giants scoring with four field goals and S Jevón Holland sealed a 12-7 victory over the Titans with an interception in the end zone with 17 seconds remaining. The Giants improved to 2-1 on the season after winning their first game since QB Jaxson Dart suffered a season-ending knee injury. John Harbaugh became the seventh head coach in Giants history – first since Tom Coughlin in 2004 – to start 2-0 at home in his first season with the franchise.
Other notes from the game:
P Jordan Stout is the first Giant ever to have multiple punts of 70 yards or more in the same season, let alone in back-to-back games. The 2025 All-Pro booted a 74-yarder in the second quarter on Sunday, six days after he had a 78-yarder against the Rams.
Holland is the fifth Giant since 1960 to record an interception in each of the first three weeks of the season, joining LB Michael Boley (2012), CB Terry Jackson (1978), DB Pete Athas (1973) and DB Carl Lockhart (1970).
The Giants forced a three-and-out on the Titans' first five possessions. It was the Giants' longest such streak in any game since at least 1991. The Giants also forced five consecutive three-and-out possessions in 2006 vs. Tampa Bay, 2003 at New England, and 2001 at Washington.
Tennessee did not record a first down until 1:18 left in the first half. It was the fourth time the Giants held their opponent to one first down or fewer in any half since 1991.
The Titans were unsuccessful on their first six third-down attempts. They did not convert a third down until 4:13 remaining in the third quarter.
With 12 total tackles, LB Arvell Reese tied multiple players for the most by a Giants rookie since 1994, when tackles were officially tracked. The most recent Giants rookie prior to today's game to record 12 tackles was S Tyler Nubin at Dallas on Nov. 24, 2024.