The New York Giants season is by all accounts blown to bits by the recent season-ending knee injury to franchise quarterback Jaxson Dart. In the aftermath of reports that the second-year player suffered structural damage to his meniscus, MCL, and PCL during a Monday night matchup against the Los Angeles Rams, backup Jameis Winston was named the starter.
Winston’s veteran presence and ability to unify the locker room has made the 12-year veteran an asset to Dart’s development and the culture of the rebuilding franchise. His glory days as a game-changer, however, are over.
With desperation settling in, some have suggested that the Giants go trade for Cleveland Browns backup Shedeur Sanders, who is rotting on the bench during the franchise’s reclamation experiment with $230 million man Deshaun Watson.
NY Giants Should Trade For Shedeur
Stephen A. Smith expressed support for the idea on Thursday’s episode of “First Take.”
“If there was a possible way they could pull it off, I would tell the Giants to go get Shedeur Sanders,” Smith said. “I ain’t gonna lie to you, that would be what’s on my mind personally. Let me tell you something about this whole Jameis Winston situation. Yes they signed him to a $13M contract…It ain’t about looking for a to- 30 quarterback, it’s about looking for a better backup than Jameis Winston. That’s what you’re looking for.”
When discussing better backup options to Winston, a hungry and much younger Shedeur Sanders could fit the bill. Winston has been through the wars and we have seen the former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback’s ceiling. Aside from a seven-game run during a tank season as an unprepared rookie, we still don’t know what Shedeur can be as a starter. Cleveland has shown an unwillingness to commit to Shedeur, and after Watson’s decent performance in Week 2, Sanders finds himself buried even further on the bench.
The only possible problem that Shedeur’s presence would cause for the Giants is confusion in the quarterback room if he plays too well until Dart returns. Dart has already had two season-ending injuries in two seasons. Injuries are common in football, but players being labeled injury-prone also is common. Dart is treading into that territory, and there’s no guarantee anymore what the future holds, because his durability is in question.
Creating a quarterback controversy is not something most Giants fans want to see for their team’s future.
“Why can they deal with a circus next year when Dart is cleared to return,” one user commented.
Getting hurt has never been a problem for Shedeur. He’s stayed healthy throughout his football career to this point. Sliding into a starting position with the Giants would probably be the best case for Shedeur, because it would give him the entire season to show if he can play in this league. And he’s not doing it with a lowly franchise like the Browns. The Giants have built a decent core around Dart and had plans of contending for the NFC East title this season.
Smith didn’t get much support for his take. Fans flooded into the comment section on an Awful Announcing X post of the segment.
“Trading assets for a guy who couldn’t beat out Deshaun Watson for a job seems like a great idea,” one fan commented.
“Shadeur is not better than Jameis Winston ROFL,” one user bluntly stated.
“Dear God these takes are atrocious,” one netizen quipped. “The guy with a 19 qbr last year? This is just bait at this point, as bad as Cam Ward was last year he was up at a qbr of 33,” another fan said, totally ignoring the circumstances that Shedeur played and won under.
