The Giants’ quarterback picture has settled into a simple truth heading into training camp: Jaxson Dart is healthy, Jameis Winston is back as the backup, and both should be locked into the Week 1 gameday roster unless injuries intervene.
The real debate is what New York does with Brandon Allen.
The Athletic’s Dan Duggan pointed out that John Harbaugh has usually preferred to carry two quarterbacks in Baltimore, while former Giants coach Brian Daboll kept three quarterbacks on his 53-man roster. Duggan’s view was clear: “With little risk of a team poaching Allen from the practice squad, the Giants should carry just Dart and Winston on the active roster this season,” Duggan wrote.
But leaving Allen off the active roster would come with a real gamble. The emergency quarterback rule only applies to players on the 53-man roster, which means Allen would not be eligible to play if he were stashed on the practice squad. If Dart and Winston were both unavailable, Allen could step in only if he were kept on the roster.
That’s why the safer move is also the one that gives the Giants the best protection: carry three quarterbacks.
Quarterback depth matters, and the source material points to two reminders - last year’s AFC Championship Game and the 2020 COVID season. The latter was an outlier, but it still underscored the same lesson: having multiple quarterbacks available can save a team from disaster.
The concern is even sharper here because Dart and Winston both come with injury questions. The idea of being forced into a run-heavy shotgun offense with a makeshift quarterback is exactly the kind of emergency no team wants to face.
That’s what makes the possibility of only two quarterbacks on the roster so striking, especially given Harbaugh’s own history with Lamar Jackson’s injury issues. Maybe a new setting changes the approach. Maybe it doesn’t.
Either way, the final roster spot may be the difference between a stable quarterback room and a dangerous shortcut. And if the choice comes down to safety versus convenience, the safer path is obvious.
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