New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh has kept his weekly preseason personnel plans close to the vest, politely declining to reveal each week what his intentions are regarding playing his starters.

This week was no different in terms of whether he planned to play his starters. If ESPN reporter Jeremy Fowler’s sources are correct, Harbaugh has decided against playing starting quarterback Jaxson Dart in the preseason finale against the Jets.

It’s unknown if Harbaugh had it planned this way all along or if he might have been spooked by the season-ending ACL injury suffered by receiver Calvin Austin III in practice this week. Still, the veteran head coach admitted there was a balancing act between playing starters like Dart and sitting them.

“There would be things to be gained for those guys to play defensively as well from a communication standpoint,” Harbaugh said. “But there's risk. It's just a balancing act of what we gain the most from with the least amount of risk. That's what we've got to figure out.”

Is Harbaugh Making a Mistake?

Harbaugh apparently believes that Dart, who has been adjusting to playing under center more this year, has gotten enough quality work in the controlled practice environment.

But as we wrote the other day, if the decision is driven by injury concern, it’s a faulty argument for several reasons, starting with the unpredictability of when and where an injury will occur.

Case in point, four of the Giants’ season-ending injuries from the spring and summer, including Austin’s, took place on the grass practice field instead of the turf.

Also noted, despite best intentions, it’s virtually impossible to replicate the speed, tempo, and conditions of a live game in a practice, especially considering the red jersey protects quarterbacks.

The Giants need to come out of the gate with at least a 1-1 record against two challenging opponents in Dallas (Week 1) and the Los Angeles Rams (Week 2), two games that will be played under the lights where New York has typically struggled, posting a 3-17 record in regular-season games played after 7 p.m. dating back to 2020.

The Giants have also started the season sluggish record-wise. Since 2020, Big Blue is 3-9 in their first two games of the regular season, going 0-2 in 2020, 2021, 2024, and 2025, and 2-0 just once, that in 2022, which was the last time they earned a postseason berth, and splitting the first two games of the 2023 season.

Another Perspective

To be fair, Harbaugh has run a physically and mentally demanding camp to get the players ready for when the snaps start counting for real. And perhaps because there are still position battles to be resolved on offense, maybe Harbaugh doesn't want to put Dart at risk at being flattened.

But again, the concern about not playing Dart is that he’s still adjusting to a new system that has pushed him outside his comfort zone, which is why the head coach expressed feelings of conflict when he was asked about playing his starters on Wednesday.