Giants-Jets Preseason Finale: Kicker Job, Guard Spot and Dart's Status Still Unresolved

The Giants play their preseason finale against the Jets at 7:30 p.m. Friday at MetLife Stadium, and coach John Harbaugh has not decided whether quarterback Jaxson Dart and the rest of his healthy starters will play. The Giants must cut their roster to 53 players by 6 p.m. Sunday, a deadline the NFL moved up two days from its usual post-preseason cutoff, first reported by NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. The game airs locally on NBC 4 NY (WNBC/WNJU), with radio coverage on WFAN 101.9 FM, according to Giants.com.

Two roster situations are already decided. Wide receiver Calvin Austin III is out for the season with a torn right ACL, a diagnosis ESPN's Adam Schefter and the New York Post's Ryan Dunleavy independently confirmed Wednesday. And Malik Nabers will not play Friday regardless of what Harbaugh decides for the rest of the roster. Nabers took part in full 11-on-11 work this week for the first time since tearing his ACL and meniscus last season, then left Wednesday's practice early with a trainer. Harbaugh said the exit “wasn't part of the plan” but was not injury-related.

Harbaugh hasn't decided on Dart

Harbaugh told reporters Wednesday he would “leave it up in the air right now,” calling it “a balancing act of what we gain the most from with the least amount of risk.” He told WFAN's “Boomer & Gio” he was “waffling” on playing Dart, according to Big Blue View. ESPN's Jordan Raanan noted that Dart and the Giants' other regulars would go nearly a month without game action if they sit out Friday; Dart last played in the Aug. 15 preseason opener. Harbaugh has carried the same wait-and-see tone through cutdown week generally: after the Aug. 22 win over Miami, he invoked longtime owner Wellington Mara's line, “Once a Giant, always a Giant,” while explaining how he talks to players on the roster bubble.

GiantsGator has the full rundown of what Harbaugh has said about Friday's game.

The kicker job is still open

Rookie Dominic Zvada and Ben Sauls are still competing for the kicking job with no starter named. Zvada hit field goals of 43 and 38 yards in last week's win over Miami; Sauls, in relief, made his attempts from 27 and 37 yards. Asked if he had anything to critique about Zvada's outing, Harbaugh told the New York Post's Paul Schwartz, “I don't think so. Those balls were kicked straight and well.” He added of Sauls, “Ben did well, too.” The Giants released veteran Jason Sanders in June rather than carry a third kicker into camp.

GiantsGator has a full breakdown of the kicking competition.

Evan Neal's path got more crowded

Guard Evan Neal is fighting for a backup spot that opened up when the Giants traded fellow interior lineman Daniel Faalele to Jacksonville, a trade Newsday's Evan Barnes first reported Aug. 19. He's competing with Lucas Patrick, Aaron Stinnie, Jake Kubas and rookie Marcus Mbow for that job. Before the Faalele trade, beat writer Dan Duggan described Neal as “glued to the third team at RG… Hard to see how he could make a real push for a spot.”

Beckham's odds improved when Austin went down

Odell Beckham Jr.'s bubble case looks different than it did a week ago. Before Austin's injury, ESPN's Jordan Raanan reported he sat behind Malachi Fields, Darius Slayton and Austin on the depth chart in the Miami game, writing “unless the Giants trade a wide receiver, there probably won't be room for him on the roster,” and Sports Illustrated's Patricia Traina left him off her Aug. 17 seven-man receiver projection entirely. But the New York Post's Ryan Dunleavy reported Wednesday, after Austin's ACL diagnosis, that the Giants' six projected receivers are now Nabers, Darnell Mooney, Slayton, Fields, Braxton Berrios and Beckham, with Dalen Cambre penciled in for the practice squad if he clears waivers. Beckham has played 10 NFL seasons — well past the four-accrued-season threshold — so even if the Giants ultimately cut him, he'd become an immediate free agent rather than going through waivers.

GiantsGator has an explainer on how waivers work versus vested-veteran free agency.

The defensive tackle search continues

Harbaugh said on WFAN's “Boomer & Gio” Wednesday that the Giants are “talking to people around the league” about adding defensive tackle depth, according to a Big Blue Interactive transcription of the broadcast; no professional outlet has independently reported the remark. Chicago Bears defensive tackle Gervon Dexter is in trade talks, according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, and Giants Wire has floated the Giants as a fit given their need, though it reported no confirmed Giants interest in the deal. The Giants have $14.95 million in salary cap space and, according to Giants Wire, hold the fifth spot in the post-cutdown waiver order, tied to their 4-13 finish last season.

GiantsGator has more on how the Giants could add a defensive tackle before cutdown.

What's next

The Giants open the regular season Sept. 13 against the Dallas Cowboys.