Both teams ran their first units against each other for one series, and then the rest of the game devolved into a battle of the backups.
I thought the Minnesota Vikings were the more polished team, trying to compare the brief moments when the first teams battled each other. I felt like the Giants had more talent but also the worse offensive plan and, more importantly, the worst offensive line of the two teams.
A very disjointed showing by the Giants—one Jaxson Dart (3-4 for 26 yards, 1 TD/0 INT, 0-0-0) had to overcome a mess with his personal talent. That’s probably the Giants’ destiny this season as long as Matt Nagy is there. Dart is going to have to do Dart things to make lemonade out of this pile of dog crap offense/cooridnator.
The Vikings were definitely more cohesive and polished, but nothing great besides a nice showing in the run game and offensive line bullying the Giants’ defense.
I walked away from this game thinking: the Vikings are average but well coached. And my initial fears from training camp observers about the Giants’ offense being a mess—I could see it. But I could also see that Dart is good enough to maybe overcome some of it, and the Giants are going to be a frustratingly .500 team that can beat any team and lose to any team because their offensive talent is fighting an offensive coaching staff nightmare.
Player Notes…
– Either the Giants were heavily rotating because they wanted to try certain plays with certain players and weren’t worried about sticking to a lineup…or there’s going to be a lot of rotating on the Giants’ offense, which will be maddening for fantasy purposes.
Primarily what caught my attention was the running back rotation.
Cam Skattebo (4-19-0, 0-0-0/0) started this game and got the first couple carries, but then Tyrone Tracy Jr. (2-5-0, 0-0-0/1) was brought in and played for a while, then Devin Singletary (3-3-0, 1-40-0/1) came in to make it a trio backfield. If it had ended there, I could say they rotated from the top down and didn’t want to run the chief RB too much in a preseason game. But after they went from Skattebo to Tracy to Singletary, then came back with Skattebo—that made me nervous about a touch-count projection on Skattebo specifically.
And I know from past history that John Harbaugh loves a duo or trio rotation. Derrick Henry gave him an aberration you cannot work as a bell cow, but even with that, they tried to push Justice Hill way too much into the game and sometimes took Henry out in situations where Henry would have been the perfect player to get the ball or keep the defense honest. I really walk away afraid that Skattebo is not going to get the heavy lead-back touches, so I’m going to have to take his projections down just a touch after I was starting to get all fired up about him.
I still think it’s going to be Skattebo as the solid, majority-touch leader of the backfield, but after seeing this, I can’t go overboard being excited about the rotation either.
– Then, on that same vibe above, Isaiah Likely (0-0-0, 2-15-0/2) not starting the game. Not even in on the second snap. He came in to signal to the defense with 85%+ accuracy that it was going to be a pass play… And when Likely went out, you knew with about 80%+ accuracy that it was going to be a running play.
It was so obvious that it makes me wonder if the Giants just wanted to practice certain plays and didn’t really care about what they were showing the fans per se, but I also know John Harbaugh is not a great offensive mind, and Matt Nagy is a destroyer of offenses, so my antennae are up.
When Likely did get in, Dart threw the ball right to him… a 3rd-down play that was obviously designed to get Likely open quickly for a first-down catch. I liked the connection between Dart and Likely, but I didn’t like the fact that Likely wasn’t on the field as much as I thought he was going to be. That can be fine for fantasy, as long as when he is in the game he’s getting a healthy number of targets—which he will—but I feel better about a tight end hitting his upside when he’s on the field the majority of the game. That’s not Isaiah Likely in 2026.
Likely looked slimmed down from former years, almost like he was trying to become a wide receiver. That means he’s not filling out his frame to become a better blocker or a three-down tight end. It made me think of the way Oronde Gadsden II killing himself in the gym to bulk up and get away from being known as a wide-receiver body playing tight end. Likely seems content to be what he is: a thinner-framed tight end for the passing game. A passing game that is not going to be high volume but may be OK because the non-Nabers receivers are so bad and the play calls/routes they run are so bad—as Nagy offenses tend to be—that Likely ends up a beneficiary in an odd way.
– Quarterback report…
Kyler Murray (2-3 for 10 yards, 0 TD/0 INT, 0-0-0) hit the field first and didn’t look great but didn’t look awful either. He looked jumpy, not all that comfortable. Murray has never looked settled as a QB, so it could just be his mannerisms, but I was hoping to see someone more in control of things. Instead, it looked like the erratic Kyler of the past—making it up as he goes and too keen to try to avoid getting hit, running around all over the place.
Jaxson Dart was clearly, CLEARLY the best quarterback on the field. He looked way more calm and controlled than Kyler. And while Murray looks the same as he has for the last several years, Dart looks like he’s just gotten better with another year of experience. Dart got absolutely leveled on a sack because Tyrone Tracy was out of position and slipped and fell as he went to block a blitzer—that’s not going to help Tracy get on the field more in their rotation. Dart went to the medical tent and got checked out because that was the last play of the first quarter. He checked out fine and was right back in the game once cleared, completing the drive with a fantastic touchdown pass where he made something out of nothing—actually, pure gold out of nothing. I’m only through five or six games of preseason tape at this point, and Dart’s scramble and against-the-grain, cross-body touchdown throw into a perfect spot was a thing of beauty and one of or THEE best play I’ve seen in the preseason from any player.
J.J. McCarthy (4-7 for 34 yards, 0 TD/0 INT, 1-1-0) relieved Murray after his one series and didn’t really do anything to get himself over with the Vikings fans or Vikings coaches. You can tell all the pressure is getting to him—the public hatred is making him have the yips. He’s going to have to get out of there and go to a place where he can get a fresh start, like Sam Darnold needed. No one in this entire decade needs to get to the LA Chargers—or to a coach like Jim Harbaugh or Mike McDaniel—more than McCarthy needs it, ASAP.
Jameis Winston (8-9 for 89 yards, 0 TD/1 INT, 2-3-0) relieved Dart and looked so good. Winston is one of the top 25-30 quarterback talents playing in the NFL right now. He just gets better with age, discipline, and maturity. Not only is Winston a top-25 or so quarterback talent, he’s a top-three locker-room leader at the position. So many teams could go from being a .500-ish type team to a for-sure playoff team if they would let Winston be their starting quarterback. The fact that Winston was a third-string quarterback who got no real pursuit in free agency last year is one of the most damning crimes NFL coaching staffs and lazy scouts have perpetrated.
It would be so easy for a team to belly up and pay up a little (but not much) to trade for Winston, but since all NFL GMs are cowards—just administrative paperwork people raised in a corporate football bubble there to just have lunch with the owner. They are not wheelers and dealers who come from the business world—we rarely/never get smart or daring trades in the NFL. So Winston just sits as a backup for the Giants as the Vikings go with Kyler Murray, as the Panthers go with Bryce Young, as the Jets go with Geno Smith… I could go on. Have you seen the Cleveland quarterback competition?
– Aaron Jones (3-27-0, 1-7-0/1) started for the Vikings and was working a rotation with Jordan Mason (3-17-0, 0-0-0/0), and Mason does look slimmed down and in midseason form already… But that’s going to be a split between those two no matter what.
Rookie Demond Claiborne (12-34-0, 0-0-0/0) made his debut after the starters left the game, and it wasn’t anything great. He’s no better than a million other running backs just like him in the NFL, but the Vikings drafted this one, so he’s going to get some run if one of the starters gets hurt. He’s not any type of real handcuff or future star—not from what I see.
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– I thought Malachi Fields (0-0-0, 3-34-1/3) looked good in his day. He’s got a nice catch radius and showed good-to-great hands in this game. For what he is—a tall guy with good hands who has a good feel for the position but isn’t a speed burner or route-running god—he’s going to work in general as part of a receiver ensemble. Future star? Not likely.
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– OK, from here I’ve just got a bunch of one-liner type notes from the game. So let me rattle them off real quick…
Giants DT Darius Alexander (2 tackles, 0.0 sacks, 0 TFLs, 0 PDs, 0 INTs) looks terrific. He’s a legit good 4-3 defensive tackle, giving the Giants a nice blockade up the middle on defense. Minnesota made its nice rushing yards going outside, not inside, in this game. Likely with good reason.
The Vikings’ first-team defense overall was very good, very much in sync with each other. The most impressive thing on the field this day may have been the way the whole Vikings unit was moving and playing—that first-team defense. But we only got a brief glimpse.
Giants rookie linebacker Jack Kelly (5 tackles, 0.0 sacks, 0 TFLs, 0 PDs, 0 INTs) led the team in tackles with five. He was playing middle linebacker and looks like he’s going to be a good developmental middle linebacker for them in the future. Probably not a star, but potentially useful with some upside. He’s not a middle linebacker by trade, so this may take just a little bit.
Odell Beckham Jr. (0-0-0, 2-6-0/2) came in with the second team and had two catches, but he just doesn’t look any different than he’s been the past five years…flimsy and not wanting contact. He’s nothing for fantasy football 2026.
It was pointed out on the broadcast that John Harbaugh has been glowing about second-year tight end Thomas Fidone II (0-0-0, 0-0-0/0), and I was glad to hear that because I think he could be their future tight end…and a threat to Isaiah Likely in another year. But it’s a long road for Fidone; at least he’s getting some coaching notice.
Ben Sauls was the kicker of note here. He made the Giants’ only field goal attempt and their lone extra point. I don’t know if that means he’s in the lead for the starting kicker job, but as a kicking scout, I’ve been a fan of his and would like to see him win it. He’s getting pressure from that undrafted rookie kicker from Michigan in training camp, but in this game it looked like Sauls had the lead.
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What GEMINI researched was the top 10 MAINSTREAM takeaways from this game...
1: Jaxson Dart's Flashes and Injury Alarm Major outlets lead with Jaxson Dart showing steady development in his starter reps, leading a scoring drive capped off by a 15-yard touchdown pass to rookie Malachi Fields. However, the dominating narrative was his mid-drive trip to the blue medical tent for a concussion check following a heavy sack by Jay Ward. Though cleared to return and complete the touchdown pass, analysts note this marks the sixth blue tent evaluation of his young career, raising persistent concerns about his ability to avoid unnecessary hits.
2: Jamal Adams Suffers Devastating Knee Injury National coverage heavily highlighted a heartbreaking moment for veteran safety/linebacker Jamal Adams. In his return to MetLife Stadium, Adams suffered a non-contact right knee injury early in the second quarter and had to be carted off after spending extended time in the blue medical tent. Kevin O'Connell confirmed postgame that the initial outlook is not good for Adams, who had been impressing the coaching staff by carving out a significant defensive role since signing on the eve of camp.
3: Revamped Vikings Run Game Dominates Early Reports across CBS, ESPN, and Vikings media pointed to Minnesota's new-look running game as the sharpest unit on the field. Operating behind left tackle Christian Darrisaw and rookie guard Donovan Jackson, Aaron Jones Sr. ripped off an 18-yard run on the opening snap and finished with 27 yards on three carries. Jordan Mason added 17 yards, allowing Minnesota to rack up 44 rushing yards on their opening field-goal drive against the Giants' starting front seven.
4: Malachi Fields Demonstrates High-End Contested Catch Skill Rookie 3rd-round pick Malachi Fields generated unanimous praise for his performance with the starting unit. Catching all 3 of his targets for 34 yards and a touchdown, media breakdowns focused on his physical route running and ability to win in tight coverage. Dart singled out Fields postgame for his contested catch radius, noting that his college traits immediately translated to live NFL action.
5: Myles Price Continues Strong Camp with Highlight Touchdown After earning a roster spot last year as a returner, receiver Myles Price emerged as the game's top offensive star for Minnesota. Price posted 4 catches for 51 yards, crowned by a spectacular one-handed 1-yard touchdown reception from Carson Wentz in the third quarter. The play went viral across broadcast feeds, drawing heavy praise from Justin Jefferson during his live sideline interview.
6: Cam Skattebo Returns from Major Ankle Recovery Giants rookie running back Cam Skattebo logged his first live game snaps since suffering a severe ankle injury in October 2025. Skattebo started the game, taking the opening handoff for 4 yards and finishing with 19 yards on 4 carries. John Harbaugh noted after the game that while Skattebo is still regaining his peak "twitchiness," his signature physical running style brought crucial energy to the huddle.
7: Brian Flores' Defense Pressure Package Racks Up Four Sacks Reporters noted that despite defensive play-calling duties being split between assistants Mike Siravo and Ryan Nielsen, Minnesota’s defense maintained its ultra-aggressive scheme under Brian Flores. The Vikings pass rush compiled 4 sacks and multiple hits on Giants quarterbacks, led by early pressure from Dallas Turner and Jay Ward, alongside second-half sacks from Elijah Williams and Bo Richter.
8: Rookie Linebacker Jack Kelly Impresses on Defense Giants 6th-round pick Jack Kelly earned widespread mentions as the stand-out defender for New York. Kelly led the team with 5 total tackles (2 solo) and consistently generated push as a blitzer, collapsing the pocket into J.J. McCarthy on a key third-down stop. His performance cemented his status as a major player to watch for interior defensive depth.
9: Undrafted "Jacob" Duo Turns Over Giants Backups Minnesota's secondary depth made game-changing plays in the second half through a pair of undrafted rookies with the same first name. Linebacker Jacob Roberts snagged an interception off Brandon Allen over the middle to setup Minnesota's lone touchdown drive, while safety Jacob Thomas sealed momentum with a sideline interception on Allen's subsequent drive.
10: Giants QB Depth Concerns Exposed Behind Jameis Winston While Jameis Winston looked crisp filling in during Dart's medical evaluation (8-of-9 for 89 yards), third-stringer Brandon Allen struggled heavily, throwing two interceptions on just eight pass attempts. Analysts emphasized that with Dart's physical playing style and frequent medical checks, New York's lack of viable depth behind Winston remains a glaring roster weakness heading into roster cuts.
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