An afterthought in New York

Russell Wilson has not faced all that much scrutiny over the Giants’ failure to score a touchdown Sunday in their season-opener in Washington.

That’s actually part of the problem, though. Russ is an afterthought here. The only thing anyone is concerned with is when, exactly, Jaxson Dart is going to start playing.

There’s so much scrutiny on that particular question that there was online argument on Monday between New York media members about whether the team should have allowed Dart to answer questions following Sunday’s 21-6 loss in Washington.

A local talk-radio host argued that it was kind of silly to complain about not being able to interview a guy who not only did not play in the game, but was not expected to play.

This prompted a response from Andrew Marchand, who covers sports media for The Athletic, and before you know it there was a high-minded debate happening about the purpose of interviews and the availability.

Personally, I don’t really care. As a former reporter, I think it’s silly when sports teams prevent their fully adult employees from answering questions. I also don’t think Dart would have provided any answers that were even remotely interesting or informative.

What I am interested in, however, is what this says about the Giants’ current starting quarterback.

It’s possible that Wilson is the most irrelevant of the league’s 32 starting quarterbacks. That’s not because of his performance on Sunday (though that didn’t help), but because of the situation. He’s the guy the Giants signed to keep the starting spot warm until they believe Dart is ready.

Wilson did not play in Sunday’s game in Washington. I don’t think he had much of a chance to play well, either. He faced heavy pressure to the point you could actually see him start to scramble only to catch himself and throw an uncatchable ball downfield.

The Giants ran 10 plays at or inside the Washington 10-yard line. They failed to reach the end zone on any of them. Of the 32 quarterbacks who started Week 1, rookie Cam Ward was the only who had a lower completion percentage than Wilson.

I also don't think the Giants are doing Wilson any favors here. When asked about who will start at quarterback next week, Daboll essentially punted.

“We’re going to go home and look at our game,” Daboll said.

“In fairness,” a reporter said, “you’re not answering this. It sounds like you’re not answering it.”

“Well, we’re talking about after every game,” Daboll said. “I’ve got confidence in Russ. We’re going to go back, we’ll evaluate the tape. This game is not on Russell Wilson. It's not on Russell Wilson. Let me make that clear. I have confidence in Russ. We have to do a better job all the way around.”