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The Giants and Commanders tied 27-27 in October and never settled it. They try again Thursday night, while Miami, Arizona and Seattle all change quarterbacks in the same week.
There was no game on Wednesday night, which almost feels like a mercy. The league spent the day rearranging its quarterbacks — one to injured reserve in Miami, one rookie promoted in Arizona, one starter ruled out again in Seattle — and all of it funnels into a Week 10 that opens Thursday night with the strangest loose end of the season: a tie that has to be played again.
Washington and New York met on October 11 and produced the season's only tie, 27-27 in overtime, after the Commanders let a 27-13 fourth-quarter lead get away. Five weeks later they run it back at MetLife Stadium (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video), and this time the result actually counts double: the winner takes the head-to-head tiebreaker in the NFC East, where the Giants, at 5-2-1, sit in first place.
New York arrives in better shape than the record suggests and stranger shape than the standings suggest. The Giants have won two straight, including Sunday's 19-11 win in Philadelphia that ended a run of 13 straight years of losing there. They have not won three in a row since 2023. Their defense is the reason any of this is happening — over the last three weeks the Giants have led the league in net yards per play, and rookie linebacker Arvell Reese was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week after 12 tackles, three sacks and a forced fumble against the Eagles.
The quarterback question that hung over the Giants all week resolved itself on Wednesday. J.J. McCarthy, who arrived in a late-September trade from Minnesota and left the Philadelphia game briefly with a hip pointer, practiced all week and came off the injury report entirely, Giants.com's Dan Salomone reported. He starts. Sports Illustrated's numbers say he has earned the benefit of the doubt: fifth in the NFL in completion percentage over expected among quarterbacks with 60 or more snaps, on a team that has quietly become efficient while everybody watched the defense.
Washington's case is narrower and more desperate. The Commanders are 2-5-1, they lost 20-13 to the Rams last week after leading at halftime, and a loss Thursday effectively ends the argument about their season. What they have is Jayden Daniels, who practiced fully Monday and Tuesday despite a left elbow issue, and a defense that has played its way into the league's top ten over the last three weeks. Daniels is coming off his quietest game of the season against Los Angeles. The Giants are favored by 2.5 points, the total sits at 41.5, and New York is dressing the night up as a White Out in its Vintage White uniforms. Somebody leaves with a win this time. Overtime rules being what they are, somebody might not.
The day's hardest news came out of Miami Gardens. The Dolphins placed Malik Willis on injured reserve Wednesday — a groin injury that has progressed into a core-muscle problem — and head coach Jeff Hafley would not promise a return this season. Willis will miss at least four weeks and is eligible to come back in Week 14, but he is seeking further medical opinions and season-ending surgery is on the table. “Yes, he'll be the starting quarterback if he returns,” Hafley told reporters on Wednesday, which is the kind of sentence a coach says when he does not know if he will get to mean it.
Willis signed a three-year, $67.5 million contract in the offseason and produced 1,396 passing yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions through eight games — gritty, Hafley said, playing through an injury that kept him from moving the way he did early in the year. The job now belongs to Kyle McCord, who starts Sunday at Indianapolis (1 p.m. ET, CBS) with Brady Cook elevated from the practice squad as his backup. The Colts were favored by 2.5 before the Willis news; that number will not survive the week in that form. Miami's defensive front took a hit in the same news cycle, too — Zach Sieler tore a biceps muscle on the first play of the Lions game and finished it anyway.
Arizona's quarterback room has been dismantled in a fortnight. Jacoby Brissett, the opening-day starter, was traded to Baltimore last week. Gardner Minshew II, his replacement, went on season-ending injured reserve Tuesday with a torn UCL in his throwing elbow that requires surgery. On Wednesday, head coach Mike LaFleur made the only move left: rookie Carson Beck starts Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams at State Farm Stadium (4:05 p.m. ET, CBS).
Beck is not a typical emergency starter. The third-round pick played 55 games over six seasons at Georgia and Miami, and his last start was January's College Football Playoff national championship game, which Miami lost 27-21 to Indiana. His only NFL action came in August's Hall of Fame game — 15 of 19 for 188 yards and a touchdown — before a ribs injury ended his preseason. “Obviously this is a dream of mine to be a starting quarterback in the NFL,” Beck said Wednesday. “When I got the call, I was super excited.” LaFleur's instruction to his rookie, delivered to reporters the same afternoon, was shorter: “Just go out and operate.”
Operating will be the hard part. Arizona's top three wide receivers are all on season-ending injured reserve, Marvin Harrison Jr. was traded away, Michael Wilson's season ended with a neck injury, and the offensive line is down to a third-string left tackle with both centers hurt. Across the line, the Rams — 5-4, winners of three straight — bring a pass rush led by Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald, and they are favored by 9.5. The one sure thing Beck has is tight end Trey McBride, who has watched him all year on the scout team and told reporters this week: “He goes through his reads quickly for a guy who hasn't played in this league. His arm strength, he's very talented.” Arizona, 3-6 and coming off a 17-3 loss in Seattle, has not won a home game since Week 2 of last season. Beck gets eight games to audition as the future. The first one is a firing squad.
The Seahawks have already ruled Sam Darnold out for Week 10, Pro Football Talk reported Wednesday, and his return may not come until Week 12, after the bye. Darnold, dealing with ribs and quad injuries, did not practice Wednesday. Drew Lock starts Sunday at Las Vegas (4:05 p.m. ET, CBS) — and Lock is not whole either, limited in practice with right elbow and quadriceps injuries.
Lock earned a second week. Filling in against Arizona, he completed 19 of 28 passes for 175 yards and a touchdown, ran five times for 16 yards and played every offensive snap in a 17-3 win. Seattle is favored by 3.5 on the road against a Raiders team that has lost five of its last six. But the depth chart behind Lock is a rumor — Seattle signed Adrian Martinez to the practice squad on November 4, and one more injury turns a manageable situation into the week's biggest story. Jaxon Smith-Njigba rested Wednesday; Charles Cross and Quenton Nelson also sat out.
Sunday opens in Munich, where the Lions meet the Patriots at 9:30 a.m. ET on FOX — Detroit favored by 3, though Jared Goff was limited Wednesday with a chest injury, a thread worth pulling before kickoff; this page walked through the Germany game earlier today. Patrick Mahomes removed the week's other scare: after hurting his right elbow on a sack-fumble against the Jets and getting an MRI, he was a full participant Wednesday and is on track to start at Atlanta (1 p.m. ET, CBS), with Travis Kelce also full despite an ankle injury.
The early window also sends Buffalo to the Jets as an 8-point favorite, Jacksonville to Tennessee as a 10.5-point favorite, Houston to Cleveland, Minnesota to Green Bay — the Vikings started 6-0 and have lost two straight — and Carolina to New Orleans. The late window has San Francisco at Dallas (4:25 p.m. ET, FOX). Sunday night is the AFC North: Steelers at Bengals (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC), first place on the line, Joe Burrow leading the league in passing touchdowns (23) and passing yards per game (298.3) against a Pittsburgh defense tied for third in sacks. Monday closes the week in Baltimore, where the Ravens try to end a four-game skid against the Chargers — with Lamar Jackson's thumb injury likely to cost him the rest of the regular season and Justin Herbert's hand a question mark on the other sideline. Even the week's last game is a quarterback story. They all are, this week.
The full Week 10 slate, live scores as the games land and every matchup page live on the sports front.
