Jake Haener is back where his New York Giants season began.
The team re-signed the 27-year-old quarterback to the practice squad on Wednesday, a quiet transaction that followed a brief and eventful stretch on the 53-man roster, via the NFL transaction wire.
Defensive tackle Josh Tupou was released in a corresponding move, but the story of the day belongs to a passer whose professional life has been defined by short stays and second chances.
Haener arrived in East Rutherford in mid-August after tryouts around the league and a stop that never quite stuck in Kansas City. New York waived him at final cuts, then brought him back to the practice squad.
That looked like the end of the conversation until starter Jaxson Dart suffered a season-ending knee injury.
With Jameis Winston elevated to the top of the depth chart, the Giants promoted Haener last Saturday so they would have a second quarterback available against Tennessee. He did not throw a pass. T
wo days later, after New York traded for J.J. McCarthy, Haener was waived again. Clearing waivers and returning to the practice squad was the expected next step, and the Giants followed through.
The path that brought him here started at Fresno State, where he became a three-year starter after transferring from Washington.
He earned first-team All-Mountain West honors as a senior and second-team recognition the year before. The New Orleans Saints drafted him in the fourth round in 2023, 127th overall, and signed him to a four-year rookie deal that included a $704,814 signing bonus.
Regular-season work was scarce. In 2024, he appeared in eight games and made one start, completing 18 of 39 passes for 226 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
New Orleans waived him in 2025 and he bounced between the practice squad and the active roster before leaving the organization.
What Haener offers now is familiarity more than flash. He already knows the Giants’ building, ran scout-team snaps through camp, and looked sharp in limited preseason work, completing 10 of 11 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown.
At 6-foot-1, he has never been a prototypical pocket prospect, but coaches have long praised his toughness and command of multiple systems.
With Winston starting and McCarthy installed as the primary backup, Haener is the insurance policy on the practice squad.
For a quarterback who has been waived, signed, promoted, and waived again in a matter of days, that is still a job in the NFL, and it is the one he has earned for now.
