The New York Giants ended the 2024 season with a dismal view for the future, especially at quarterback. A 3-14 record, which featured one of the league’s least potent offenses, sent co-owner John Mara into crisis mode.
Mara charged general manager Joe Schoen with fixing the quarterback issue for both the short- and long-term. Schoen went to work, signing veterans Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston to one- and two-year deals, respectively.
But it wasn’t until draft day that he put his signature on the revamp. Schoen traded back into the first round to snare Ole Miss gunslinger Jaxson Dart with the 25th overall pick. It might be the boldest — and most brilliant — move of his four-year tenure in East Rutherford.
Dart has been nothing short of impressive in practices, in games, and in his interactions with the media. He has conducted himself like a veteran, seeing the field well, making wise choices, and enduring the pressure.
In preseason games, Dart excelled to the point where the collective imaginations of fans and pundits are running wild.
“With rookie quarterbacks, I would always say how long it’s going to take them to get up to speed and be able to go out and execute,” Schoen told reporters last week. “It’s one thing to be able to learn it in the classroom and regurgitate it but to go out and actually execute it and do it quickly and correctly, I would say Jaxson impressed me in terms of — not that he couldn’t do it or we didn’t think he could, but impressed me in terms of how quick he was able to pick it up and actually go execute and play fast. I would say that was something that you don’t typically see with rookie quarterbacks at times, and he was able to do that.”
In a recent piece for CBS Sports, Chris Trapasso named Dart to his NFL Preseason All-Rookie Team.
Well, obviously. Dart was sensational in all three exhibition contests operating Brian Daboll’s offense. The third quarterback picked in the 2025 draft completed 68% of his 47 attempts with three touchdowns and no interceptions while averaging a hefty 7.9 yards per attempt. Beyond the numbers, the blend of quarterbacking style Dart demonstrated was so impressive. He diced from inside the confines of the pocket. He scrambled a bit. He got the ball out quickly, and made a few high-caliber throws downfield.
Veteran wide receiver Darius Slayton, who has seen his share of poor quarterback play in his six seasons with the Giants, said Dart opened his eyes right away this offseason.
“I feel like at first, it’s kind of impossible to show up day one and know everything, so you look for flashes, and I think he made some throws pretty early on where it was like, ‘All right, he has an arm on him.’ I think that was kind of the first thing that flashed for me,” he said.
Dart will possibly start the season as the Giants’ No. 2 quarterback, but no one is expecting to see him for a while. That doesn’t mean the fans won’t be calling for him if the offense sputters under Wilson.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: New York Giants’ Jaxson Dart headlines CBS Sports’ 2025 NFL Rookie All-Preseason Team
Reporting by John Fennelly, Giants Wire / Giants Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
