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The New York Giants are not just testing out rookie Jaxson Dart at quarterback—he is their guy for the remainder of the season.
Head coach Brian Daboll told New York media on Wednesday morning that Dart, for whom they traded back into the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft in April, is their intended starting quarterback in place of Russell Wilson not only for this week against the Los Angeles Chargers, but also for the rest of the season.
Daboll said he has had conversations with both players, which will be kept private, but they both understood their roles moving forward.
“The conversations that I’ve had with these young men will be private. The details will be private. All I can tell you is we’re going with Jaxson, and we’re getting ready to play, so I’m not going to add too much to it,” Daboll said.
“It’s my decision, and we’re going with Jaxson.”
GIANTS TO START JAXSON DART IN WEEK 4 VS CHARGERS: REPORT
The move by the Giants comes after a poor performance by Wilson in the team’s third straight loss, this time a 22-9 defeat to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. While the Giants’ poor start is not all on Wilson, Daboll and his coaching staff saw enough across three games, including Wilson’s 450-yard performance in Dallas, to make the move to Dart.
The Ole Miss product had backed up Wilson, the 36-year-old signal caller, through three games. He performed well during the preseason, enough to earn a spot ahead of Jameis Winston, another veteran quarterback option, on the Giants’ depth chart.
And Daboll has not shied away from his conviction since April to get Dart, as General Manager Joe Schoen made a deal to get back into the first round to nab him as the team’s potential quarterback of the future.
Daboll was adamant Wilson remained the team’s starter despite Dart being drafted, but his decision now to go with the youngster is his alone.
“It’s my decision,” he said about the Dart move. “Again, we have conversations, we’ve said this numerous times, I have plenty of conversations. That’s the direction that I wanted to go, and that’s the direction that we’re going to go.”
It is also not far-fetched to say Daboll and the rest of this regime are coaching for their jobs at this point, with owner John Mara making it clear he needed to see improvement from a paltry 3-14 record in 2024 to have confidence moving forward with his team. There was hype surrounding the Giants, especially after seeing how well the offense and defense looked in the preseason.
The regular season tells the true story, and the Giants have not been looking like an improved team.
Could that come with Dart at the helm? Daboll obviously hopes so.
“We’ve had three games, haven’t put it together all collectively, and made the decision to play Jaxson,” Daboll said.
Rookie growing pains are sure to come for the 25th overall pick, and perhaps quickly considering the Chargers are 3-0 and look like one of the league’s best teams early on. But, as Daboll put it, rookie quarterbacks won’t know until they try.
“I don’t think any rookie quarterback is ever just ready to play,” he said. “You put him in there because you think that he’s done enough to show you that he can go out there and compete, and he’s done that every step of the way.”
Dart will not only make his first NFL start on Sunday, it will also be his first start in front of a Giants home crowd at MetLife Stadium at 1 p.m. ET.
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