Jaxson Dart played six games at USC as a freshman before transferring to Ole Miss and finishing his college career with the Rebels. It was there he developed into a consistent quarterback, and it resulted in his getting drafted by the Giants in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Dart joined a quarterback room consisting of incumbent Tommy DeVito and free agent signees Jameis Winston and Russell Wilson. Head coach Brian Daboll said in the preseason that Wilson was the team's No. 1 quarterback to begin the 2025 season, but Dart is clearly the QB of the future.
Dart will get his first taste of NFL game action as the Giants take on the Bills in their opening preseason game, and a good first impression could go a long way to early and/or extended playing time as a rookie.
Wilson got the start, but played only one drive. Dart took over on the second drive and played the majority of the first half. He threw his first career touchdown to Lil'Jordan Humphrey in the second quarter. It was against the Bills' backups, but it was a 29-yard strike to the end zone. Dart had a beautiful escape from the pocket and for a first down, showing off his dual-threat abilities.
You could say that Dart needs to fine-tune his decision-making, but really, finding flaws in his first performance, you have to really look for negatives. Everything, like his decisions or some of his inaccurate passes, could easily be attributed to his being a rookie and playing in his first form of NFL action. He lived up to the franchise's future quarterback hype in his first game.
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Dart looked great. He was accurate, and his teammates helped him out when he would check down, and they turned it into big gains. After almost throwing a pick in the second quarter, Dart threw an absolute dot to the endzone for a touchdown to Lil'Jordan Humphrey.
Dart played all but the first drive in the first half. The Giants went into halftime up 16-10, and the rookie led drives that resulted in 13 of those points.
Dart's first career pass. He went 3-4 on his first drive.
Dart was pressured in the backfield and stepped up, slipped, and still managed to pick up the first down with his legs.
An impressive aspect of Dart's game is how comfortable he looked under center, especially for it being his first career game.