Heading into this season, one major storyline to watch for the New York Giants will be quarterback Jaxson Dart. Though it's unclear if and how much time he'll see on the field in 2025, projections have still emerged for the first-round pick.
Coming off a stellar season at Ole Miss, the Giants traded up in the NFL Draft to nab Dart with the 25th overall selection. Not far removed from ending their experiment with Daniel Jones, the franchise has found a new promising prospect to potentially be the long-term answer under center.
Though most teams have gone away with this practice in the modern era, New York appears to be embracing an old-school approach with Dart. Seeing that they signed Russell Wilson to a one-year deal in free agency, the young QB will serve as a backup in year one while learning the ropes of the pro game. Front there, he'll eventually take over the reins as the Giants' QB of the future.
In a recent column for Draft Network, NFL writer Jaime Eisner laid out projections for the top quarterbacks in this year's rookie class. For Dart, he has him taking the starting job from Wilson late in the season and showing promise to cap off the 2025 campaign. Eisner has Dart making five starts and tallying 1,129 yards to go along with seven touchdowns and four interceptions.
"The major question isn't if but when Dart gets to take over the reins. When could Dart make his first NFL start? I'm targeting Week 13 against the New England Patriots. I expect Wilson and the Giants to be competitive enough to hold off until late November before making the switch, allowing Dart to play against New England before entering New York's Week 14 bye," Eisner wrote. "Based on recent trends in head coach Brian Daboll's playcalling and current team personnel, we can project the Giants to throw roughly 32.50 times per game after averaging 32.62 passing attempts per game over the last two seasons. Looking at comparable players drafted outside the top 10 picks in the NFL draft, let's assume a yards-per-attempt average of 6.95, a touchdown percentage of 4.36%, and an interception percentage of 2.45%."
While Dart has impressed in his opening days with the Giants, it is uncertain when the coaching staff will give him the starting nod. Seeing that Wilson is a stopgap option at quarterback, it's fair to assume the rookie will leap him in the depth chart at some point. New York doesn't have its sights set on contending this year, so rolling Dart out to get some experience under his belt is a logical course of action.
In the meantime, Dart will look to put together a strong showing in training camp to further show the organization they made the right decision by drafting him.
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