Jaxson Dart cruised back into the Giants’ locker room, arrived at his stall and perfectly punctuated this beaten-down franchise’s biggest win in years.
“F--- yeah!” Dart said to no one in particular, as he threw his jersey-covered shoulder pads down next to his stool.
This was an emphatic, impromptu release of defiant joy for the Giants’ unapologetic, fearless rookie — on a monumental evening when he showed he is capable of elevating his team amid adversity, like the NFL’s best quarterbacks do.
As Thursday night ticked toward Friday morning, Dart was in no rush to hit the showers and head home. Giants fans who partied away the hours after this stunning 34-17 victory over the hated Eagles can relate. Sleep could wait.
Moments earlier, while facing reporters, Dart didn’t hesitate when asked if this win was a statement.
“It absolutely is,” he said. “Quite honestly, nobody really expected us to put up a performance like this.”
Back in the locker room, Dart tapped away on his phone, perhaps returning congratulatory texts. He chatted excitedly with first-year running back Cam Skattebo, recounting the game like teenagers who had just returned home from the playground. And Dart embraced the once-great player he replaced, Russell Wilson.
“All right, kid,” Wilson said before leaving.
Three starts in — with two wins for a still-alive team that is now 2-4 — and Dart is quickly growing from the new kid into a potentially transformational leader.
“He’s leading men to victory,” said running back Tyrone Tracy. “It tells us he’s ready for whatever comes his way. When he’s on the field, you can feel it.”
Here’s what came Dart’s way Thursday, just four days after a brutal loss in New Orleans: The Giants entered this matchup against the Eagles’ ferocious defense without their top two wide receivers, Malik Nabers and Darius Slayton. They were widely expected to get stomped by a rival that had owned them for so long.
Instead, Dart — and Skattebo — delivered a shocking offensive performance, as the Giants scored their most points against the Eagles since 2012 and earned their finest victory against anyone since the 2022 wild-card playoff win in Minnesota.
They hadn’t won much since then, period — just 10 total victories entering Thursday, including two in their past 17 games. They dreamed about Dart changing all that.
He is on his way to doing it. But for the greatest franchise quarterbacks — status Dart obviously has yet to achieve — it’s about so much more than Dart’s 253 yards and two touchdowns Thursday.
It’s also about quieter, unseen moments. Like that somber plane ride home from New Orleans on Sunday night, with the Eagles showdown looming.
Receiver Jalin Hyatt struggled against the Saints and sulked on the plane, where he sat in the row behind Dart. Instead of Dart burying his head in his own frustration — after a three-turnover afternoon — he noticed Hyatt.
“Look, I’m coming right back to you on Thursday,” Dart said to Hyatt.
Hyatt told Dart “that I’m going to fight for him,” as Hyatt recalled.
Sure enough, the play before Skattebo’s 1-yard touchdown run iced Thursday’s win in the fourth quarter, Dart threw deep to Hyatt on third-and-8, drawing a pass interference flag. For Hyatt, it all started on that plane after his awful game.
“Just him having my back when I didn’t have his back, it gave me so much confidence in myself,” Hyatt said. “I have nothing but respect for him. That’s what you want in a quarterback.”
The Giants are learning that everything Dart does is colored with boldness.
Like his 4-yard scramble Thursday on third-and-3, as he hurtled his body straight into a defender, sustaining a third-quarter touchdown drive that boosted the Giants to a 27-17 lead.
On the sideline, some Giants defenders shrugged, because “we know he’s a little bit crazy,” said rookie edge rusher Abdul Carter. Others marveled, since “that gives us juice,” said safety Tyler Nubin. “When we see that, we’re like, ‘Hell yeah.’ And then we want to go out there and back him up.”
For these Giants, the beauty of Dart lies in how little he ultimately cares about all the ugly baggage that preceded him in East Rutherford. The drama and struggles since that playoff win in Minnesota? Meaningless. That 4-19 record against the Eagles since 2014, entering Thursday night? Whatever.
This is what the best quarterbacks do — tune it all out. Which is perhaps why Eli Manning, who did that so well for so many years here, cracked a slight smile after the game while walking past the Giants’ locker room.
“That was a good one,” he said.
Still, before Dart arrived, so many around the Giants had endured that misery, including Saquon Barkley and the Eagles destroying Brian Daboll’s team 28-3 at MetLife Stadium last year — another limp result that put Daboll on the hot seat.
No one felt it deeper and more painfully than John Mara, the Giants’ prideful, impatient (by his own admission) co-owner. In the locker room late Thursday night, Daboll punctuated his victory speech — about toughness — by turning to Mara, who is battling cancer.
“There’s one tough son of a b---- in here,” Daboll said, his voice cracking. “His name’s John Mara.”
Daboll handed Mara the game ball and embraced him.
Moments later, Mara walked tall out of the locker room, the ball tucked under his arm — a memento from a potentially transformative win over a team that, for years, inflicted so much anguish on his family’s franchise.
Lots of work remains for Daboll and Dart and these rebuilding Giants. But maybe, they hope, they’ll eventually reflect on Thursday as a tipping point, a night when things really started to change for the better. Nubin, for one, believes this win can adjust the Giants’ trajectory “a lot” going forward.
“Once you see that it’s possible, anything can happen,” he said. “Once we get that belief system in the building and we keep building on that, the sky is the limit. This is just the beginning of this. The way this team is molding is just getting started.”
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.