AFC Defensive Player of the Week Jonathon Cooper and the Denver Broncos will welcome a rookie quarterback to town for the second time this season when Jaxson Dart and the New York Giants take the field in Denver on Sunday. The first time they did so was to open the season when No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward had a debut to forget against a ferocious Broncos defense.
Over the last three weeks, something has been different about Dart, the signal caller that the Giants selected with the No. 22 pick in this year’s draft. He led the Giants to victory over the then-undefeated Chargers in his debut as a starter, and after a down-to-Earth performance against the Saints, he came out firing against the defending champion Eagles a week ago en route to a 34-17 victory. He has revived a Giants squad that was asleep at the wheel with ex-Bronco Russell Wilson as the quarterback and given them the boost they’ve desperately been searching for recently.
BRONCOS CAN’T LET DART BUILD CONFIDENCE EARLY
Dart’s been celebrating, flexing the chain, and feeling himself throughout his first three starts. Cooper knows that keeping him from building confidence will be an important key to limiting him on Sunday.
Also, does going up against a rookie quarterback pose any challenges for Denver’s defense. He’s inexperienced, but there’s not a whole lot of NFL film out on him, so he’s a little different to prepare for just because coaching staffs can’t see all his tendencies and who is favorite reads are and what-not through just three games. Is that a bit of a double-edged sword for Cooper?
“No, I would say no. Not to that standpoint because once you have played enough in this league, you’ve seen enough good quarterbacks. We play one of the best quarterbacks twice a year every single year. So once you go against that, you kind of get a feel of the game and you know what you need to do. You have to make him feel uncomfortable in the pocket, can’t let him get that confidence and that ego going. We just have to take care of that,” Cooper said after Broncos practice Wednesday.
Dart showed in his efforts against the Eagles that he can build on confidence like few can in this league. The Giants opened the game with two touchdowns, and three of their first four drives ended in six points. The defending champs were instantly on their heels and were struggling to find out how to stop a young quarterback that was playing with so much swagger and confidence.
CONTAINING DART ON THE GROUND
While the young gunslinger has had success through the air in three starts — 508 yards and four touchdowns while completing nearly 66% of his passes — he’s run the ball effectively as well. He’s posted at least 54 rushing yards in all three of his starts and is averaging almost 5.6 yards per carry in those games. Whether it’s a designed run, or a scramble out of the pocket once the protection breaks down, Dart’s been making defenses pay with the ability to run.
Pat Surtain II said that the Broncos will have to account for that while also giving praise to the Ole Miss product.
“The team is rallying behind him. He is very confident. It seems like he’s playing with a chip on his shoulder. You can just see the poise and intangibles. He can make every throw across the field. A very underrated part of his game is his scrambling ability and his ability to create second-chance opportunities for his offense on his feet. You saw it last week against Philly. He had a few possessions where he made plays [with] his feet. That is something we will have to take account for, but I think he will be a great player for sure in this league,” Surtain said.
This historic pass rush should be able to do a great job of containing Dart in the pocket. If he’s able to slip through the cracks when the Broncos are running man coverage on the back end, that’s when issues could arise.
Sunday is an interesting matchup for the Broncos. Once again, they are the better team on paper than their foe, but the Giants are on a roll while the Broncos are coming off an uninspiring win against the Jets in London. If Cooper and the Broncos can crush the Giants’ spirits early on and further establish themselves as one of the greatest pass rush units of all time, that should reap plenty of benefits for the orange and blue throughout the game.