The New York Giants are now two eras removed from the Eli Manning days. Although the organization hoped for a long and healthy relationship with their former first-round pick, Daniel Jones, that partnership couldn't make it through the 2024 NFL season.
The Giants were then led down a path to take a quarterback during the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. When New York went on the clock at 25th overall, they landed on Jaxson Dart out of Ole Miss.
It was hard to miss the immediate connection to Manning, who played at Ole Miss from 1999 to 2003.
Being that Manning had a long and successful career with the Giants, playing in over 230 regular-season games and winning multiple Super Bowls, he maintains a strong relationship with the organization. Therefore, if Dart needs a mentor, Manning is there to listen or offer advice.
However, Manning recently made one thing clear: he's not stepping in for the sake of doing so.
"I've told him, 'Hey, I'm here to help in any way. I'm a phone call away, a text away, but I'm not getting in the way," Manning told reporters, according to CBS Sports.
Dart's journey with the Giants comes after a 45-game run in the NCAA. He started his college career playing at USC, where he appeared in six games as a freshman. Dart completed 117 passes for 1,353 yards and nine touchdowns.
In 2022, Dart debuted for Ole Miss and appeared in 13 games. He started all but one of those matchups. From that point on, Dart saw a major improvement, which helped him work his way into the first-rounder light. For his final NCAA season, Dart threw for 4,279 yards. He accounted for 32 total touchdowns and turned the ball over just six times.
From afar, Manning is optimistic about his former team's draft decision.
"I've been just impressed with Jaxson, because I've seen him get better every single year," Manning told reporters.
"That's what you want your players to do, to make improvements, even though you're playing well, not being content and wanting to make those improvements every day. So I've kind of seen that. It sounds like he's doing that with the Giants. Every day, you're going to learn something, and you're going to make mistakes. That's just part of it, but learning from those mistakes, not repeating those mistakes, and seems like he's just trying to be there, earn the respect of his teammates and his coaches through his hard work."
Dart's status on the depth chart will depend on his first NFL training camp. Currently, he's battling against multiple veterans, including Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston. The assumption is that Dart is in for a redshirt season as a rookie. While it's a controversial approach surrounding the Giants and their first-round passer right now, all signs are pointing to Dart getting eased into the process.
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