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00:00Jackson Dart, Jackson Dart, Jackson Dart, Jackson Dart.
00:03I swear there was a stretch of like, what, two to four weeks
00:06where Jackson Dart was the it athlete in New York City.
00:10That buzz started in what, preseason, but it took full effect in week four
00:14when he took over his starter.
00:16And he gave the Giants and this entire city some real aura
00:19from the quarterback position that we haven't seen since Eli's days.
00:23In a 12-game sample size, 4-8 record, not great,
00:27but he did throw for a little over 2,200 passing yards, 15 touchdowns,
00:32only five interceptions, and nine rushing touchdowns,
00:35which is a Giants record at quarterback.
00:38That's 24 touchdowns in 12 weeks, y'all.
00:40That's accounting for two touchdowns a game.
00:43The Giants have 99 problems, but a QB one ain't one.
00:47So let's have a little bit of fun here.
00:49We're going to recap his rookie year, break down some of the plays
00:52that not only made him dangerous, but they also got him in trouble.
00:56And I want you guys to hear from our NFL reporter for The Post,
01:01Ryan Dunleavy, and Super Bowl legend David Tyree,
01:04on the journey and the highs and lows of Jackson Dart's rookie season,
01:09because I'm going to say it now.
01:10I went from thinking I don't see it to thinking this kid might overtake
01:17Eli Manning as the greatest Giants quarterback ever.
01:20And it all started with the draft type, because I'm not going to lie,
01:25when I did my draft evaluation for quarterbacks for the 2025 draft,
01:29Jackson Dart was not on my list as one of the top quarterbacks in this draft class.
01:34I thought he was a system quarterback at Ole Miss,
01:37and I thought he was a more athletic gunslinger than a Jay Cutler
01:42that wasn't going to be a star in the NFL.
01:45But I was wrong.
01:46I just pulled my own receipts.
01:48When Joe Shane and the Giants traded up to grab him in the first round,
01:52our NFL reporter for The Post, Ryan Dunleavy,
01:55didn't know exactly how Dart was going to transition from college to NFL quarterback,
02:00but he did give Joe Shane and Brian Dable some props and credit for the pick.
02:05What impressed me most is Joe Shane's poker face, right?
02:07In the last three days, it came out everywhere that Brian Dable and the Giants
02:12preferred Jackson Dart as their quarterback.
02:15They still had the guts to wait and wait and wait,
02:20not even trade up in front of the Steelers,
02:22and then give up, basically get a bargain to move up to 25
02:26and get their quarterback of the future.
02:28I don't know if Jackson Dart can play.
02:30There's questions about how he'll read an NFL playbook,
02:34go through the offense, et cetera.
02:35But you can't argue with the process and the value.
02:38It's a classic have-your-cake-and-eat-it-two situation
02:41to get your quarterback second with your second first-round pick.
02:44Turns out it wasn't a reach, trading back into the first round to grab him.
02:49It's a move that paid off for Joe Shane and the Giants.
02:52It wasn't like taking Daniel Jones with the sixth overall pick,
02:55and that's no knock on DJ.
02:57But no one booed this Jackson Dart pick or the process.
03:01In fact, Joe Shane and Brian Dable knew they got their guy on draft night,
03:06and they doubled down on it the next day in the press conference,
03:09and these two dudes were fired up about it.
03:12All right.
03:13Obviously, we traded back for Jackson, fired up to get him.
03:17We went through an extensive quarterback process.
03:19It started as far back as last May in terms of evaluating the quarterbacks,
03:24and Dave's and I have been through this quite a few times.
03:27And at the end of the day, we're fired up to have Jackson Dart as part of the organization
03:32and look forward to working with him.
03:34Yeah, I'd say, look, we've had conversations all the way up to this morning, actually,
03:40about a variety of things.
03:41And I like the way he plays.
03:44I like his competitive fire.
03:47I like his accuracy.
03:48I like his ability, again, to push the ball down the field,
03:51his athletic ability to run with the football.
03:54I know the system that they ran down there at Ole Miss is similar to the one we had at Alabama.
04:02So there's some carryover on some of these things.
04:05But I think this guy's got better every year.
04:08He's played.
04:10He's a leader.
04:11He was smart.
04:13He has the attributes that we were looking for.
04:15Then we get to rookie camp, OTAs, training camp, preseason.
04:21That's when you started to see the buzz.
04:23Because in comes Jackson Dart to East Rutherford.
04:26All eyes are on this man from his first snap at rookie camp, like a Tupac album.
04:31I thought he looked great during rookie camp, but it's rookie camp.
04:35But it was his first pass in team drills during OTAs with the Vets,
04:40which was a pick six that had Giants fans QBPTSD kick in.
04:46That pick and that video of that play went absolutely viral.
04:50And people were already labeling this dude as the next Giants quarterback to be a bust.
04:56But you know what?
04:57That's where we should have really started paying attention to the dog that this kid has in him.
05:02Because his progression and his development from there only went up.
05:07You saw a wild play or two every single training camp practice.
05:11And that's when he really put Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston on notice that I can play.
05:17And then we saw the preseason games.
05:19Guys on this roster who were homegrown here.
05:22And they're here because.
05:26And a touchdown from Jackson Dart to little Jordan Humphrey.
05:30Both did a good job.
05:31On that screen as well.
05:33Dart with time.
05:34Fastball over the middle.
05:36Completes it.
05:36Nice.
05:37For first down.
05:38That's Montrell Washington.
05:403rd and 6.
05:44Clean pocket.
05:45Fires court.
05:46Touchdown.
05:46Just like that.
05:48Before the preseason, I didn't think we were going to see Dart play until what?
05:53At least week 8.
05:54After the preseason, I changed it to week 6.
05:57But Russell Wilson not being able to show that he had some juice and some mobility left in
06:02the tape, that opened up the door for this kid's first start.
06:06But here's what shocked me the most when it came time for him to take over as starter.
06:10When I went into the locker room and I asked some of the players about what they thought
06:14about Dart getting his first start, these dudes wanted him to be the guy.
06:19They wanted him to get out there and bring that energy because they thought that he brought
06:24a different element to the offense.
06:26Mobility.
06:27How is it going to be different, I guess, blocking for a guy like Russell Wilson, but
06:31for a guy like Jackson Dart who can get out of the pocket and create with his legs?
06:36I'd say that, you know, you see around the league, a lot of these guys are really good
06:39at running.
06:40Like you have the Jalen Hurts, Jaden Daniels, Cam Wards, Colin Murrays are the Wards.
06:45You know, there's a lot of quarterbacks that are really good at running, so I think that's
06:48where the NFL is shifting to nowadays and to have a guy back there like that kind of
06:53just makes you feel a little bit more at ease, knowing that, you know, if you slip on a block
06:57or, you know, you kind of mess up and it's a little muddy, then, you know, he's going
07:00to get you out of that muddy situation and make you look good.
07:02So, you know, a guy like that, it's always a plus to have a guy like that back there.
07:06So let's get into the good because that mobility and athleticism was on full display
07:12of the opening drive of his first start.
07:15What do you have, like a 13 or 16-yard scramble for a touchdown?
07:18The neighbors, seven before that, here's a run again by Dart, first and 10 will take
07:23it in, his first career touchdown, and the Giants on top.
07:26I was hyped.
07:34The entire stadium was hyped.
07:37We haven't seen anything like this before, but I think it was the Eagles game, Thursday
07:42night football, on national TV where this kid had his, I have arrived in New York moment.
07:49One, he beat the Eagles.
07:50Two, he did it on primetime football.
07:53And three, he did it without Malik Neighbors.
07:55There was an anticipation throw that he made to tie it in Theo Johnson in a big moment of
08:01the game.
08:01Here's a breakdown of that throw.
08:05All right, so I know this isn't some sort of play that's going to make SportsCenter or
08:09anyone's highlight reel, but this is when I realized, all right, this kid gets it.
08:14This kid understands how to play quarterback in the NFL, how to read coverages, how to anticipate
08:19his throws, and how to get the most out of his personnel.
08:23Right now, you see the Giants in 12 personnel.
08:27That's one running back, two tight ends, and you've got two receivers on the outside here.
08:32Again, no Malik Neighbors.
08:34I believe Darius Slayton was down this game.
08:37You've got Theo Johnson and Daniel Bellinger.
08:39Two tight ends right there in the slot.
08:41You've got Jalen Hyatt, and I believe that's Wondell Robinson up top.
08:46So Vic Fangio, we all know and respect, is one of the great defensive coordinators in
08:51this game.
08:52Tried to not only blitz Jackson Dart to see if he understood how to get the ball out quickly
08:59and how to identify his hots and sights and where he was in trouble when it came to some
09:06of these blitzes, and Jackson Dart aced this test, man.
09:09So let's watch the play first.
09:11Theo Johnson is the receiver that gets the rock, and then I'll come back and we'll break
09:16this down.
09:17Good ball.
09:18Good throw.
09:20Anticipation.
09:21Good catch.
09:22Good finish.
09:23This was something that got me hyped watching.
09:26And if you know me, you know I'm the Giants in-game emcee.
09:29So I was probably up in the 300 sections watching this throw when it happened because I had a
09:37hit to do to be on the video board and do the in-game entertainment.
09:42But right here, great job by Brian Dable, Mike Kafka with the motion here.
09:49And what this allows Jackson Dart to do, this motion by Tyrone Tracy Jr., the running back,
09:55if someone goes with him or someone bumps and goes with him, you automatically know it's
10:01man-to-man as a quarterback.
10:02If they don't, if there's just shifts and guys kind of readjust their leverage, you know
10:08it's going to be some sort of zone on the back end.
10:11And with this look, it's looking like some sort of cover four or maybe some sort of cover
10:15three right now.
10:17Now, Jackson Dart, through this motion, sees the linebacker, believe that's Zach Bond, go
10:28with the motion, go with Tyrone Tracy Jr., automatically knows he has some sort of man-to-man coverage
10:36already.
10:37And what that does, since we have this flood concept or, you know, some people could call
10:45it a sail, I like to call it the flood concept, where you're running that sail or you're running
10:50that deep out route.
10:51This guy's got a, for the love of the game, go to take that corner up out of there.
10:56Only against press man, bump, one-to-one, single high.
11:00Do you get that?
11:00Do you get that ball?
11:01It's a mandatory outside release because you don't want this corner to fall off on that
11:06route.
11:06And then you've got a little whip.
11:08You've got the snag route right here by Daniel Bellinger as you've got the snag route right
11:15here.
11:16And then you've got Tyrone Tracy in the flat for flat control.
11:20You flood a zone.
11:22So you're flooding this zone, this area, if it's zoned, to pull these guys out of their
11:30spots, out of their zones.
11:31But as soon as he saw Zach Bond go with Tyrone Tracy Jr., he knew it was man-to-man.
11:40So your two options here are Daniel Bellinger on Cooper DeGene on some sort of snag or whip
11:46route, which you don't like.
11:48And now you have Theo Johnson, he can see, with a man-free safety, with the safety that's
11:56coming down to try and play man-to-man at around eight yards away.
12:00You know where he's going.
12:02He knows where he's going with this football.
12:05Gets a little pressure here with Jermaine Illuminor, with Jermaine Illuminor, kind of losing that
12:13block late.
12:14Then you've got some internal pressure right here with this backer running free, ready
12:19to hit him right dead in the mouth.
12:22So right now, Jackson Dart is staring down the barrel of a loaded gun or a loaded blitzer
12:30or rusher.
12:31And he, with anticipation, is anticipating Theo Johnson to get a clean break, since you're
12:38not getting pressed, get a clean break out on this out route, this deep out route.
12:42And he's anticipating him catching this ball before the numbers.
12:46This shows you that this kid was ready for the assignment.
12:53And you see him make the throw on his back foot, because he's taking a hit.
12:57Look at the hit that he takes here.
12:59And he gets just enough on it to where he puts it out there to now Theo Johnson can catch
13:06and run.
13:07A lot of the times, you would see this be a late or a throw that's behind him that allows
13:13this defender to get in phase and maybe pick it or even, you know, get in phase and make
13:18some sort of pass break up, PBU.
13:21But the way that Jackson Dart is able to get enough on this football, and that just goes
13:28to show how big of an arm he has to throw it from this back hash to the numbers to hit
13:34Theo Johnson in stride to where he can catch and run, just goes to show that this kid was
13:41ready.
13:43Before a lot of people thought he was going to be ready.
13:47And to win two out of his first three games against a team like the Chargers, who are
13:52in the playoffs, against a team like the Eagles, who won the NFC East again, who are in the
13:58playoffs, defending Super Bowl champs.
14:02To carve both these teams up was absolutely phenomenal to watch.
14:08And it let me know that this kid had the juice.
14:11After that throw, and after that game, I think we all left MetLife Stadium thinking, you know
14:18what, this kid gets it.
14:19And he can make players around him better.
14:22And that's what a QB1 does.
14:24It was the Jackson Dart and Cam Scadaboo show that game.
14:27And their energy after the game showed that this guy was the quarterback, and this was the
14:33rookie duo that New York has needed for a long time.
14:37Okay, because I've been seeing Fitz take his shot.
14:40And here's the thing, here's the thing.
14:43If you take it off, Scat will take it off.
14:47Let's go!
14:48Oh yeah, Scat!
14:50Okay!
14:52Woo!
14:52Now get the move!
14:53Yeah!
14:54Scat will move!
14:55But now, we got to get into the bad, because sadly, that high wore off faster than the buzz
15:08you get when you're smoking hookah.
15:10He went on to lose his next seven starts, and the Giants lost, what, nine in a row?
15:15And I'm not pinning all those losses on him at all.
15:18My man still managed to put up some pretty solid numbers during those losses.
15:22During that seven-game losing skid, though, is when it hit me that Jackson Dart was the
15:29future of the franchise.
15:31My man was still able to throw for at least 240 passing yards three times, and he didn't
15:36turn the football over that much, like rookie quarterbacks normally do when they hit that
15:41rookie wall.
15:43In a loss versus the Bears, he went 19 for 29 for 242 yards in the air.
15:48No touchdowns passing, no INTs, but two rushing touchdowns and 66 rushing yards.
15:55No number one receiver.
15:56He had a lot of drops.
15:57No Cam Scataboo.
15:58This guy showed that he is the offense.
16:01But there was also a point during that losing skid where we all started to doubt this kid
16:07again because he consistently was taking trips to the medical tent because he was taking on
16:13so many unnecessary hits.
16:15And that made both fans in the media question if this kid really understood both how important
16:21he was to the offense and the franchise, and if he knew how to play NFL quarterback.
16:26This ain't the SEC.
16:28You got to slide.
16:29This is football.
16:30Like, I'm going to get hit if I'm in the pocket or outside the pocket.
16:34Like, it's, I don't, like, I feel like I've played this way my whole entire life.
16:39Um, there shouldn't be, like, any shocker to anybody if you've followed along with my
16:44career.
16:46Um, and I don't, we're not playing, like, we're not playing soccer out here.
16:50Like, you're going to get hit.
16:52Things happen.
16:53Um, it's part of the game.
16:55And there was even a point where I was wondering if this kid was going to last, not even the
17:01rest of the season, if his playing style or his running style was sustainable for a full
17:07NFL career, especially after he took that hit on the sideline on Monday Night Football
17:13against the Patriots.
17:14That hit started some sort of silly narrative where someone came out and said that the Giants
17:38should trade dart.
17:40And since they had the number one overall pick at that time, they should trade dart.
17:44And that number one pick, Fernando Mendoza.
17:47That was an absolute stupid take.
17:48Both me and David Tyree did want the Giants to sit Jackson Dart the remainder of the season
17:54to protect himself and so that he'd be available at the start of spring workouts and the next
17:59season.
18:00Do you sit him?
18:01Do you play him?
18:02And do you think Jackson Dart has a chance to make the Pro Bowl this year?
18:07I'm going, first of all, I've been, I've personally been heavy on sitting Jackson Dart ever
18:12since I saw Jason, James, James with Winston.
18:14I think the whole project, I think the thought process the Giants had at the start of the
18:18beginning of the season was the right, the right gameplay.
18:23Get a young, talented quarterback in and allow him to actually sit and learn.
18:28You have James Winston in there.
18:30He actually gave you a good flash and some, some revival, you know, some excitement.
18:34He's not just the media frenzy.
18:36He's actually a solid NFL quarterback who can really produce for you.
18:40And I think they need to sit Jackson Dart in light of what we've seen, the positives.
18:44We've seen enough positives.
18:45We know that we actually have something special brewing.
18:47The risks are too great at this point in light of what the Giants are paying for it.
18:53They're playing for it.
18:53You're paying, you're paying these backup quarterbacks, put them out there, give them
18:57a chance to continue their careers in the National Football League.
18:59I think that's those front office types of decisions where, you know, is this just about
19:04us trying to get a win?
19:05So Kafka's in there.
19:07You got Shane in there, hard decisions to make, sit Jackson Dart behind down so he can
19:11be the future of the franchise.
19:13That's why coaches coach, GM's GM, and I'm glad they didn't sit him because this kid
19:18responded to the critics and the narratives about him.
19:21The way you want your QB1 in New York to do so.
19:26Now, earlier I mentioned that Jackson Dart could overtake Eli Manning as the greatest
19:30Giants quarterback ever.
19:32And when you compare Dart's rookie season to Eli's, like Tyree broke down for me, you'll
19:39see that Dart is off to a great start.
19:41Here's my talking point at the end of the day.
19:44This, you know, Eli's on this Hall of Fame ballot.
19:47I know we're going to get into that a little bit later.
19:48But I remember Eli's rookie season like it was abysmal.
19:54It was abysmal.
19:55And I actually went back and looked at the stats.
19:57And I remember he actually had a game where he threw for 22 yards.
20:00Jackson Dart's rookie year is phenomenal in comparison.
20:05And obviously, he's a runner.
20:05There's nothing for Jackson that he has to, like, overwhelmingly invest this great amount
20:13of energy in relation to sample size, to what the future could look like.
20:17So at the end of the day, Pop's coming to the aid.
20:20He was a little vulgar with it.
20:22But hey, we out here in these streets.
20:23We out here in these Twitter streets.
20:25We out here in these X streets.
20:26You want some?
20:26You can come get some.
20:27We can all agree there wasn't much to celebrate when it came to the Giants this season.
20:33But there is no debate that this kid is the future quarterback of the Giants football franchise.
20:40Look at what he was able to do in just 12 weeks of action.
20:44He became the first rookie quarterback with 240-plus passing yards, 60-plus rushing yards,
20:50and two-plus total touchdowns in multiple games.
20:53First quarterback since at least 1991 with an opening drive touchdown in each of his first
20:59three starts.
21:01The most rushing touchdowns by a rookie quarterback in NFL history and scored rushing touchdowns
21:07in five consecutive games.
21:09That's the first for any quarterback in NFL history.
21:12Lamar Jackson, Michael Vick, all of them.
21:15I think if this kid stays hungry and he stays healthy, there is no limit to where his game
21:21can go and where he can take this franchise.
21:24Key word, if.
21:25But I think we can all agree.
21:27We like what we saw in year one from Jackson Dart.
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