Now that Jaxson Dart made his NFL debut, the question now: How long will the Giants fans have to wait to see him at home?
EAST RUTHERFORD - The New York Giants have had two quarterbacks in mind when team brass got together to develop a plan for Jaxson Dart to reach the potential the franchise believes he has.
Brian Daboll would tap into his experience with Josh Allen in Buffalo. Mike Kafka, his assistant head coach and offensive coordinator, was there in Kansas City when Patrick Mahomes was the QB1-in-waiting behind Alex Smith.
Talk about setting the bar high for Dart with Allen and Mahomes being the standard.
But truth be told: it was always about comparing the plans and not the players, even if the Giants do see a lot of the same qualities in Dart that Allen and Mahomes have displayed on the road to NFL greatness.
Dart has accepted his role as the Giants' No. 2 quarterback - and Russell Wilson's backup - heading into Sunday night's home opener against Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs at MetLife Stadium.
Don't mistake that for Dart being content with his current spot on the depth chart, however.
His quest to be what the Giants drafted him to be - the player he believes he will be - has just begun.
And there will be Dart No. 6 jerseys in the stands, representative of an entire organization’s thirst for as young quarterback to embrace as the future in the present.
The waiting game gets tiresome when the team continues to lose.
Dart has spent most of his practice time since the regular season began trying to be quarterbacks he isn't. He has done his best to mimic Jayden Daniels, Dak Prescott and now Mahomes on the scout team.
"It's fun because I'm able to take time to watch other quarterbacks around the league, kind of see the things that they do at a really high level," Dart said. "I want to give our team the best chance to go out there and win."
Dart wants to be a good teammate. He also wants to be a great quarterback.
Striking a balance between those goals is the mission as the 22-year-old first-round pick navigates all that comes with being a rookie in a position room with Wilson as starter and former No. 1 overall pick Jameis Winston also in reserve.
To truly appreciate why the Giants believe in Dart, go back to the pre-draft evaluation where his humility, swagger and intelligence allowed him to shine. The physical tools have been there, but the way Dart handled everything the Giants have thrown at him is what has set him up for success and opportunity.
Continuing to strive to become the best QB he can be tends to be a challenge while carrying out the responsibility of what is required to live up to the expectations of what the team’s depth chart requires.
With Wilson getting most if not all of the snaps with the first team offense, Dart's preparation for game day is more complicated. He has run a handful of plays over the course of the last two weeks with the first-team, but much of his work during the team's scheduled session has been limited to the scout team.
The real grind to get ready just in case happens when most of the starters head inside the team facility. Dart and Winston stay outside on the practice field with assistant quarterbacks coach Chad Hall and a collection of reserves and practice squad teammates. That's when Dart runs through the entire first-team play script from that day, taking everything he saw earlier when mirroring Wilson and going through his own footwork, signal calls and cadence from 10 yards behind the huddle.
All the while, the Giants video the plays, just as they do Wilson with the first-team offense within the structure of the practice. Daboll meets with Dart at least once a week, and anyone who has visited training camp and practice on a regular basis knows their encounters on and off the field have emerged as a significant part of his evolution as NFL quarterback.
"The biggest thing that I learned from [working with Mahomes as a rookie] was just building a structure for really any young player, whether it's a quarterback or any position," Kafka said. "It's just building a structure, how you prepare, and what does that timeline look like on a day-to-day basis? What does it look like on a weekly basis? And then, how can you take experiences from maybe some of the vets or some of the older guys on the team and say, ‘Oh, I can maybe add that to my routine, my regimen, and build that.’"
One day in the future, the Giants expect Dart to be their starting quarterback, the face of the franchise and the player to whom an entire locker room looks when the chips are down.
Adjusting to the NFL tends to be a grind and the learning curve Dart has faced will be tested with every step along the way. This is where Dart believes he was meant to be, the pressure of being the next quarterback of the Giants and everything that comes with that expectation is an accepted component.
You don’t walk through the lobby doors of one of the NFL’s flagship franchises without noticing the four Vince Lombardi trophies intentionally placed in the display case to the left.
Over the past decade-plus, as the Giants have struggled, the heavier the burden the championship hardware represents has gotten for those tasked with trying to get this team back to respectability, let alone in contention for a fifth Lombardi. The true measure of whether Dart can live up to what the Giants believe he will be is handed down with regard to how he performs on game day.
An ESPN.com headline declared in 2018: Josh Allen is the ultimate boom-or-bust NFL draft prospect.
Allen looked the part, but he was raw when general manager Joe Schoen and Daboll were part of the Buffalo Bills organization that drafted him. The Giants viewed Dart similarly, and this was a multi-layered mission to figure out how quickly he can pick up what they need him to learn, and how soon.
The timeframe was uncertain, given the complicated schedule by which Daboll and the coaches must operate. If this were only about the maturation of Dart, that'd be challenging enough. Now consider that will be happening at the same time Daboll and his staff must dedicate time and effort to the entire team, especially with the 10th 0-2 start in 14 years for the organization spanning five head coaches (Tom Coughlin, Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge and Daboll).
In Week 1, Wilson was on the ropes and the calls for Dart were getting louder.
After Week 2, Wilson leads the NFL in passing yards having turned back the clock in Dallas.
And the Wilson-led Giants are even more desperate for their first win with the next chance coming Sunday night against Mahomes and the Chiefs, who are also unexpectedly 0-2.
The Giants have confidence in who Dart is as a learner and a leader, so it won’t be surprising if his trajectory continues to be accelerated regardless of what the standings show.
The group of Daboll, Kafka, passing game coordinator/QB coach Shea Tierney and Hall will be tasked with eventually weighing Dart’s readiness through the lens of numerous significant factors: his leadership, physical fundamentals, footwork, drop back mechanics, throwing mechanics and his read progressions.
His decision making is perhaps most paramount, and that’s not just about being comfortable in what he sees at the line of scrimmage. It’s also about knowing when to change the plays, and how that relates to the entire offense, not just how that affects the quarterback.
That’s a play-to-play, day-to-day, week-to-week evolution for Dart, much like it was for Mahomes, who watched veteran Alex Smith from the sideline until the regular season finale in 2017.
Dart made his debut with three snaps against the Cowboys last Sunday, running zone read plays with fellow rookie Cam Skattebo. His first-ever play was a handoff to Skattebo, who raced 24 yards to the goal line. One play later, Skattebo scored his first career touchdown.
His presence forced the defense to honor Dart's running ability, adding an element to a ground game that has struggled over the first two weeks. If Dart gets the call again, this time with 82,000-plus cheering his name, the moment in and of itself resonating far beyond the Meadowlands as much as Wilson and the Giants try to silence the doubters.
"I think he can take those few experiences and then just build off it," Kafka said. "I think if they, whether they come this week, next week, 10 weeks from now, whenever those opportunities show up, just taking advantage of them, being prepared and being ready to go."
The league’s Top 4 career passing yardage leaders are Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Drew Brees and Tom Brady.
Manning, the first overall pick in 1998 of the Indianapolis Colts, is the only one who started Week 1 as a rookie. He played all 16 games, throwing an NFL-leading 28 interceptions as the Colts finished 3-13.
Neither Favre, Brees nor Brady started a single game as rookies. Each went on to win at least one Super Bowl, even if Brady is an outlier as a sixth-round pick.
Eli Manning started seven games as a rookie with the Giants, going 1-6 with six TDs and nine interceptions when he replaced Kurt Warner in November 2004.
Any mention of Allen in relation to Dart is really more for the plan the Giants have set in motion, not the player comparison, which at this stage of the game would be incredibly unfair and premature.
In Allen's rookie year, he finished with just over 2,000 yards, 10 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions. He started the season on the bench, but with Nathan Peterman and A.J. McCarron ahead of him, the Bills made the move to Allen in the second half of the first game and never looked back. Six years later, Allen is the reigning NFL MVP.
"When you look around and you look at guys who have had success, it comes in all different ways from guys stepping on the field," Dart said. "From the moment they start to guys like Peyton Manning, who really struggled his first year and then turned things completely around. To guys who have sat a year or two before their number was called. I don't think that there's any specific timing of that such. It's more of just, you got to prepare. The team's going to put the best guys out there on the field. I think that's what people always have to understand: we're trying to win and we're trying to compete at the highest level."
Make no mistake: Jaxson Dart is a part of that now, and that role is only going to get bigger from here.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Will Jaxson Dart play in Giants vs Chiefs game on Sunday?
Category: Football
