Jaxson Dart found a way to win his NFL debut. His next task is to play smarter so he can stay on the field.
Dart took a whopping 25 hits in Sunday’s 21-18 Giants win over the Chargers: six sacks, nine quarterback hits in the pocket and 10 more hits on his 12 scrambles and designed QB runs in the open field.
Brian Daboll said Monday that Dart is “doing good” physically and is expected to practice Wednesday as the Giants (1-3) prepare for Sunday’s road trip to face the New Orleans Saints (0-4).
Dart’s popularity also is soaring: He currently has the NFL’s top-selling jersey, and Sunday was his best day of sales since his NFL Draft night, according to Fanatics, the e-commerce partner of the NFL and Giants.
But Dart had to fight through a second quarter hamstring injury on Sunday and came out of the game incredibly sore.
Daboll, Dart and the Giants have to find a way for the rookie to contribute without risking his body so often. It’s going to be tricky, because Dart’s mobility and improvisation are two of his best qualities, and Daboll doesn’t want to prevent his rookie from using them.
“You never want your quarterback taking a lot of hits, but certain quarterbacks are going to play a certain way,” Daboll said. “And there’s a lot of good ones in this league that play a certain way. We’re going to try to do everything we can to protect Jaxson.”
“I don’t question when he’s got the ball in his hands, him making the right decision,” the coach added. “You can see maybe a play and say, ‘Hey, think about sliding here, bud.’ And he can give you a perspective of what he saw [like] ‘I didn’t think this.’”
Daboll also noted that “you have to do a good job in the pocket.”
“He can do a good job, too, with throwing the ball away sometimes and avoiding some of those hits,” he said. “But yeah, you don’t want your quarterback taking a bunch of them.”
No, the Giants don’t want that. GM Joe Schoen and Daboll don’t want it, either.
They just played their one remaining trump card in the deck by benching Russell Wilson for Dart. And they need the rookie to continue galvanizing the team and showing promise.
They need him on the field.
A lot of the onus is on Dart himself.
He didn’t have to punch at Chargers corner Cam Hart, for example, at the end of his 39-yard run that got called back due to a John Michael Schmitz hold.
Just slide.
Instead, both Hart and Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley got a chance to tee off on the Giants’ quarterback on a play that didn’t even count. Dart then was sent to the medical tent by the NFL’s concussion spotter at MetLife Stadium.
Dart did get down on three of his quarterback runs, but he lunged forward on all three. He didn’t slide feet first once.
The rookie downplayed the mental and physical toll of his first NFL regular season start postgame.
“It was just a football game,” he said. “I think that’s just the best way to describe it.”
But Dart is underestimating the toll it will take if he tries to play the same way against a Saints defense that gave the undefeated Buffalo Bills problems in Week 4.
It’s honestly a legitimate question how Dart will be able to operate in his second game against the Saints physically, given the beating he took against L.A.
“He made some really, really good plays on some scramble plays and loose plays and kept the offense in really good favorable situations for most of the night,” Daboll said. “As good as we’ve had all year relative to just playing on time, first down, second and short.
“But there was a lot of things we need to clean up with him, and that’s what we’re doing right now. I’m sure he’ll be the first to say that. But I was very pleased with the command that he had, the decisions that he made. We got a lot of work to do.”
Daboll didn’t miss that opportunity to note Dart as an improvement on Wilson in his first start. The coach needs to do his part to protect Dart with his scheme and expectations, though, too.
Daniel Jones, Tyrod Taylor, Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito all got battered, beaten and injured playing in this offense, behind this line, for this coach.
It has become routine for the Giants to need to play a new quarterback because their previous starter is hurt, and it doesn’t usually take very long.
Daboll and head coach Mike Kafka need to figure out a game plan, especially without Malik Nabers, that takes less pressure off the quarterback to do everything.
And Schoen’s offensive line, in Year 4 of his rebuild, needs to hold up better in pass protection, too.
Dart might have a good feel for when to escape the pocket.
“He’s got good instincts,” Daboll said of Dart. “It’s something that’s hard to coach.”
But it would be better if Dart didn’t have to take off so often.
Not just better. It’s imperative that their first-round pick stays on the field.
