Jaxson Dart played well in his preseason debut against the Buffalo Bills. Brian Daboll is head over heels for his first-round quarterback.
So will Dart turn this into a Giants quarterback battle with veteran Russell Wilson? Has he done so already?
The answer could come as early as Tuesday and Wednesday during the Giants’ joint practices against the Jets.
“I expect myself to play well whenever I’m on the field,” Dart said after the Giants’ 34-25 preseason win over the Buffalo Bills on Saturday. “Just kind of try to stack these, and the more reps that I feel like I’m going to get, I’m going to get more and more comfortable.”
Dart consistently has worked with the second-string offense during training camp. Then he took his play up a notch against Buffalo while facing some Bills defensive starters.
Now, Joe Schoen and Daboll have to decide whether to start giving Dart significant reps with the ones, with Malik Nabers and the starting offensive line.
If they do that this week in their practices and Saturday game against the Jets — if they split first-team reps with Wilson and Dart — that would create a runway for Dart to take over sometime early this season as the Giants’ starting QB.
If they leave Dart with the backups and continue to give Wilson the only first-team snaps, though, that might stave off Dart’s pursuit of the QB1 job.
Or least delay it slightly until Wilson, Dart and the Giants’ early season results give Schoen and Daboll no choice.
Remember: When teams pick quarterbacks in the first round of the NFL Draft, they almost always play. And they almost always play much earlier than the public anticipates.
There are several reasons for this, including the reason most teams draft QBs in the first round: the offense and the team wasn’t very good the year before.
Quarterbacks drafted in the first round performed well enough in college to give their new franchises and fan bases hope that they can change their fortunes.
Dart’s task arriving here in the spring was to validate the Giants’ belief in him that he can be that guy.
And while this was only one exhibition game with a lot of good and some teachable moments, Dart looked enough like an NFL quarterback against the Bills to whet the fans’ appetite of what’s to come.
More importantly, Daboll had trouble containing his enthusiasm after the win.
“Just about what I thought he would do,” Daboll said of Dart’s performance. “Efficient, effective, aggressive, confident in the pocket. Some stuff we can work on, but he’s doing good.”
The Giants’ coach even referenced a Daily News question about Dart’s learning curve to reinforce how much poise Dart had shown in the game.
“He does it in practice,” Daboll said. “I think I was asked a question from — it might have been Pat — about holding on to the ball. Look, there’s things he can be better at, but we missed some opportunities on third down, some drops that would have even been better for him and for us. But he’s a confident young player.
“He’s improved since he’s been here,” the coach continued. “Still have a long way to go, but I enjoy working with him. I like his demeanor on the sideline. He sees the game well. Again, not that we’re getting — we got a couple blitzes and things like that. But I’m glad he’s here.”
To Daboll’s final point, the Bills’ defense on Saturday was vanilla. When opponents start game planning and unleashing exotic blitzes and changing coverages after the snap, it becomes a whole new ballgame.
Dart’s play isn’t the only factor that will dictate how early he plays, however. Wilson’s performance will impact that decision, too.
Remember 2019, when Eli Manning was at the end?
Coach Pat Shurmur spelled Manning with Jones in Week 1 at the end of a blowout road loss at Dallas. Then after an 0-2 start, Shurmur replaced Manning and made Jones his new starting quarterback in a road win at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 3.
Manning was 38 years old that season. Wilson is 36. Wilson also was just rated a fourth-tier NFL quarterback in The Athletic’s annual survey of 50 executives and coaches.
That puts him in the same tier as the Jets’ Justin Fields, the Colts’ Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson, the Browns’ Joe Flacco, the Saints’ Spencer Rattler and two young unproven QBs: the Falcons’ Michael Penix Jr. and the Vikings’ J.J. McCarthy.
The Giants consistently have called Wilson their starting quarterback for Week 1. So if he starts the opener against the Washington Commanders and injects life into this offense and team, that would presumably give the Giants a nice cushion of patience to acclimate Dart and work him in down the road.
What if Wilson and the Giants offense falls flat on its face in the season opener, though? What if Dart has a strong preseason, Wilson falters early and the Giants’ season starts skidding early?
Doesn’t Dart need reps with Malik Nabers to prepare for that possibility? Shouldn’t the Giants be preparing for what feels like a near inevitability?
It’s clear who the fans will want to see. And the Giants have shown no confidence or interest in Jameis Winston as an option yet.
So will Dart get a chance to play early this season? Will Daboll start grooming him for that possibility, given his start against the Bills?
Tuesday and Wednesday will provide the answer when the Giants take the field against the Jets.
HOME-AND-HOME
The Giants will visit the Jets in Florham Park, N.J., for Tuesday’s joint practice. The Jets will travel East on Wednesday to East Rutherford. Then the Giants will host the Jets on Saturday at 7 p.m. at MetLife Stadium … Daboll said starting slot corner Dru Phillips came out of the preseason opener because he “wasn’t able to go” and “just couldn’t finish.” He added: “It falls in line with all the other injured guys right now.” … Speaking of injured guys, this is an important week for franchise left tackle Andrew Thomas (Lisfranc). If he’s actually going to be ready for the regular season opener, he needs to start playing actual football soon. “We’ll just take it day-by-day with him and keep on improving him,” Daboll said. “When he can do more, he’ll do more and whenever that is, that’s when it’ll be.”
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