Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart still has a “chip” on his shoulder over the New Orleans Saints passing on him at the NFL Draft’s No. 9 overall pick in April.
“I think that there’s always a chip on your shoulder any time that something like that happens,” Dart said Wednesday as the Giants (1-3) prepare to visit the Saints (0-4) in the Superdome. “But I’m just going to go out there and play as hard as I can.”
Back on draft night, the Giants first picked Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter at No. 3 overall, so the Saints could have taken Dart at No. 9.
In fact, Dart admitted this week that he thought he might get a call after meeting extensively with Saints head coach Kellen Moore and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier.
But New Orleans selected Texas offensive tackle Kelvin Banks instead and waited until their No. 40 overall pick in the second round to take Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough.
“I felt like my visit with them went good,” Dart said of the Saints. “So you kind of have thoughts in your head during the draft of what options are really realistic, and I definitely felt like that was a place that could have panned out. But things didn’t work out that way.”
“I met with them multiple times,” he continued. “Coach Moore was great. Coach Nuss was great, too. Definitely had a good relationship with them during the whole process. Excited to be on the field.”
Once Dart fell into the back half of the first round, the Giants pounced.
Joe Schoen traded the Giants’ second round pick (No. 34), a third-round pick (No. 9) and a 2026 third rounder to the Houston Texans to move up to pick No. 25 and get Dart.
Now, he is 1-0 in his young NFL career looking to make it 2-0 on Sunday in New Orleans. And he’s glad to be a Giant.
“I love it here,” Dart said. “There’s not a place that I’d rather be. I love just how passionate people are here outside of the facility, within the facility. I kind of like the attitude that the East Coasters have, and it’s a lot of fun. I’ve loved it.”
Dart’s goal now must be to play smarter and take fewer hits so he can stay on the field.
He has been a full participant in practice this week, but he’s on the injury report with a hamstring injury. He still looked sore on the field Wednesday, and he wore a lot of athletic tape on his left leg.
“I feel great,” Dart assured.
Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka said it’s an “age-old question of running quarterbacks” on “protecting yourself” while still using mobility to help the team.
“I think you’ve just got to be smart,” Kafka said. “There’s a time when you want to slide and get down. There’s a time when you’ve got to go get that yard. We put him in a couple of situations on short yardage where it’s you, one-on-one, make a play for us. And he did. I think there’s a time and a place for that.”
“Is it every play? I don’t know,” he continued. “If you’re in the open field, you’ve got the easy yard, take one hit off of yourself. But I don’t want to put the players in a box at all. So it’s just a smart balance that we’ve got to work through, and that will only come with time and experience.”
Dart said he thought the biggest hits he took mostly were on sacks and not on scrambles.
“I felt like some of the sacks that I took were kind of the biggest ones hit-wise that I felt like I could have avoided,” he said. “I felt like in the open field, a lot of them were on third down, so I’m not going to slide before the sticks, I’m going to try to get the first down. I don’t really regret any of those decisions that I made.”
“I think just be a little bit cleaner with my footwork in the pocket, just be a little quicker in my progressions maybe,” he added. “And there are definitely a few sacks that I felt like I could have gotten the ball out of my hand and probably just thrown away. Those are the kind of things that stood out to me.”
The rookie admitted that his decision to try to stiff arm Chargers corner Cam Hart at the end of a 39-yard run that didn’t count wasn’t the best idea, either.
“Yeah, maybe that’s not the smartest with my throwing hand,” he said. “I didn’t really like the way he was looking at me.”
Dart stubbornly assured he’s taken this kind of beating before and recovered to continue producing.
“I mean, I ran the ball a lot in college, so there were definitely times in college where my body felt it after games,” he said. “It’s football. You’re not always going to feel 100% after the game.”
He’ll make sure he’s as ready as he can be on Sunday. He’ll want to show the Saints what they’re missing.
SAFETIES FIRST
The Giants’ top three safeties are practicing through injuries this week. Safety Tyler Nubin (groin), safeties Dane Belton (shoulder) and Jevon Holland (neck) all were limited on Thursday. Nubin also did not practice Wednesday at all.
So defensive coordinator Shane Bowen said the plan for working around those personnel limitations is “pretty fluid.” Backup Beau Brade, corner Nic Jones and practice squad safety Raheem Layne are all in the mix.
“Getting a lot of guys reps out here, making sure they’re all engaged,” Bowen said. “With Dane being banged up and what that looks like and Nubin, I think it’s going to be probably day by day for a lot of these guys. It might take until Sunday morning to figure out who’s going to be up.”
“So getting these guys prepared, whether it’s Brade, whether it’s Layne, if he comes into play,” the coordinator added. “Nic Jones has kind of been a little bit of that hybrid role for us, emergency four safety. So spending time with those guys, making sure they know the game plan. We’ve got to have contingency plans for all that stuff.”
Defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence (illness) and running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. (shoulder) continued to sit out practice Thursday. Guard Greg Van Roten (veteran rest day) returned as a full participant.
Several other players remained limited: center John Michael Schmitz (ankle), and defensive linemen D.J. Davidson (foot), Chauncey Golston (ankle) and Rakeem Nuñez-Roches (foot). Left tackle Andrew Thomas was added as limited with a “foot/rest” designation.
Quarterbacks Jaxson Dart (hamstring) and Russell Wilson (ankle) and running back Cam Skattebo (knee) remained full participants despite their ailments.
