Even though they had just added Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston to the roster, when the 2025 NFL Draft arrived, the New York Giants still traded up to select Jaxson Dart with the 25th overall pick in the first round. Even though there were two Pro Bowl quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart, Dart still cracked his way into the starting lineup for 12 games as a rookie.
While the 23-year-old undoubtedly learned a lot in his first season, now the Giants are having their franchise QB learn a new offense with a different offensive coordinator. As expected, there have been some growing pains for the young QB.
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Matt Nagy Points Out Jaxson Dart’s ‘Struggles’ At Giants Camp
Last season, Dart was learning under head coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. Well, now Daboll is in Tennessee and Kafka is in Detroit.
Now, Dart is learning from offensive coordinator Matt Nagy and QB coach Brian Callahan. Nagy spent the past three seasons as Kansas City’s offensive coordinator. Meanwhile, Callahan had been the head coach in Tennessee for the past two seasons. Now, both are putting their brain power to help coach John Harbaugh maximize Dart’s potential.
According to Nagy via Pat Leonard of the NY Daily News, Dart is “super talented,” but the Giants’ offensive playcaller also pointed out that the second-year QB has experienced some “struggles” in training camp too.
“Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy admitted Tuesday that while Dart is ‘super talented,’ the second-year quarterback is experiencing ‘struggles’ in camp and has ‘areas he needs to get better at’ while learning the position’s nuances and a new offense.”
NY Daily News’ Pat Leonard on Jaxson Dart
The Giants hope that by facing more challenges early on in training camp, it will lead to more exponential growth for their young QB in the long term. What’s clear is that the Giants’ coaching staff isn’t coddling their QB, and they won’t be afraid to call him out when the performance isn’t living up to the standard.
But don’t mistake criticism for pessimism. The Giants are extremely optimistic about what they have in Dart; they’re just trying to help bring out the best in the former first-round pick.
Areas where the Giants have challenged Dart to focus on early on include getting in the huddle, calling the play, and getting his team to the line of scrimmage, which Nagy believes Dart has aced to this point. Then he revealed Dart’s next task: “Now we’ve got to get it to the part of seeing the defense and taking it to the next level, because the kid is super talented.”
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