Giants QB Jaxson Dart in home stretch imagining career starting at MetLife Stadium
Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart talks to reporters during a joint practice with the Jets in East Rutherford, N.J., on Wednesday. Credit: Ed Murray
Jaxson Dart scored tickets to a Zach Bryan concert last month just before the start of training camp. He was able to relax and enjoy the music that night, but football wasn’t far from his thoughts even in the middle of that musical experience.
How could it not have been? That was his first time inside MetLife Stadium.
“Going in there and being able to look at all the great players’ names in the stadium and seeing the atmosphere and trying to picture what a sold-out stadium is going to be like, the energy involved… I can’t wait,” he said on Wednesday.
The wait is almost over. And not just for Dart but for Giants fans who have been eagerly anticipating his arrival in the building for months. Years, if we’re being honest.
Dart and the Giants will make their home debut on Saturday when they host the Jets. If the Giants stick to the same plan they employed in their opener in Buffalo then Dart should enter the game behind starter Russell Wilson at some point in the first half and lead a few series with the second-teamers.
The rookie quarterback has already performed in a number of practices in front of bleachers filled with supporters in training camp and graciously signed autographs and taken selfies with thousands of lucky ones. He played in his first NFL preseason game last weekend with a good deal of success up in Buffalo and enjoyed the accolades given to him. He even got a nice ovation when he threw out a ceremonial pitch at Yankee Stadium.
But this will be the first time he’ll get to actually suit up and throw passes in his new home, the one where he expects to be spending his career winning.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” he said.
Maybe Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen will carry Dart across the threshold just to add to the symbolism.
The strange part about this introduction, though, is that it’s so brief. Dart will play Saturday, then presumably again at home next Thursday in the preseason finale against the Patriots, and that’ll be it. He’ll go away for a while.
Dart basically has one week left of live reps, such as the ones he took these past two days at joint practices with the Jets, before he is shelved as the backup behind Wilson and along with Jameis Winston. The practices will start to focus on facing Washington or Dallas and there won’t be a lot of time spent developing the second- or third-string quarterback like there is in camp.
There is a chance Dart may not play in MetLife Stadium again until next summer… and oddly enough that would probably mean things have gone very well for the Giants.
So there is a lot of football to soak up in these next few days.
“Everything, every practice, every preseason game, every joint practice is important, particularly for a young quarterback for learning reasons,” Daboll said.
Dart is aware of that, too.
“I’m just trying to take advantage of the opportunities I get, watch the film to go into depth, and keep learning,” he said. “It’s been great to get these different experiences and be put in different situations. Now when I am able to step on the field, I know it’s still early, but being able to go through so many scenarios and situations and your understanding of ball, I feel like I’ve made some big strides.”
One of those popped up on Wednesday in practice. Dart took a snap and wanted to throw a pass to his left but that side of the field was covered. So he rolled right, gave receiver Beaux Collins a hand gesture to go deep, then hit Collins in stride for a touchdown.
“Instincts kind of take over,” Dart said with a smile.
Does Dart normally direct traffic the way he did with Collins, waving him to the right spot?
“When I know something is going to be that open, yeah,” he said.
This time he knew it and the play drew another enthusiastic high-five from Daboll. The quarterback who attended the Zach Bryan concert a month ago probably wouldn’t have been so sure.
“Jeez, it’s a world of difference,” Dart said comparing his comfort since the start of camp. “From a knowledge standpoint I’m way ahead of where I was.”
As for where he will be, that’s pretty clear: One day — maybe this season, maybe next — he’ll be the starting quarterback for the Giants. He’ll be the player on whose shoulders the success of the franchise rests. He’ll be the one people come to MetLife Stadium to see and, with any luck, cheer.
Dart already has a sense of what to expect. He made reference to creating a “home-field advantage” at MetLife, something recent Giants teams haven’t been able to conjure. And he gets that there is a lot of outside optimism around him, probably more impatience for him to start playing in real games than the organization has at this point.
“Everybody is super hungry to win,” he said, referring to the fans as much as the players themselves. “I think a lot of people feel a certain energy around here. Obviously I haven’t been here so I don’t know what it’s been like in the past, but it’s really positive and I know we have a group of guys who really want this. We want to compete and play at the highest level, we want to play on the biggest stages and win the biggest games. What I see from the fans is they hold everyone to that same standard and as a competitor you want to be a part of that. Ultimately that will push you. You want to play for a passionate fan base.”
On Saturday they’ll all finally meet each other in person.
For now, though, he and those fans will have to settle for these preseason glimpses into that future and maybe, as Dart did at the concert, look around and use a little bit of their imagination.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
