Giants' Jaxson Dart has that 'it' factor; just ask anyone and they'll tell you
Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart scrambles out of the pocket in the second half against the Cowboys on Sept. 14 in Arlington, Texas. Credit: AP/Jeffrey McWhorter
Brian Burns recognized the “it” right away.
Everyone in the NFL is confident and competitive or else they wouldn’t have made it this far in the sport, but even among that population of Type A alpha-letes, a few manage to bring those traits to a different level and stand out.
Burns, who likes to think he has that kind of drive, said he is always on the lookout for folks with such an attitude and has spotted them only a few times in his career.
It’s a short list.
Baker Mayfield, a teammate of his for a brief time in Carolina, had “an extreme competitive drive,” he said. So did another former Panthers teammate, Christian McCaffrey.
“Those are the guys who compete in anything and everything they do and they don’t like to lose,” Burns told Newsday this past week. “I feel like Jaxson [Dart] has got a little bit of that [stuff] in him . . . He got hella confidence. Obviously, his talent speaks for itself, but as far as the mindset and the confidence level, I think he’s got ‘it,’ that type of ‘it’ factor.”
So does Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, who will bring his team to MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Asked about facing Dart in his NFL debut as a starter, the former quarterback himself listed the rookie’s physical traits but then added: “He’s got that ‘it’ factor. You can see that.”
Teams rarely get an opportunity for a mulligan, never mind one three games and three losses into a season. But when Dart takes the field with the first team, it certainly will feel like a do-over, a chance to erase the doldrums of the past month and replace them with the excitement that was brimming over the summer . . . most of it because of Dart himself.
Welcome to Opening Day 2.0.
The last time the Giants appeared at home, last Sunday night against Kansas City, the crowd was chanting for Dart to play. Whatever the reason, whatever the wisdom of the timing, it’s clear that their cries were heard and have been answered.
“I definitely think the fans will be a little excited about it,” receiver Wan’Dale Robinson said. “He’s going to bring some juice out there just the way he plays and the energy that he wants to play with. I think it will be good for us.”
But this isn’t just the next quarterback in a line of them. Dart breaks a mold that the Giants have used regarding that position for generations. Those days of Eli Manning’s Brooks Brothers suits and Daniel Jones’ schoolboy backpacks and even Russell Wilson’s indomitable positivity are over.
This team has a new identity, a new leader, and the face of the franchise now paints black tiger stripes over his eye to get himself into playing mode. He’s a spunky, punky, drippy, rizzy 22-year-old from Utah by way of Ole Miss who hasn’t yet thrown a pass in a regular-season NFL game. He wears gaudy jewelry — some real, some not — and flashy glasses he may or may not need to help him see and sleeveless T-shirts. He vibes more like the second coming of Jim McMahon than any of the Mannings. He’s the Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn of quarterbacks.
“Jaxson, he was my favorite coming out of the draft,” Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence said of his admittedly rudimentary scouting process. “I like his game. Confident dude . . . He’s not just an average guy.”
So Sunday won’t just be Dart’s debut. It’ll be the debut of the new-look, new-taste Giants.
Dart’s Giants.
It might not change the disappointing results from the previous version we’ve already seen. Plenty of updates have their bugs. Dart is a rookie, and the offensive line and skill players he will be on the field with won’t change. Things could remain rocky.
But they’ll be interesting, that’s for sure.
It’s hard to deny that the handful of plays Dart came on the field for during the past two weeks generated a current that has been lacking . . . not to mention a bit of well-needed productivity. Now the staid, creaky, 100-year-old Giants are about to get jolted by a Dart-fibulator straight to the heart. Whether it will revive them or blow them to smithereens remains to be seen.
Lawrence said he called Dart when he saw the news that he would be his new starting quarterback.
“I said, ‘I’m here for you, take advantage of every moment and don’t shy away from the light,’ ” he advised. “ ‘Just go be yourself.’ ”
At this point in his career, that might be what Dart does best.
“The biggest thing for me is I want to do my best to be a spark,” Dart said. “I want to create excitement on the field. I want to be explosive when opportunities are there and just try to bring a little bit of swagger.”
The rest of the Giants can’t just ride that wave. For this to succeed, for Dart to be a success, they’ll have to do their part. They know that, too.
“We have to go out there on Sunday no matter what, go out and perform and bring our own juice,” Robinson said. “Even though we changed the quarterback, everybody is still pretty much the same, so we have to bring the juice and support him.”
Burns, who in his last season with Carolina in 2023 saw the Panthers play their own rookie quarterback, Bryce Young, and win only two games, said he can offer some lessons on what lies ahead.
“Understand there are going to be growing pains,” he said. “It’s his first start, Week 4, going against a good team and a good defense. So just try to make the game as easy as possible for him. Give him short fields, kind of control the game on defense if you can. That’s kind of the main thing.”
How long this swell of Dart-thusiasm lasts ultimately will depend on how the quarterback plays. If he looks scattered and sloppy and unready, the Giants likely will not only be an 0-4 team after this game but will go right back to feeling like one and being treated like one.
Lawrence has played with five different quarterbacks during the past two-plus seasons and 10 since he arrived here in 2019.
When asked how best to harness the spark that can come from a change at the most important position in the game, he said with a laugh: “I don’t know the answer to that. I’ve been through some quarterback changes and I don’t know.”
But if Dart can inject a bit of “it” into the product on the field, even a loss to a far superior team on Sunday probably won’t completely douse the improved spirits in and around the team this week.
It certainly won’t diminish Dart’s.
“I don’t think nobody can take his swagger, honestly,” Lawrence said. “I got a lot of respect for him. I’m happy for him. And I’m gonna ride with him.”
Burns saw that side of Dart the past few weeks as the rookie quarterback ran the scout team in practices. Leading up to the first three games, Dart’s primary job was to go on the field and play the role of Jayden Daniels, Dak Prescott and Patrick Mahomes. He apparently did a fairly convincing job, too, judging by the way the Giants’ starting defense that faced him raved about him.
Those efforts were away from the public, though. So all we’ve had to go by since the preseason ended have been the words of Burns and Lawrence and the other players and coaches privy to those sessions.
On Sunday, that changes.
We get to see what all the fuss is about.
Like so many things with the Giants this week, it changes a lot.
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.
