Russell Wilson deserves more time, but clock ticking toward Jaxson Dart's Giants debut
Giants quarterback Russell Wilson looks up at the scoreboard during the second half of an NFL game against the Washington Commanders on Sunday in Landover, Md. Credit: AP/Stephanie Scarbrough
Say this much about Russell Wilson: He’s lasted longer than Nathan Peterman did.
Peterman was the starting quarterback for the Bills in Week 1 of the 2018 season, the year that has so many parallels to this Giants campaign because it was the last time Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen were in a situation similar to the one in which they now find themselves.
Back then they were the lieutenants — offensive coordinator and assistant general manager — on a team that had just traded up to draft a highly regarded rookie quarterback. They entered the season planning to let the kid sit on the bench and learn for a year before throwing him out there to the chaos of the NFL.
At halftime of the first game, though, Peterman had completed only five of his 18 passes, thrown two interceptions and recorded a passer rating of 0.0 against the Ravens. So the Bills yanked him and inserted their prized rookie, Josh Allen. He probably wasn’t completely ready at the time, but circumstances and instinct dictated the timing of his arrival, not some offseason checklist or schedule.
It seems to have worked out pretty well for Buffalo.
Allen is the reigning MVP and Daboll and Schoen made it home from their game in Washington on Sunday afternoon in time to watch him (if they could stomach it) lead the Bills to an epic 41-40 comeback win over the Ravens.
Peterman is the footnote to Allen’s career. Wilson will be more than that for Jaxson Dart. He’s a Super Bowl champ, a proven winner, with a career — and career earnings — for which most other quarterbacks would trade their souls. And after a lackluster debut for the Giants in which he failed to get the team into the end zone and completed only 45.9% of his passes, with none going for more than 25 yards, he will get a second start for the team.
Daboll, after not quite answering questions regarding that decision in the fog of his postgame news conference, announced that on Monday.
It’s the right call.
Wilson wasn’t the only reason the Giants’ offensive dysfunction returned after spending the summer hanging out elsewhere, and one game against a team that is likely to be one of the top three or four in the conference is far too small of a sample size to suddenly tear up the plans that have been in place for months now.
But the decision on when Dart plays, when Dart takes over as the starter and when the Giants transition from a decidedly temporary present to fully embrace their future was never going to be made by Daboll or Schoen or even Dart.
It was always going to be Wilson — or, more to the point, Wilson’s play — who dictated the timing of the inevitable changeover.
His performance in the opener hasn’t done much to quell any urges to turn the offense and the franchise over to Dart. If Wilson isn’t markedly better in Week 2 in Dallas on Sunday, there is a good chance Dart will make his NFL debut at some point during that game.
After that, it would be impossible to go backward and return to Wilson. It would have to be Dart, full speed ahead, with Wilson not even lasting long enough to make a home regular-season start (the Giants will face Kansas City at MetLife Stadium in Week 3 after two road games).
Eli Manning, for all he gave the Giants throughout his career, got only two starts in 2019 to keep his rookie successor on the bench. Wilson deserves more leeway than Peterman got, but certainly not more than Manning received.
Is Dart ready for that?
Was Allen?
Clearly Daboll felt Dart was ready to be the backup in Week 1 and not just the emergency third quarterback, a role given to Jameis Winston. So Dart was one turned ankle or jammed finger or untied shoelace away from having to sprint onto the field and relieve Wilson.
That moment never arrived and Daboll never found an opportunity to deploy that package of plays he undoubtedly had in his pocket for Dart (even though one or two of those 11 fruitless goal-to-go snaps the Giants had in the game would have seemed like a good place to do it).
“I have confidence in Russ,” Daboll said on Monday, “and we’re doing everything we can do each week to develop Jaxson. He spends a lot of time in the building, he spends a lot of time after practice going through things he needs to go through to prepare himself that if he gets called upon, he is ready to go. That’s what we’ll continue to do.”
The outside world certainly is clamoring to see Dart play. Part of Daboll undoubtedly is, too. He has been feeling that itch since the night the Giants drafted Dart.
“We’ll just do what we think is best for our football team,” Daboll said Monday.
For one more game, at least, that means starting Wilson. At some point very soon, though, if Wilson and the offense don’t improve, it will become obvious what decision Daboll should make.
And at that point, rest assured, he will.
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.
