Jets QB Tyrod Taylor to Giants QB Jaxson Dart: 'Your best ability is availability'
Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart takes a hit against the Patriots on Monday, while Jets quarterback Tyrod Taylor, inset, escapes pressure against the Falcons on Nov. 30. Credit: Jim McIsaac; AP/Steven Senne
FLORHAM PARK, NJ —There were more than a couple of times in last Sunday’s game against the Falcons when Jets quarterback Tyrod Taylor took big hits from which it looked as if he might not get up.
At one point, he was spun around by his shirttails twice before escaping and getting drilled as he threw a pass. He scrambled toward the Falcons’ sideline for a short gain and remained face down for a moment after he was tackled.
When he threw his signature pass of the game, a 52-yard touchdown to AD Mitchell, he could barely celebrate it. He had taken a lick on the previous play and was still in a good deal of pain from it so while teammates mobbed Mitchell in the end zone, Taylor had to take a knee in the middle of the field and struggle to the sideline.
“For the most part it wasn’t too bad,” he said on Wednesday. “A little sore Monday waking up, but nothing too crazy.”
At least none of the poundings Taylor took in this game went viral and became the launching pad for a national sports debate.
The same could not be said for the other starting quarterback in New York.
Jaxson Dart of the Giants, back on the field Monday night in New England after missing two games with a concussion, took a hit while running near the sideline that sent him flying like a cartoon character. The force of the collision caused Dart to be upended and land on his back before he quickly tumbled over and sprung to his feet. He was ultimately fine and the hit was legal, but it sparked a discussion about the fine line between aggressive and reckless play from quarterbacks, whether Dart should have ducked out of bounds to avoid that contact given that it was only a second-down play in the first quarter of a game, and the risks he takes to his and the Giants’ future if he continues to play in a similar fashion.
Dart, for his part, was defiant. In postgame interviews on Monday and again on Tuesday he said that he has always played as a running quarterback looking for extra yardage, that he is willing to accept that he will get banged around while doing so, and that taking that part of his game away would diminish him as a player. He pointed to quarterbacks such as Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen as examples of those who manage to run hard, stay relatively healthy, and win. Those who run the Giants these days like to make similar comparisons. Interim head coach Mike Kafka was with Mahomes in Kansas City when he came into the league and general manager Joe Schoen was in Buffalo with Allen.
It is true that Mahomes and Allen and Lamar Jackson and plenty of others have enjoyed super-successful careers despite obvious perils each time they carry the football.
But if the Giants really want to impress upon Dart the downside of being a daredevil, they shouldn’t show him the examples of how MVPs get away with it. They should show him Taylor’s career arc.
Taylor has lasted into his 15th season in the NFL and at 36 he is obviously still a productive player, but there have been several points in his tenure when he looked to be on the verge of reaching the next level as a player only to be knocked back by injury. It happened in 2018 in Cleveland, in 2020 with the Chargers, in 2021 with the Texans, twice with the Giants in 2022 and 2023, and even here with the Jets. Earlier this season, it seemed as if Taylor was going to get the start against the Bengals before a nagging knee injury forced the team to stick with Justin Fields.
Not all of those situations occurred because of direct hits like the ones Dart has been taking, or certainly not the kind Dart took on Monday night, but Taylor is definitely the guy to talk to when it comes to injuries keeping a quarterback from reaching his full potential. So we did.
“Sometimes you can’t avoid it,” Taylor said on Wednesday of taking those hits. “The game is violent and it’s fast and sometimes we can’t always see what is coming at us in the pocket, blindside hits. But whenever you are moving and you have a chance to extend plays you have to be smart with doing so. You want to pick and choose. Obviously, a clean game is perfect, but that’s not the reality in this game. I guess it is an art once you are moving, but nothing that is predictable.”
He said he saw the hit that sent Dart sprawling.
“You never want to take away what makes a guy special,” Taylor said of Dart. “My advice to him would be to be smart about those [hits]. Over the course of a season, over the course of a career, those add up. Your best ability is availability. You want to be out there for the guys making plays and by all means do what feels natural, but understand the toll it takes when you continue to take hits.”
That was something Taylor said he heard early in his career from the veterans around him, but then he had to learn it through his own experiences.
“As a dual-threat guy I have definitely taken some hits that I shouldn’t have taken in my career,” he said. “There is a learning curve that comes with that and hopefully [Dart] learns sooner than not because he’s a special player. His team is better when he is available.”
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.
