Giants QB Jaxson Dart on taking hits: 'I've got to be more available for this team'
The Giants' Jaxson Dart runs the ball during the fourth quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at MetLife Stadium on Nov. 2 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Credit: Jim McIsaac
For two weeks, Jaxson Dart watched the Giants from the sideline. He hadn’t felt this way since he watched Russell Wilson start the season’s first three games.
This week, Dart will be back on the field. The rookie quarterback was cleared from concussion protocol on Thursday and interim head coach Mike Kafka reaffirmed that Dart will start Monday against the Patriots.
“I think I bit more nails off my fingers than I have in a long time being on the sideline watching,” Dart said Friday. “It’s definitely not fun to feel like you have no control over the outcome of a game.”
Dart has been sidelined during the team’s coaching changes. The Giants fired coach Brian Daboll the day after Dart was injured on Nov. 9 following a hit and fumble. Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen was fired this week.
Dart began his availability by expressing thanks to Daboll along with regrets that the Giants didn’t win more for him. The two were close, with Daboll being very hands-on developing and preparing Dart since he was drafted in April.
“It’s really special to come to a place where a coach genuinely cares about you and loves you and you have that personal relationship on and off the field,” Dart said. “I just have all the respect for him.”
Kafka said Dart took all of the first-team reps Friday as if things were normal. But what can’t be normal is Dart continuing to take as many hits as he did leading up to his absence.
New offensive coordinator Tim Kelly called his quarterback “a hell of a player” but said there have been more discussions about his availability. He echoed previous coaches who praised Dart’s aggressiveness but said there needs to be better self-preservation.
“You always have that mindset of ‘I’m going to do everything I can to go get that last yard,’ ” Kelly said of young quarterbacks. “Well, a yard with 12 minutes to go in the first quarter is a little bit different than a yard to go with 10 seconds to go in the game.
“So [it’s] being able to have some situational awareness there and understand when we need him to put the cape on and when he needs to protect himself.”
Dart has been checked into the blue medical tent four times since the preseason. He said the first three visits weren’t about hits to the head as he was evaluated for symptoms such as fatigue or suffering a stinger.
After he was hurt against the Bears, Dart returned for two plays before he was evaluated. It then was determined that he had a concussion, which he said was his first.
“I just wasn’t feeling too great. I thought, honestly, our medical staff did a really good job because I wasn’t in a good space to be out there,” Dart said.
He added that he made better decisions against the Bears by sliding more than usual and didn’t think he took any unnecessary hits, yet he understands the need to be wiser protecting his body.
That’s what the Giants are hoping for with five games left this season. As dynamic as Dart has been, he serves the team better on the field than on the sideline. It’s a message he understands better from the past two weeks.
“That was just a situation where you kind of lose control of your body when you fumble it and you’re not really bracing for the ground,” Dart said of the play in which he got hurt. “I’ve got to be more available for this team, so that’s obviously on the forefront of my mind.”
Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
