Jaxson Dart closed out his first NFL preseason with another relatively flawless outing versus the New England Patriots, and New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll made sure the media knew exactly how he felt about the performance after the game.
“I mean, every ball should have been complete,” Daboll responded with a straight face when asked how he thought Dart “did” in his first start. Adding: “Or all but one, maybe.”
Dart finished 6-of-12 on the night, but his 50% completion rating is a bit misleading. The rookie dropped the football right into the hands of his offensive teammates time and time again, and too often those passes fell incomplete.
You could see Daboll fuming on the sidelines after a few of the drops that went in and out of the hands of Giants pass-catchers on Dart-thrown footballs. Wide receivers Jalin Hyatt and Beaux Collins were the targets of the majority of Dart’s missed connections.
Although Hyatt did later redeem himself on a 27-yard receiving touchdown from Jameis Winston.
Either way, Daboll’s response here isn’t exactly coy. It certainly seems like the NYG head coach believes most of Dart’s incompletions should have been caught, and he conveyed that in his gruff reply above.
Say what you want about Daboll, but he is consistent. Rarely do you see him ride the highs and lows of the NFL season into a press conference. And in this case, rather than gush over his rookie QB, the Giants coach chose to send a strong message on an area that needs fixing.
Giants HC Brian Daboll Loved Jaxson Dart’s ‘Competitiveness’ & ‘Toughness’ but Offered 1 Small Piece of Advice
If there was one critique that Daboll had for Dart both in-game and postgame, it was to slide when he’s scrambling with the football.
“Yeah, I would like him to slide on that,” Daboll admitted early in his postgame press conference. Referring to the play where Dart was forced to exit the game and briefly check into the blue medical tent.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t coach it out of him,” the Giants HC said later, while discussing the somewhat reckless preseason scramble. “There [are] certain times that you’ve got to make the right decision. I would say, in this particular game, [it’s] probably a good time to slide — the third preseason game.”
With all that in mind, Daboll concluded that he loves Dart’s “competitiveness” and “toughness,” adding that he’ll “never” try to coach those traits out of his game.
During the rookie quarterback’s press conference, which followed Daboll’s, Dart noted that he thought he could “split” the two defenders, leading to his decision not to slide. He implied that he would normally slide if he felt that he was going to take a big hit, but did not feel that way in this instance.
Dart Finishes Off ‘Monster’ Preseason as Giants Blow Out Patriots
The Giants were dominant throughout the preseason with all four quarterbacks performing well, and Thursday night’s 42-10 victory over the Patriots was the exclamation point.
All in all, Dart was as impressive as any QB around the league who played significant snaps this August.
Per ESPN NYG beat reporter Jordan Raanan, Dart finished the three preseason outings with the following combined statistics: “32-of-47 passing (68.1%) for 372 yards with 3 TDs, 0 INTs, 6 rushes for 52 yards, [and] a [rushing] TD.”
Raanan concluded that it was a “monster preseason for the rookie QB,” and there’s no denying that.
Daboll has made it clear that there will be no Week 1 quarterback controversy in New York, but if things go awry with Russell Wilson leading the offense, you have to wonder how long the Giants will wait before handing the keys to Dart. Especially after the first-round pick went out and torched the competition the past three weeks.
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