ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky on Jaxson Dart & His Experience at Ole Miss | Giants Huddle | New York Giants

ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky on Jaxson Dart & His Experience at Ole Miss | Giants Huddle | New York Giants

Welcome to another edition of the Giants podcast brought to you by Citizens, the official bank of the Giants. We continue our look at the Giants draft class with a big focus on Jackson Dart and all the fun and excitement that comes uh with a quarterback uh that the Giants hope to develop into their eventual starter. We’re coming to you from the Hackin Sack Min Health podcast studio. Keep getting better. So, I’ve been trying to talk to as many quarterbacks as we can. If you haven’t watched them, go back. Uh Phil Simmons before the draft actually gave us a nice spiel on Jackson Dart. So, uh, you can get that from him before the draft, but then after the draft, we talked to Chase Daniel, go check that out. We talked to Curt Warner, go check that out. Um, I think just really great insight into the quarterback position, what the guys have to do uh to get better and develop at the next level. Without further ado, here’s our guest, Dan Olowski. And now we welcome in the one and only Dan Olowski. You can see him on ESPN and all the other million media things Dan is uh doing these days. It’s good. It’s been a while, man. Good to talk to you. How are you? Yeah, good to talk to you, man. I’m doing great. Uh, you know, coming off a couple weeks ago with the draft and obviously your guys had a great one, a hopeful one, let me put it that way. So, but doing very well. Thank you. Now, Dan’s been very loyal to us. We had Dan on before I think it was before you even signed on the SPN right back in the day. We appreciate that. And by the way, congratulations on all your success, man. You know, I think from the outside looking in, people can tell that you work hard at it and and that you put the work in. And I think quite frankly, that’s why you’ve had the success that you’ve had. Thank you, man. No, it’s uh it’s a calling card of mine. You know, it’s become a thing where I I am I am who I am and I don’t know how not to work hard. I’m thankful for that and, you know, very very fortunate. I’ve had a lot of open doors for me and and been ready for them. And um you know, just just getting going. I I very much so enjoy it. One fun question for you before we get going here. How long did it take you to figure out how to use the VR headset controller thing? Yeah. Uh, realistically like 15 20 minutes. Oh, that’s not bad. That’s pretty good. I’m impressed. Yeah. Yeah. I had my My kids have one at the house. I’ve probably used that like twice and honestly two or three minutes into it. I was like, “This is too much for me.” I almost got queasy, you know, using the one at the house. H Andrew Hawkins, it’s part of he’s he’s one of the owners of the company, brought it, let’s call it a year and a half ago, and he was like, “I think this would be cool.” And I was like, “Yeah, but it feels like a lot.” And then I was like, “You got to cut the fat off of it.” And he brought it in maybe a year ago again. He’s like, “What do you think? We’ve refined a little bit.” And I was like, “It’s it’s better, you know, it just needs to advance and again be a little bit simpler with the execution.” And then he brought it in kind of the early last season. And I was like, “This is this is actually really sick.” And so we and I just told him, we were talking about I said, “Listen, let’s just do it. like we got to, trust me, let’s just do it. If it’s a disaster, it’s a disaster, but we got to shoot. And uh you know, he expedited some of the trigger points of the joysticks for me. And you know, I tried to keep it somewhat simple throughout that process of executing it. And uh it it was 15 20 minutes in practicing. It came 40 minutes before a show and I was like, “Dude, let’s just do one right now. Like, let’s” and we taped the first one. Like, let’s just do it and figure it out. and we did and it’s it’s kind of taken off. It’s been cool. See, I think that’s a good place to start, right? Because I think what you’re trying to show with the VR headset is what the quarterback’s looking at and what he’s seeing, right? Yeah. And for me, especially not having played the position, but I, you know, I had Kurt Warner on last week and he said for him it’s hard, too. I think one of the toughest things on this planet to do is evaluate college quarterbacks and figure out how they’re going to play in the NFL. It’s almost a different game. uh you might know what the play’s supposed to do, but you don’t know how he’s being coached on it, what the coach is telling him to do, how he’s supposed to read it. So, let’s start there. Dan, how do you try to figure that part of the evaluation out with college quarterbacks and college systems without access to the player and the coach to find out what he’s being taught to do on certain plays? Yeah, it’s different than any any other position. So every other position and mainly the ones that are drafted early, size, speed, strength, power matter the most. You know, big, fast, powerful, strong. If I’m taking a defensive end at the third position, I want a guy that’s 6’4, 250 lbs, runs 44, jumps to the gym, and has the, you know, quickness of Allen Iverson. And so when you’re really like going into the quarterback, I think the physical matters a little bit more than say let’s say 20 years ago, but it’s not the most important stuff. And you do have to have some physical qualities to be an early round draft pick and then to have the chance to go be really good to great in the NFL. But those are really the secondary elements. The primary elements are so much more, you know, what we say the mind, the the neck up. And so I would tell you that the number one thing just off tape cuz I don’t get to sit and evaluate personality. The number one thing off tape that I look at is what do you do in moments of panic because I really believe that is a line of demarcation between can you play or not and then after if you can then there’s different levels and peers to okay he’s really good or that’s the thing that holds back or he’s great. What do you do in moments of because that’s real life playing quarterback in the NFL and moments of panic can be you know the answer could be well you know in moments of panic he’s instinctually he’s unbelievable or he’s got this athleticism you know that allows him to get out of those moments or his decision making never blinks or he’s you know able to take off as a runner and so like what you do consistently in those moments of panic is my favorite thing to try and watch on tape with the guy. Because if you can handle those moments and you’ve got skill talent-wise to handle those moments and do good with a decision or a throw or a movement or an escape, that’s carryover. Like that’s stuff that carries over to the next level. What were the positives from Jackson Dart that you liked in those moments? John, that was my favorite quality of him. You know, I I when I watched his tape and I I go back to this. This was probably the moment for me when it came to watching quarterbacks that I fell in love with that trait. I remember watching Joe Burrow and I had called LSU games. I’d seen him in real person. I had gone and called the national title game in person and I remember watching a game versus miss and he made he had pressure an unblocked guy or and he made a subtle movement in the pocket and it came to this moment where in the a blink of an eye he could take a sack. It was going to be a sack fumble maybe a throw the ball into coverage take off and run for a yard. just panic and you just saw this very calm dump off to a back that was like four yards away from him and I was like that’s it. Like that’s that’s it right there. And I’ll go back to Jaden Daniels last year. Like Jaden had that same stuff that that he just never in those moments of panic. It was it felt like nine and a half out of 10 times the right decision, not a good decision, the right decision was made. And I felt that way about Jackson. I don’t feel maybe he was eight or nine out of 10 times, you know, doing the right thing. It wasn’t the level of Joe and Jaden, but I was watching going, man, he just doesn’t panic with the ball. He just doesn’t panic with the ball. And that was the quality that made me really, you know, I had my notes right in front of me. Every game I studied, I liked that more and more. I liked it more and more and more and more. And so that was the quality that got me a little bit more like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I think I like this guy more than I thought I would have. And I like this guy more than maybe some other people do. And I think a big part of that, Dan, I thought his ability to consistently step up in the pocket was huge. You know, strongest in the pocket. I don’t mean to cut you off. He was he’s the guy that is in in this class coming out, he was the strongest in the pocket. And that means a couple different things. Like when like my one of my favorite qualities and I think it stands the test of time and some guys get away with it is when a quarterback can move in the pocket and still remain somewhat visible of what’s going on downfield. It’s not a a black or white take off and run or not, but still feel like what’s going on downfield more often than not, but not risk the ball. And if you see like it is a old school fundamental thing that so often he moves in the pocket and there’s a two hands on the ball. It’s swiping across his chest and you see guys pulling at him or at the ball and he stays strong in there and als and sometimes he takes off and runs because he sees the seam and goes or sees I don’t like anything go and then sometimes you can see him like just move and take a little cross or take a little in take a little shallow and so that was probably my second favorite thing. I did a tape the night of the draft that’s his second my second favorite quality of his. All right, let me take the other side of this and this is probably not Dart related, but I’m just interested. What are the big red flags for you for what you don’t want a quarterback to do when he gets into those pressure panicky type of situations? Yeah. So, it’s a little bit similar to Drake May for me last year. Lazy feet. You know, some guys that are just very naturally athletically gifted, they don’t have to hone in spec specifically early in their life on on basics and fundamentals and technique. And I I always say this to people, John, you know, so you’ve been playing the position, let’s let’s live in the world where these guys and Jackson’s been playing quarterback for 10 years. That’s 10 years of bad habits. So, you’re not erasing those. in, you know, a two month span leading up into the NFL draft. And so it just takes that that’s when he gets lazy feet. If you go to the first drive of the Georgia game, there is a little bit of unblocked pressure, he gets lazy feet. And when I mean lazy feet, sometimes it’s like this Jordan Love has this too, where it’s like a hoppy, you know, where, you know, I always say if you you can almost think of a baseball pitcher getting to the top of their windup and here comes the sink. It’s a little bit of a sink and here comes a forcing fast ball. You know, Jackson has that very much so consistently. And then he has plays you’re like, why do you look like like you don’t know what’s going on? And so there’s that hop, light on your feet. I don’t necessarily know what I’m looking at. And so it’s like this lazy feet and it creates issues for him. Sometimes he misses a read. Sometimes he misses a throw. And again, you go back to the start of the Georgia game. It’s the right read. He sees it. It comes out on time, but he’s got these lazy feet going on and the ball sails and it’s a pick. And so that would probably No, go ahead. I’m sorry. Yeah, that’s probably my number one issue. And that’s like for me that’s so correctable and not panicky. You know, to answer your question a little bit more detailed is, you know, when you watch quarterbacks panic in a moment where the ball becomes a big issue, like I’m not using this as the example, it just is a coincidental thing. I’ll go back to Daniel Jones. Yeah. I remember the morning after the draft being like I don’t like what he does with the football in moments of panic. Sometimes it’s uh you know you drop the ball and it it gets separated from your body. Sometimes you freeze like that would be my thing with Danny. You just freeze and like that would be something that I did probably you know I wasn’t a good enough player. So um you know I think specific to the question is like just that freezing like you you you become stuck you know and then even greater with Jackson is I would probably tell you the laziness of his feet are are the biggest hurdle that he’s going to have to attack. It’s funny you bring up the feet thing. What I was going to say, I did I talked to Phil Sims. I think it was the day before the draft and he he you know, Phil, I don’t know if you talked to Phil much, but he goes on these rants sometimes about quarterback evaluation because he’s done it a long time and he he trains quarterbacks and he goes, “The one thing I hate when people talk about quarterbacks always light on his feet. I don’t want a quarterback light on their feet. I want a quarterback that gets their feet in the ground planted and they know what they’re doing with their feet.” And it seems like you’re kind of on that same page as Phil. Absolutely. I want cleats in the ground, you know? I I want because that tells me conviction, you know, that when I look at that, I I know what you’re looking at. You you know what you’re looking at. You’re telling me what you’re looking at. And part of it is I mean, if we’re just this is a little bit bigger than Jackson. Part of it is, you know, what’s going on with quarterback development and you know, over from the age of 10, 12 on is very few guys are getting caught. You know, hands under center, three-step drop. What does it look like? Playing on time, hands under center, five step drop, one, two, three, four, five. ball comes out, you know, and so you kind of train your feet over again years of reps to just put your foot in the ground, it comes out. Put your foot in the ground, it comes out, put your foot in the ground, it’s not there. Reset to another thing where a lot of times, you know, in the gun, you’re like, you know, you don’t feel, you know, think about it this way, John. When I’m under center, I’m two or three feet from the bad dudes. I better get the freak away from them, you know, where in the gun, I’m automatically like, you know, 15 feet. I’m five yards. So, I don’t feel it right away, you know, and so there’s there’s not that builtup urgency. It’s one of my complaints when I watch, you know, 12-year-old football that my sons play. Put the kid under center and let him learn that feeling of getting away from the center. And that teaches you better be in the ground, dude. And and you better be moving fast away. And so, um, yeah, that’s and I go back to it. I go back to Drake May last year. I go back to Jordan Love a couple years ago. They both had it. Um, the encouraging thing, Jordan Loves attacked it pretty good. He still has, you know, growth in that area. Drake only one year in, but I was wildly impressed with how much he got better at that. The Giants podcast is brought to you by Citizens, the official bank of the Giants. From game day celebrations to your everyday financial needs, Big Blue fans can get the most out of every moment from Citizens. Learn more at citizensbank.com/giants. Huddle up. Get in here. If you’re lined up here, you got to go over the middle with it to score. Great. How do we make that happen? I don’t know, but Citizens does. Make sense of your money with Citizens. Official bank of Eli Manning. How quickly do you think Jackson can learn the under center, drop back, play action, turn your back to the defense, and kind of turn around and and work that part of it? Something you ran a lot of play action in college, but it was mostly kind of RPO shotgun stuff, not so much under center, turn your back stuff. Correct. Great question. I really believe it takes about two years, two to three years to really get comfortable doing it because now can he go out and execute it um you know one off without you know if you get some kinds of basic coverages or guys are open for sure you know but really getting to a point of you know comfort and seeing it all and putting in the time because windows in the NFL everyone knows are smaller and they close quicker. Um I really think it takes two to three years cuz ju just for everybody to understand quarterback from the very early age break the huddle what am I looking at finding safeties. Okay so that kind of give you the information of what might be the coverages front linebacker safeties quick you get the ball and all a sudden he’s going to have to do things he’s never done before. You know how scary it is to turn your back to a defense. I don’t know anything anymore. Like I don’t know where guys are and I got to snap my head. I got to execute a good um a good ball fake, a good ball handling. So, that’s primary to getting my head back. And so, naturally, what you fight as a quarterback is the ball fake and the ball handling isn’t good because you’re like trying to get peaks of what’s going on. And just getting accustomed to taking your eyes from Yes. No. Yes. you know, that takes reps and that takes comfort and confidence in building it up and you know, so he’s going to make mistakes in that regard from that stuff. But, you know, that I’m not telling everybody he’s not going to be able to execute parts of the, you know, the play action pass offense this year, but to really get comfortable at it and to really just start cutting things loose, you start to see, you don’t really see people, you see colors, you see blurs, you see windows, you anticipate them differently and more. Yeah. I I would say two to three years. All right. So, let’s stick on the developmental process here. He comes from a Link Keifin offense that I think did more as the year went along. You saw some NFL concepts in there, but it’s also an offense then, you know, this they spam the same, you know, seven to 10 things all all game. They do it out of different formations and stuff like that, which is why he’s so good at his job. And it’s a lot of just reading one player, right? Like, oh, is the safety go in the flat? Does he go does he does a corner go in the flat? Does he go to the second level on the over? So, how do you think and how long will it take and what adjustments will Jackson have to make to kind of go from what he was asked to do at Old Miss to what he’s going to be asked to do with Brian Dable with the Giants? Yeah, I mean, it’s going to take a significant amount of time. You know, it’s the starting point is asking what he did at Old Miss from uh, you know, changing protection, handling certain stuff in the run game to what he’s capable of. And I know that there’s been the conversation of, you know, Lane and so often you’re getting into ideal plays. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know the why you’re getting into the ideal plays. So, if you got this guy that understands like, oh, Lane’s going to go to this and we’re going to this because of this, I actually think it could be an advantage because he’s gotten such an understanding of, oh, this is the defense. This is the weakness of the defense. This is where we want to attack it. You’ve probably heard me say this. every defense there’s an opportunity and there’s a problem. And so when you play in these offenses that are well coached but sometimes coach driven, it doesn’t mean the quarterback’s robotic. It doesn’t mean he’s got no clue what’s going on. He hopefully had gotten to the point where he was anticipating what Lane was going to do and knew the why. And so, you know, I I think that could be an advantage of of you got to figure out what they did and and kind of and why they did it and how much he understands it. And to the point of, you know, them running similar concepts, I’ll go back to last year with Jaden Daniels because I heard a lot of people say that about Jaden and, you know, they did. You know, LSU ran a lot of like the same five or six plays. They would do it out of different formations, different splits, different cuts, different people. He greased it though. He was really, really good at it. And I felt the same way about Jackson. I remember watching his tape. I’m like, man, they run a lot of three-level crossers, a lot of three-level crosser, but he was really good at seeing it and really good at throwing it and to the right guy at the right times. And so, you know, I think as a coaching staff, Dable and Capital will have to look at and be like, okay, he’s really good at this stuff. Those are concepts that really can be a lot of coverages if you got a good decision maker and people with the ball in their hands. So it would be something that I would expect them, you know, when he’s in where he’s debt char, I would expect them to live in that world a little bit with him, but I think that um, you know, if he’s got the capability intellectually handle it a lot, I don’t think I don’t think that it’s going to be a negative on. No, I’m with you. And I think Cliff Kinsbury did a great job with that this year with with Daniels, too. And it goes back actually and I want to attack two things you just mentioned. This was relayed to me by Shaun O’Hara who talked to Eli about quarterback evaluation, right? Eli Manning. And what Eli said, it’s important with these kids coming out of college to know, and I think this comes from meeting with them and doing the 30 visits and getting them on the board and do the private workouts and that stuff. Are they just doing the, you know, all right, this guy goes here, I throw it here. Is he just doing like the joystick control? The coach is telling me to do this. I’m doing this on this play or does he actually understand the why and concept of the play, why it’s working. So when the defense maybe surprises you with something, shows you something you didn’t expect pre- snap. Well, you understand the concept. You’re not flustered because your first, you know, AB thing decisions gone. You understand the concept and then you can adjust and make the right play based on what the defense is showing you. Yeah. what dots connect and what’s the answer to the problem, you know? So, you know, with the with the whole one read thing when a coach tells you, hey, if this guy if this flat defender stays inside, we throw it out. If he goes outside, we throw it in. Well, the the next level really to that is, okay, if that defender goes outside, there is a dot or another defender connected to him. And so, where does that dot go? And so that’s like the next level of it is and so often you’ll hear people say Reed is one to two. Well, it’s really Reed is one to who else? You know, it’s the Reed can you’re trying and I had a coach Steve Maruchi was great with me as a young player and then Gary Kubak was great with me. He was like, you got to see everything but while seeing nothing. You don’t really want quarterbacks to just solely be focused on one player. There’s 11 on defense. So you can sit there and go, “Well, coach, he went to the flat.” Well, yeah, but that guy then replaced them and you threw an interception for a touchdown to him. You know, so that’s part of that. And I, you know, that’s why, you know, for young quarterbacks, the spring is such a big deal. And you’ve heard coaches say, “Well, we we just throw so much at them to see how much they can handle.” In many ways, you are trying to break those guys in the spring. You’re trying to like overwhelm them. Yes. to see how much they can handle, but also for you as the coach to see where is he weak at seeing stuff like where does he where is he not good at that or or or does he get that because if he gets that then we’re like okay maybe we can go give him a little bit more stuff. So, you know that and again the problem is, you know, when you mention if you expect something and get something else. I always say quarterbacks should absolutely predetermine where they want to throw a football. That’s how you play ahead of the defense. You never assume where you’re going to throw the football. You got to confirm what the defense is doing. And so, again, this goes to the college offense. You kind of anticipated what you were going to get more consistently. Can you somewhat replicate that in the NFL? But that would be something that I would expect Dable and CFKA in the spring. We gota constantly show him different stuff. We gota constantly show him different stuff. We we want to make sure he thinks one thing and sees another thing defensively because that’s the problem. Oh, I have a I have a you know a post route and I have an out route and I have an over and an in. Sweet. They’re in quarters and I’m going to either throw this post or this out and it’s going to be a touchdown. Ball gets snapped and they go to cover three. I got a problem because the post is dead and the out is dead. So, what’s the answer? You know, and so like that’s where you’re trying to get those guys and that’s that panic or no panic thing is like and when you’ll see that’s when I talk about sometimes his feet being a little bit soft and high and that I don’t know what I’m looking at, you know, like nope. You that’s where you know that’s where those reps are going to become just absolutely huge. Great answer. And you know, you mentioned they ran one of the concepts they ran a lot was kind of that mesh underneath, right? And then they brought the big over over the top, right, to to to and that was one of the concepts that they kind of ran a lot. And you know, I think the one thing I really liked about him, Dan, and we talked about kind of the opposite of this with JJ McCarthy last year where everything was kind of a line drive. I thought Dart’s ability to throw a touch over the middle of the field and get it over the linebacker level in front of the safeties. I I thought that was some pretty advanced stuff with his ability to put some touch on the football. Yeah, I think some of the throws that he was able to make, you know, one again, one of my my probably my second note when it comes to physical is make some really impressive athletic throws, you know, and so that’s the um you know, I thought downfield the go ball was awesome out of his and the postfall was awesome out of his, but I’ll go back to some of those throws that you’re talking about cuz sometimes, you know, that that’s why when I I don’t love when people say he makes all he can make all the throws, don’t care. So, I can go do it right now, too. you got to make the right throw at the right time. So, to your point, sometimes, you know, it’s man coverage and it’s clear underneath and you got a guy running away and you got to pin it on his face mask and you want to get that ball right where that guy’s pinned on his face mask. You don’t want too much tear on it because you don’t want to give makeup time, but you don’t want it to be too firm because you want your guy to be able to go make a catchable play. And then there’s times when, you know, you got a there the the underneath coverage is not deep enough and there’s a void between them and that in or crossing breaking route, but you just need a little bit of a ball up over a firm ball where it gets to that receiver before a defender that’s deeper deeper deeper kills them, but doesn’t get tipped up in the air. And then there’s some throws they got to be stepped on right now. Like it’s you you you have, you know, a guy that’s seven yards and a guy that’s eight yards apart from each other type of thing. And the window’s coming and it’s going to close very quickly. And so you got to step on one and drive it. And I think yeah, that but that also is the example of like why sometimes you like to run similar concepts, you know, guys, because you got a guy that you have a lot of confidence in making that right throw dependent upon who’s open. If you want to know how to manage 2 minutes of crunchtime football, I’m your man. But if you’re wondering about a long-term financial plan, you should talk to Citizens. Hey, I can also talk lawn care. I’d like to learn about a mowing routine. Yes, I knew I could help. make sense of your money with citizens. All right. Now, you were a young quarterback in a room trying to develop. You talked about it with when you were with Steve Maruchi. What does this look like for Jax? Now, you talked about the spring. You throw a lot at him. You bring out the fire hose. See what he can figure out. See what he can do. He’s going to play in training camp. He’s going to get reps with the ones. He’s going to play in preseason games. That’s all great. The thing I want to focus on you though, Dan, once you get to the regular season, your snaps are gone. You know, Russell Wilson’s taking the snaps at practice. Maybe you’re getting scout team reps. What is that? And from your perspective, you were in this. What does that look like for a young quarterback once the season starts? How do you go about continuing to develop as a player without getting iname or even a lot of the times practice reps? Yeah. So, the assistant coaches kind of have to start to hate you and like get super annoyed with you. So, again, I was young and trying to survive, you know, in the league. Jackson obviously three billion times more talented. So, he’s trying to go, you know, become a star. Um, I would, what I would do, and you know what a lot of younger quarterbacks would do is the night before, coach, give me the script of practice for tomorrow. Send it to me on my iPad or whatever. We had paper back then and we would go in I would go in at like 5 or 6 in the morning depending on when the day would start and I would tell all the other like second and third team skill guys and offensive linemen meet me in the you know the indoor facility at 5:30 in the morning. We’re going to go over the practice script. We’re going to run every play that’s in practice because we’re not getting to reps now. Not full speed, you know, but a walk through jog through. We’re in the huddle. I talk all the play get to line of scrimmage and now you run the line of scrimmage. And so you as the quarterback get the reps of like, “Oh, we’ve got weak run here, but their safety’s down.” So you’re like, “Hey, check, check, check.” And we’re running to the right and everybody’s on the same page. And then the next play we have this pass concept called, “Guys, we’re going to run this versus cover three.” And then you would do that. I would we would do that every day. And then after practice, we would pro I would take like, you’re not trying to kill guys, but get your work in like the seven on seven script. And I would we would run seven on seven and maybe like the team pass script and we would run try to run those like relatively full speed or spot your receivers up and you’d have a coach or two and be like do what you got to do. You you give me looks that I got to see and let’s talk about if I’m doing the right thing. So that would be an everyday thing and then you advance it. You know I would get the snap and I’d yell it went to cover two. It went to cover two. You know and so you’re you’re trying to fool yourself. You’re trying to fool the defense. you have a coach kind of do that in your back and and then every rep in practice when you’re sitting there watching, you know, I’d walk I wasn’t annoying. I’d walk up to the huddle. I would listen to a what what what a Matt Shab would say or a Payton Manning would say and and I would Matthew Stafford. I’d listen to what how they would talk in the huddle. What were the and then I walk out and I would be 10 yards behind them and I would mirror what they were doing type of thing. And so it’s corny, yes, but it is the way to get reps that get you so much better. And I think those would be the three things that, you know, I would emphasize if I was Jackson, I would emphasize if I was their those coaches. What can you learn just from the meeting in classroom work? Is that like mentally reading defenses even though you’re not doing it on the field? What can you learn just from being in the room with a guy like Russell Wilson and Jameus Winston? Oh, immense amounts of information. You know like you know guys th those guys I’ve seen so much and have have had so much success how they study how they study tape you know again another complaint I have is I watch tape I watch the movies you know I’m not you got to study tape you know what are you studying here hey Russell on on Wednesday morning when you come in and and you watch the uh you you watch the third down cutup like what are you studying you know are you studying the front are you studying the backers are you studying the corners like what what are where’s your starting point? You know, what’s the defensive coordinator’s tendency? Um, you know, there’s only so football’s math. They only get 11. So, you know, it’s it’s it’s moving parts at some points. And so, just trying to figure out how those guys study is a big deal. How they take their studying to the practice field, how they communicate what they’ve seen within studying to their teammates, to their coaches, you know, how they handled studying a game plan. Do you memorize every single part of the game plan? Do you memorize only the third downs? Do you walk through the third downs in in the meeting room? Like what are you do? You get a a blank reel? Like one of the things Kubak would do with us that was great would he would give us a blank reel of defenses that we would, you know, have on tape and he would just call out a play. All right, what are you doing? And we would have to answer it like, oh gosh, I got a protection problem. you know, played in real time. And so, you know, I think that you can just learn again a lot of how guys go about, you know, making sure they’re as prepared as possible. That’s awesome. All right, final question. Dan, this is probably unfair because you’re not going to be in the room and maybe there’s too many details for Peter even give an answer on, but when do you think we should first start even thinking about making Jackson D the starter? Can this be sooner than people think? I’ve been telling people, well, why don’t we do some trick-or-treating first? go trick-or-treating, get your candy, and then maybe we can, you know, have a little lollipop. Then we can have the conversation about it once you get into November. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, obviously there’s variables that impact that in reality of that business, you know, how’s the team doing? Are they competitive? Are is the quarterback are you winning with are you winning because are you winning in spite of? So, like there’s a lot of variables that go into that. I mean, best case scenario is that Jackson doesn’t play till, you know, Thanksgiving world. Do you want some scenario? I like it. You have the turkey like I that that means that like Russell or Jamus is playing good that they’re they’re still competitive and winning some games and you know, like I’ve been very outspoken. I believe that you if you’re the Giants, you want Brian Dable to coach this young man. I just believe that that is the ideal situation for these guys. And so you want to make sure that results allow that to continue to happen. I’m aware of the reality of the business, but I think, you know, Thanksgiving would be, you know, last year I also said I wouldn’t have played Drake May and you know, New England was probably right in handling that some of that stuff. And so he’s also got the right makeup to handle some of the struggles. That’s part of what you got to figure out with Jackson is like, “Hey dude, like can you handle some tough time? Can you handle some failure in this market?” like you got to you got to know that your guy can do that. But I’d say around Thanksgiving would be like probably more of an ideal thing in my mind. All right, I got to do one more followup and then we’re going to wrap it up. You mentioned you want Brian Dable coaching him and I’ve consistently gotten from people like you who understand offenses in the league and they’re all universal in their praise for Brian Dable and I try to explain this to Giant fans. Why do you think Brian Dable is so good at training up quarterbacks and getting them ready to play in the NFL? Yeah, I mean I think you have to go back to part of, you know, his journey with Josh. And it wasn’t just Brian and nothing Josh. I mean, Josh obviously put in the time, but he was part of like the springboard of taking Josh from, you know, potential talented to like being, you know, MVP type of player and obviously him winning it last year. And then you’ve seen, you know, him take a player in Daniel that, you know, had struggles and limited and probably made him peak out. And so you’ve you’ve had his experience with two different, I guess, starting quarterbacks in the NFL or different starting quarterbacks, you know, he’s taken one to about as high as you can get a guy type of thing and taken one to about as high as you can get a guy. Two very different physical talents, two probably very different mental talents. And so when you do that in that league, that tells you guy can coach. He’s also taken some other, you know, pieces and allowed them to have some success. We’ve seen some receivers that maybe aren’t wow names produce for him. We’ve seen some tight ends that maybe aren’t wow names produce for him. And so, um, I think we’ve watched this team remain somewhat competitive, too, with, you know, a quarterback room that has been revolving. So, you know, I always look at a a coach when it comes to if you are depleted talentwise, can you just keep them in it? It’s almost like quarterback. Can you keep him in it? I’m not saying you got to go 14 and three. Can you keep them in it? And then if you do have the necessary talent, can you go win some games? I think that answer for him is a pretty easy yes. All right, Dan, is there anything you want the fans to know about that you’re up to, that you’re doing, that you want to promote? The floor is yours, my friend. No, man. you know, I’m gonna take some time away. You know, I there’s pockets. Um but no, I I’m I’ll I say I’ll take some time away. I’ll probably be on something tomorrow. So, uh No, all good, man. Hey, dude. We’d love to have you down at camp this year. Um I I know you’re close by. Love to have you come down check out Jackson. If you want to come, let me know. I want to come. The problem is, John, I married a girl from Philadelphia and she is not a New York sports fan. So, it’s like it’s almost like I would I don’t lie to her, but I would have to like lie. Like, you know, some people are like, “I’m going on a business trip,” and they go on a golf trip or something with their boys. I’d have to figure out a way to like make her not know that I’m going to to a giant scam. So, Dan, you’re the best, man. Uh really love watching your career grow. You’re doing a fantastic job. And, uh enjoy your rest of relaxation because Lord knows we’ll be back at it. Uh going 1,000 miles per hour sooner than later, man. Thanks so much for the time. Hey, man. Appreciate you, bud. Oh, we thank Dan Olowski. I love that guy. He’s the best. Just a real guys. He’s super friendly. He’s an awesome guy. Uh, and I’m so happy for success. And again, he he was with us when he was trying to get into the business uh office quarterback stuff. I think he was just doing YouTube stuff. He came on our shows and um we still text. He’s been very loyal. Um he’s he’s he’s a good dude and I’m so happy he’s having the success that he’s had at uh at ESPN. So, we thank Dan Olowski for joining us right here on the John Podcast presented by Citizens, the official bank of the Giants. Uh we’ll have continuing coverage of Giants OTAAS, uh the offseason program. We’ll keep doing stuff on the draft picks. All of that and most of those podcast will come to you from the Hackinack Marine Health podcast studio. Keep getting better. For Dan Olowski, I’m John Schmul. We’ll see you next time, everybody.

On this episode of the Giants Huddle podcast, John Schmeelk is joined by ESPN’s, Dan Orlovsky, to discuss the play of Jaxson Dart, his experience at Ole Miss, and how he can develop on the field this year. Presented by Citizens.

00:00 – Evaluating the quarterback position
06:11 – Jaxson Dart’s tape
14:30 – Playing under center
19:48 – Ole Miss offense
26:00 – Developing in the league

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