What are the New York Giants getting in rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart? Well, his former college coach at Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin, believes Big Blue could be getting an elite player.
Kiffin, who coached Dart for three seasons at Ole Miss, sees him as the “complete package” who is a “quick learner.”
“If he is struggling with something, he’s going to find a way. He’s going to stay after. He’s going to do whatever it takes,” Kiffin said in a recent appearance on the Giants Huddle podcast.
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Kiffin also said that Dart is excellent at processing large chunks of information very quickly.
“I think for some that can be too much information because we’re ‘chunking’ him a lot of information,” Kiffin said. “And most of our plays are snapped before 15 [seconds on the play clock], so he’s getting a lot of information right up to the snap. He was great with that.”
Kiffin said that Dart has a lot of Eli Manning in him, but also has an aggressive element to his game. His father was a defensive player at Utah, and Dart sometimes opts to take unnecessary hits rather than live to play another day.
“We worked with him a lot on that,” Kiffin said. “That takes some time to get out of him. It’ll still show up once in a while, but he’s learned to play smarter…most times throughout the week, he’s very calm.”
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The Giants plan on bringing Dart along slowly, as there is no need to throw him to the lions right away. They have two veteran quarterbacks in front of him in Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston, and will not play Dart until the time is right.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Lane Kiffin: Giants’ Jaxson Dart is the total package