For his third start as an NFL quarterback, the New York Giants’ Jaxson Dart thinks it will “be really cool to be on the same field” with Jalen Hurts on Thursday night. That makes the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback “feel old.”

Dart’s four seasons as a college quarterback coincided with Jalen Hurts’ first four seasons as the Eagles’ starting QB. After one season at Southern Cal, Dart spent the previous three seasons at Ole Miss before joining the Giants in the first round of the NFL Draft on April 24.

“First of all, I love his mentality, his everyday accountability of himself and, at the same time, raising the bar for his teammates,” Dart said about Hurts on Tuesday. “That was something, as an early college player, being able to look up to guys like that. It’s going to be really cool to be on the same field with him and being able to compete against him. At the same time, him just being a really good competitor and being able to do a lot of things with his arm and with his legs and putting his team in really good situations to win.”

This isn’t a game-week revelation by Dart. He named Hurts as his favorite quarterback during a press conference at the NFL Scouting Combine on Feb. 28.

“I feel like it’s a little bit of a cop-out because he just won the Super Bowl, but, you know, I love J-Hurts and what he does,” Dart said. “I feel like I’m very similar in my play style to him. I feel like we can do a lot of the same things. Obviously, he’s an elite player, and I’m trying to reach that level. But he’s been somebody that I’ve tried to resemble my game after just because of his versatility being able to run and throw the ball and just you know how strong he is in the pocket. I think that that’s something that I’ve had a lot of fun watching.”

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Dart’s coach at Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin, was the offensive coordinator at Alabama when Hurts won the SEC Offensive Player of the Year Award as the Crimson Tide’s quarterback in 2016. The next season, Dart’s current NFL coach, Brian Daboll, served as Alabama’s offensive coordinator. The Tide reached the CFP national-championship game in both seasons.

On Tuesday, Hurts was asked about Dart’s admiration.

“It does make me feel old,” said Hurts, who turned 27 on Aug. 7. “I got a lot of respect for his game. I know he played for coach Kiffin. He’s a hell of a player. He’s honestly in a great situation to learn a lot, so rooting for his success.”

After the Giants lost their first three games of the 2025 season, Dart replaced Russell Wilson as New York’s starting quarterback. The Giants defeated the Los Angeles Chargers 21-18 in Dart’s first start on Sept. 28 but enter Thursday night’s game off a 26-14 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

The Eagles suffered their first loss of the season on Sunday with a 21-17 setback against the Denver Broncos. The previous week, Philadelphia defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-25 to make Hurts the 12th NFL quarterback to win 50 times in his first 70 regular-season starts.

“He’s able to rally the guys around him,” Dart said of Hurts. “I think that the culture that they’ve built, regardless of them being in really tight games, I think that in those situations it comes down to the leaders of the team. Him being able to go through adversity during games, during a season, and just being able to rally the guys, I think that was something that really stood out to me.”

The Eagles and Giants square off at 7:15 p.m. CDT Thursday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Prime Video will televise the game.

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