One of the biggest objectives for the New York Giants over their final four games of this lost season is to get rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart some more seasoning.

Dart has played well thus far this year, leading all NFL rookie QBs with 11 touchdown passes and a 94.1 rating. He is just the third rookie in NFL history with a touchdown pass and a rushing touchdown in five different games.

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“Game reps are invaluable,” offensive coordinator Tim Kelly told reporters on Thursday. “So being able to go and see different defenses, different schemes, going out and getting into different situations, third down, first down, four-minute, two-minute, everything that comes along with it, and continuing to see good decision-making, protecting the football, and doing everything you can to lead us down and to score points and win games.

“No matter what the record is, those opportunities and those games and that experience that he’s going to be able to gain is going to be invaluable.”

Running is a huge part of Dart’s game, and the Giants could try to save Dart from himself by cutting back the number of designed runs the rest of the season.

“The biggest thing for me, especially with a young quarterback, is really his ability to still be aggressive without being reckless, and I think he’s done a really good job of toeing that line,” Kelly said.

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Really? Dart has put his body in harm’s way numerous times. One such decision not to slide in Chicago put him in the concussion protocol for two games. Last week in New England, he took a shot along the sidelines from Patriots linebacker Christian Elliss that blew up social media. He was fortunate to walk away from that hit intact.

Kelly was asked if he had discussed personal safety with Dart and what the plan is going forward.

“Yeah, I talked to him about it,” said Kelly. “He’s got to get out of bounds. He’s got to get everything he can and make sure he’s clearly out of bounds so he’s not exposing himself.”

“That was a clean hit,” continued Kelly. “Those guys were playing hard. We were playing hard. Our guys went to protect him, which you love to see. Obviously, it hurt the team because of the penalty, but if we can do a better job of being able to go ahead and get out of bounds there, we’re not exposing ourselves to that penalty because we’re not going to get that reaction from the defense. Again, it comes down to, we talked about the awareness a little bit ago of having that ability to go and get everything you can and then make sure that you’re protecting yourself and protecting your team and getting out of bounds. That was the biggest take that we took from that.”

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Now, to get that message to sink in. Dart is a natural playmaker and will try to win the game all by himself on every play if given the opportunity. Kelly was asked if Dart understood because the message he’s sending out in interviews is that he’s not willing to compromise his game.

“He does,” Kelly said. “And again, that’s part of his game that makes him unique and makes him the type of player that he is. And you see it throughout the league with other young quarterbacks that are coming through with a similar play style is learning when to say when. When is the journey over? And that’s clear as day when the journey was over. The guy’s got you dead to rights. You’re on the sideline already. Just duck out of bounds six inches earlier, and we’re not having this conversation right now.

“We don’t get flagged. It’s a third and two instead of a third and 17. It changes a lot of things. We still want him to protect himself, obviously, but we never want him to lose an aggressive nature. And again, it’s a fine line. So, I do, with the conversations I’ve had with him, I do think that that message is becoming clearer for him.”

We’ll see beginning this Sunday afternoon, when Dart is under center for the Giants’ match against the Washington Commanders.

This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Giants plan to polish Jaxson Dart without breaking him over final month