NY Giants QB Jaxson Dart comments on what it takes for others to believe in him
Jaxson Dart, the Giants’ rookie quarterback, talks about what it takes for him to get his teammates to believe in him.
EAST RUTHERFORD – A veteran scout named Milt Davis had provided Ernie Accorsi a piece of advice when both were with the Colts ‒ then with respect to Johnny Unitas ‒ that ultimately played a part in Eli Manning becoming the quarterback of the New York Giants.
“What I learned about how you judge a quarterback [from Davis]: Can he take the team down the field with the championship on the line and get it in the end zone?” Accorsi recalled for NorthJersey.com and The Record in a 2019 interview.
Then, with a nod to that famous scouting report, selling the Giants on Manning as their future franchise QB, Accorsi repeated without hesitation: “In my opinion, most of all, he has that quality you can’t define. Call it magic.”
Magic.
For Jaxson Dart, the New York Giants are his team now, and he has taken command as the face of the franchise not with smoke and mirrors, but undeniable moxie and an uncanny ability to earn trust with his play with anticipation of uncanny greatness to come.
Call it magic, just as Accorsi did with Manning all those years ago when the former Giants general manager fell in love with the quarterback who would go on to win two Super Bowl MVPs for Big Blue.
It’s been quite the first season for the 22-year-old Dart since the Giants traded back into the first round to draft him with the No. 25 pick overall. GM Joe Schoen helped bring Dart to the Big Apple from Ole Miss, the same college as Manning with the opportunity to be the one who leads Big Blue out from under those weighty expectations, away from the losing mentality that has framed so much around here for far too long.
Tight end Daniel Bellinger told NorthJersey.com and The Record following Sunday’s 34-17 victory over the Cowboys that Dart has a special quality that convinces you to believe the impossible is possible.
“There are plays that Jaxson makes, you don’t know how he does it, you just know he will,” Bellinger said. “You might say, ‘No way he can do that, it’s impossible,’ and then he does it again, so you’re like, it’s not just possible, he’s going to make it happen. It’s crazy to play with a quarterback who makes you think that. There’s so much ahead of him, I truly believe that.”
Dart’s two touchdown passes against the Cowboys on Sunday were perhaps his best of the season.
The one to Bellinger in the second quarter: poise under pressure, creativity and a bit of magic on a 29-yard score that the Cowboys will watch over and over again on film, insisting it never should have played out the way it did. Dallas defensive end James Houston had Dart dead to rights, surprising Bellinger with his speed on inside rush as the Giants set up a tight end screen to his side.
Houston spun Dart out of the pocket, but the Giants’ QB was able to flip the football in Bellinger’s direction, and he did the rest, weaving through defenders on his way to the end zone.
Dart’s favorite athlete growing up was Yankees great and Hall of Fame shortstop Derek Jeter. When he talked Sunday about flipping the TD pass to Bellinger, Dart gestured as if he was a middle infielder looking to turn a double play. That was exactly what he was doing, emulating Jeter on that play as if he was in high school again on the baseball diamonds back home in Utah, and it worked.
“He’s a baller, you can’t teach that,” running back Tyrone Tracy said of Dart, who finished with 15 touchdown passes and nine TD runs with 2,740 total yards and just five interceptions and an adjusted completion percentage of 74.3% in 12 starts. “You can watch film, you can study, you can do everything – but you can’t teach how to ball when the lights come on.”
Then there was the 13-yard TD in the third quarter to Tracy himself: a combination of his football IQ, subtle safety manipulation with his eyes and enough juice on the throw to fit the ball between a pair of defenders.
“Jaxson Dart is going to be here for a long time,” wide receiver Darius Slayton said. “He’s talented, he’s young. I think any coach that will come here will be wise to invest in him and try to bring him along because he has all the potential in the world. It wouldn’t be wise to pass up on a guy like that.”
His nine TD runs are a franchise record, and they also represent the third-most rushing touchdowns by a rookie QB in NFL history behind only Billy Kilmer (10 in 1961) and Cam Newton (14 in 2011).
In Dart’s 11 starts, seven were against opponents headed to the playoffs (Chargers, Broncos, 49ers, Bears, Patriots and the Eagles twice).
When the Giants’ search for their next head coach kicks into gear this week, you can bet their young and talented quarterback will be the centerpiece of every candidate’s plan to turn this franchise around.
“Things are going to change here,” Dart said Sunday, as if he were firing a strike up the seam against an attacking defense.
Asked how he could be so confident in that happening, on the heels of a 4-13 campaign in which his first head coach, Brian Daboll, was fired Nov. 10, he replied: “Because there’s no other option. That’s how I see it.”
As with any magician, seeing is believing.
It’s why I asked Dart if he could pinpoint something in his personality, his approach or in his game that, as Bellinger suggested, convinces teammates to buy into his aura and ability.
“I try to be a spark, and I definitely want people to believe because I believe,” Dart said, adding: “I just have the utmost confidence in all the guys around me to make plays, and I try to give that belief to everybody around me. I just want the guys to know regardless of the situation I’m going to give it my all to win the game.”
Most of all, Jaxson Dart has shown he has that quality you can’t define.
Call it magic, and the Giants have reason to believe because of that this show is just getting started.