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Jaxson Dart has spoken to Kansas City Chiefs great Travis Kelce about a key assistant coach for the New York Giants.
He’s entering his second season in the NFL as the unchallenged starting quarterback of the New York Giants, so Jaxson Dart is reaching out to every source for information about his new offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, including having conversations with Kansas City Chiefs great Travis Kelce about the play-caller.
Dart told Doug Farrar of Athlon Sports how excited he is to begin working with ex-Chiefs OC Nagy. Especially after Dart “talked to Travis Kelce about him, what his experience was with. And Travis didn’t have anything but just tremendous things to say about Coach Nagy. So really excited to get the chance.”
Seven-time All-Pro tight end Kelce played some of the best football of his decorated career on Nagy’s watch. The probable Hall of Famer’s endorsement carries weight, despite Dart and the Giants already being warned about Nagy’s record.
It’s not a worry shared by Dart. He’s more focused on how Nagy builds his offenses and what it means for a young playmaker at football’s most important position.
Jaxson Dart Has 1 Reason to Love Matt Nagy Hire
Dart’s main reason to be enthusiastic about collaborating with Nagy comes from the latter being “a quarterback guy. So, he wants to make sure he puts his guys in the best situation to succeed. He understands that each quarterback is different, and that goes in part with just a cooperation between the quarterback and the coordinator,” per Farrar.
A quarterback-centric history made Nagy an intriguing candidate for the Giants. They need Dart to live up to his billing as a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft, so his development must be handled carefully.
Nagy was a key figure in turning Alex Smith into a 4,000-yard passer and Pro Bowler for the Chiefs. Then he helped Patrick Mahomes go from gifted, but raw athlete to complete modern signal-caller.
Dart needs a similar transition to escape the label of merely being a running quarterback who makes reckless decisions. The 22-year-old admitted to Farrar how running “just holds the defense honest, like it gives us an extra hat in the run game with extra blockers. A lot of misdirection, so it plays really hard for the defensive line and the second-level and third-level defenders with their eyes.”
Establishing a better run-pass balance will help Dart, but not as much as finding a Kelce-esque weapon in the passing game. Fortunately, Nagy’s experience could be more useful in that area.
Giants Need Their Own Travis Kelce
Nagy had the headset when Kelce posted 1,338 yards and 12 touchdown catches, both career-high marks, in 2022. He became a roving mismatch in the scheme designed by Nagy and Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.
Kelce has been the ultimate QB-friendly, go-to target, something the Giants are missing, despite some obvious upside on the depth chart. Upcoming third-year pro Theo Johnson has yet to reach his potential, but the former Penn State stud has the move skills and comfort between the numbers to be a bigger factor in Nagy’s system.
There’s also pending free agent Daniel Bellinger, who connected with Dart for this 44-yard touchdown against the Denver Broncos in Week 7.
Bellinger and Dart forged a noteworthy connection that also included a scoring grab against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 18. Dart has a natural comfort level targeting tight ends, so Nagy should include some of his best Kelce-led designs in the playbook.
James Dudko covers the New York Giants, Washington Commanders, New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens for Heavy.com. He has covered the NFL and world soccer since 2011, with bylines at FanSided, Prime Time Sports Talk and Bleacher Report before joining Heavy in 2021. More about James Dudko
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