The New York Giants selected Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft last month, a move that was met with both praise and skepticism.

Some scouts believe Dart will be a fine NFL quarterback when developed but others had issues with his accuracy, specifically on deep passes.

Advertisement

The Giants may have been one of them as Joe Schoen tried to snare Miami’s Cam Ward with a draft night phone call to the Tennessee Titans in a last-ditch effort to land the No. 1 overall pick. Even Schoen held the perception that Ward was a better deep passer.

“I think he’s got a lot of qualities you look for in a good quarterback,” Schoen said of Dart on draft night. “He’s tough, makes good decisions with the football, pushes the ball down the field, has athletic ability, played in a really tough conference, started there at USC as a young guy. But did a really good job throughout this process of our meetings, board work, workouts and the tape that we liked.”

Schoen did not mention Dart’s spotty accuracy on deep passes. The phrase “pushes the ball down the field” translates to Dart’s ability to complete short-to-intermediary passes and conduct scoring drives. Pro Football Focus labeled him “a true distributor.”

Nothing is wrong with that except a first-round prospect should be able to throw the football deep with accuracy, an area that has been a weakness of the Giants for many years now.

Advertisement

That is what coaches are for. The Giants will coach Dart up this summer and beyond to help him shore up his game. They know he needs to improve not only on deep passes but in learning the pro game in general.

That leap may not be as far as many think. Dart has thus far debunked his critics at workouts. So far, whatever weaknesses he’s shown have mostly been seen as correctable. He can make all the throws, it seems.

Then, there’s this: Throwing side-by-side with Ward at a rookie event, Dart looked every bit as impressive as the top pick in the draft.

How much does this little competition mean in the long run? Probably not so much, but it’s interesting right now.

This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: See it: Giants’ Jaxson Dart bests Cam Ward in accuracy competition