Twenty quarterbacks received at least one vote in a recent poll of league executive, coaches and scouts that assessed the NFL’s top QBs.
Jaxson Dart wasn’t one of them.
The Giants’ second-year quarterback received no love in ESPN’s annual survey of the top 10 at each position in football, while even the likes of the Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence, the Bucs’ Baker Mayfield and the Colts’ Daniel Jones got outside nods.
And every other NFC East quarterback was either ranked, like the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott at No. 6 overall, or honorable mentions like the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts and Commanders’ Jayden Daniels.
Dart, 23, only won four games as a rookie, so he couldn’t expect to be anywhere near this list yet. Titans QB Cam Ward, the only quarterback drafted ahead of Dart in 2025, didn’t receive any votes, either.
Still, Dart is a proud and determined player whose draft selection, driven by now-fired coach Brian Daboll, is heralded internally. So this kind of ranking coming from executives, coaches and scouts inside the league has to be a shock to the system.
Dart doesn’t have to listen to it, obviously. He can let his play do the talking. Certainly, that is his and John Harbaugh’s plan in 2026.
But the young Giants quarterback already has demonstrated that he welcomes the chip on his shoulder.
Last season’s narrative about Dart’s reckless playing style, which was kickstarted by an internal Giant leak, became a sort of fuel for Dart to silence the doubters and prove people wrong.
The Giants’ new coaching staff is working with Dart to balance his aggressiveness appropriately based on game situations. But he simply has that fire in him that embraces the doubt and seeks to channel it into scoring, winning and turning the Giants around.
So Dart not being in the conversation at all when it came to votes for top QBs entering 2026 is just noise, sure. But here’s betting Dart hears it and welcomes it as he takes the field and leads the Giants in a season in which Harbaugh’s team intends to shift the conversation and the standings.