EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Pat Riley once defined sport as a two-dimensional proposition. Winning and misery, he said, with absolutely nothing in between.
The Toronto Blue Jays would surely attest to that.
But the 2-7 New York Giants represent a third dimension that can be a sanctuary for a consistently dreadful team. Hope. Even on a day when they were completely outplayed by the San Francisco 49ers, whose raucous fans turned MetLife Stadium into old Candlestick Park (never mind Levi’s Stadium), the Giants could sell hope as easily as they could a 16-ounce beer.
Jaxson Dart is going to be a star, maybe a big star, at the only position in the NFL that really counts.
And it doesn’t matter that he got beaten up in this 34-24 loss, or that he appeared less dynamic when the 49ers used lane discipline in their pass rush as kryptonite to weaken the Superman character Dart played on Halloween.
It also doesn’t matter whether Brian Daboll continues coaching him next year, which now seems like a long shot. Based on what Giants fans have seen from Daboll in three-plus seasons, does anyone really believe that he’s the only coach in America who can develop Dart into an elite NFL quarterback?
Go make Lane Kiffin the next star in the Ole Miss-Giants pipeline (Charlie Conerly, Eli Manning, Dart) and see how young No. 6 fares in 2026.
Dart might be 2-4 as a rookie starter, but Manning was 0-6 out of the gate in 2004, and trust me, he wasn’t half as polished and athletic as this kid. Eli was all but cowering at the sight of onrushing defenders hell-bent on teaching Peyton’s kid brother a lesson. Dart, on the other hand, attacks the defense with reckless abandon.
It might not be very smart for Dart to take the hits he took Sunday, especially on his third-and-10 run with less than two minutes to play and the Giants down 17 points. But it was very bold, and very encouraging, for him to absorb the punishment, get the first down, and then throw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Gunner Olszewski on the next play.
Great throw by Jaxson Dart hitting Gunner back shoulder here. Gunner Olszewski’s first catch of the year is a TD. pic.twitter.com/hmLasrEzcr
— Talkin’ Giants (@TalkinGiants) November 2, 2025
This is why coaches around the league rave about Dart. Vic Fangio, Eagles defensive coordinator, said the teams that allowed the Ole Miss quarterback to drop to the Giants at No. 25 in the first round will forever rue the day they did. Robert Saleh, 49ers defensive coordinator and former Jets head coach, predicted Dart would be “special” long term and said, “I think New York hit on this one, big time.”
The way that Saleh’s Jets didn’t hit on the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft, Zach Wilson.
Many Giants fans were enraged last winter when Drew Lock lit it up against the Colts and cost the Giants — who finished 3-14 — the No. 1 overall pick and Miami’s Cam Ward, who was taken by the Titans. The way things are looking now, those same fans should send Lock a free lifetime supply of his favorite Chardonnay.
Dart has delivered 15 passing and rushing touchdowns in six starts. Ward has produced five total touchdowns in nine starts.
“Jaxson is the leader of our football team,” Daboll said. “I know he’s a rookie, and that’s a hard thing to do as a rookie. And the way he competes, people need to feed off of that.”
That’s far easier said than done. The Giants have a lot of bad football players, and the head coach knows it. Their defense has been reduced to a practical joke, and it would surprise nobody if that unit’s coordinator, Shane Bowen, were shown the door in this regime’s last-ditch attempt to save a season that could bring everyone down.
Everyone except Dart, of course. Daboll made multiple references to teammates needing to make plays around the rookie to give him a fighting chance. But either the players aren’t skilled enough to execute, or the coaches aren’t good enough to put them in position to execute. Or both.
That leaves Dart out there as an overmatched one-man wrecking crew. When he finally arrived at his postgame news conference — much later than Eli’s usual arrival time — Dart looked like a kid who had just lost a schoolyard fight during recess. He threw back his head and chugged a sports drink until the bottle was dry, then climbed up to the podium and faced another blitz.
“It’s not fun to lose,” he said.
Over their last eight-plus seasons, the Giants are 56 games under .500 and 1-1 in the playoffs. Dart was asked how he could prevent all that losing he wasn’t a part of from impacting his team’s mentality.
“We’ve got to be able to not just let things collapse a little bit,” he said.
What a professional answer by Jaxson Dart
pic.twitter.com/KonI41Ni5W
— 𝙅𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙨 (@AbdulCarterMVP) November 2, 2025
It sure sounded as if Dart thought some of the Giants veterans carried bygone defeats onto the field. Either way, the defense turned Mac Jones into Joe Montana while thousands upon thousands of 49er fans roared with delight. Dart said he found that interesting.
“I’ve never played at a home game where I felt like it was kinda lopsided in that department,” he said.
The Giants have more than their share of injuries, most notably those suffered by Malik Nabers and Cam Skattebo. But they were facing a West Coast opponent playing with a backup quarterback and without its two finest defensive players (Nick Bosa and Fred Warner). A West Coast opponent that, even with an extra hour of sleep granted by the clock change, started this game with their body clocks stuck in the morning.
And the Giants still lost convincingly.
Before he gave Saleh a bro hug on his way out of MetLife, Dart maintained he believes the Giants can win the last eight games on their schedule. “My confidence doesn’t waver,” he said.
His confidence might be the most impressive tool in his box. Over the summer, Dart told The Athletic that he wouldn’t sign up for a ceiling of Manning’s career — including his two Super Bowl titles — if given the chance.
“If somebody asked me that question, I’m going to tell them I’m going to bet on myself,” Dart said. “And I see a bright future here of us winning a lot of games and us playing at the highest level.
“Ever since I was a kid … I wanted to play on the biggest stages in the biggest moments. I wanted to feel that pressure. It’s addicting, being able to get that adrenaline, being able to slow the whole game down and execute something in front of a lot of people. It’s almost like modern-day gladiators. It’s definitely exhilarating and you live for that.
“You saw it with the Knicks (last year) and what they did in the playoffs, and you got to see the support and the fans in the streets. That’s what I want to be a part of. I want to celebrate with the city and New Jersey as well.”
Right now, a Giants celebration in the city and in Jersey seems a thousand light-years away. And for good reason. The Giants are a lousy football team.
But Jaxson Dart will be a winner in this town someday. And he’ll make all this misery feel like it was a price worth paying.