{"id":4654,"date":"2025-04-27T16:10:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T16:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/4654\/"},"modified":"2025-04-27T16:10:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T16:10:18","slug":"giants-trade-up-with-houston-texans-select-ole-miss-qb-jaxson-dart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/4654\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants trade up with Houston Texans, select Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Schoen traded up into the first round of Thursday night\u2019s NFL Draft to land the Giants a future franchise quarterback: Ole Miss\u2019 Jaxson Dart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And Dart, 21, was just as happy as the Giants that Schoen paid the Houston Texans<\/a> the No. 34 overall pick of the second round, pick No. 99 in the third round and a future third to take him at No. 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a competitor, you want to play on the biggest stages,\u201d Dart<\/a>, a first-team All-SEC selection in 2024, said on a conference call from his home in Utah. \u201cYou want to play in front of the most passionate fans, the most world-renowned program and organization. And that\u2019s just kind of what I wanted to be a part of. I felt like my process of getting to this moment, I just feel like I\u2019m built for it. So I\u2019m really excited to go after it with everything I\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does Dart\u2019s personality fit New York?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo doubt,\u201d he said emphatically.<\/p>\n

Why is that?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Dart said. \u201cI just feel like I got an edge to me, and I feel like everybody in the city does, as well. So let\u2019s get to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rebels\u2019 quarterback, a 2022 transfer from USC, had an explosive senior season in 2024 with 4,774 total yards of offense, throwing 29 TD passes to six interceptions. He ran an RPO-heavy scheme, or the \u201crun-pass option,\u201d where a shotgun quarterback makes quick throws out of play action to pre-snap reads.<\/p>\n

Schoen said he saw Dart play in one game last season, a 26-14 win over Mississippi State on Thanksgiving weekend in the Egg Bowl rivalry. And the GM liked his \u201caccuracy, anticipation, athleticism. He\u2019s not a statue in the pocket, has ability to throw the deep ball, make intermediate throws and RPOs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dart\u2019s relationship with Daboll through the scouting process, however, is what drew the Giants and the quarterback together to the point that New York took him over Colorado\u2019s Shedeur Sanders \u2014 a player they had scouted even more extensively and who had support in the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the way he plays,\u201d Daboll said. \u201cI like his competitive fire. I like his accuracy. The system he ran at Ole Miss is similar to the one we ran at Alabama. He\u2019s gotten better every year he\u2019s played. He\u2019s a leader. He\u2019s smart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dart met with the Giants extensively beginning at the Senior Bowl in early February and continuing at the NFL Combine in late February. As the Daily news first reported, Dart took his top 30 visit to the Giants\u2019 facility in East Rutherford, N.J., in early March, right after the combine.<\/p>\n

Then the Giants sent an enormous contingent of coaches and evaluators to Oxford, Miss., the week of March 19 for their own private work with Dart.<\/p>\n

That group included Schoen, head coach Brian Daboll, senior personnel consultant Chris Mara, director of player personnel Tim McDonnell, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and quarterback coach Shea Tierney.<\/p>\n

Schoen and Tierney followed that up by returning with a group that represented the Giants at Dart\u2019s Ole Miss pro day.<\/p>\n

By that point, Daboll was texting Dart daily, and it was clear that the Giants and Dart could be a match if New York was able to outspend other suitors like the Browns, Rams and Saints to get him.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach was texting me a lot, and then I would say about two weeks ago he kind of died off,\u201d Dart said. \u201cSo I didn\u2019t know what to expect. But I just had a good feeling about this. I felt like it was gonna work.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach [Daboll] was a super easy connection from a personality standpoint,\u201d the QB added. \u201cHis competitive edge really fits how I approach everything. It started off easy, and we continued to grow from there. This is the coach I wanted to be coached by.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schoen, who took Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter at No. 3 overall, said he started trying to move up from pick No. 34 to acquire Dart once the Pittsburgh Steelers passed on a quarterback at No. 21.<\/p>\n

He spoke to the Chargers at No. 22 and Packers at No. 23 and ultimately found a trade with Houston\u2019s Nick Caserio \u2014 a trade the Daily News first reported on \u2018X\u2019 \u2014 that allowed him to retain other important assets later in this draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was important for us to hold on to pick 65,\u201d Schoen said of the Giants\u2019 higher of two third-round picks. \u201cThe pick in the fourth round at the top [at 105] is a good pick, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to recognize that Dart is only a Giant because the Tennessee Titans rebuffed Schoen\u2019s efforts to trade up from No. 3 overall to the No. 1 pick to acquire\u00a0Miami quarterback Cam Ward.<\/p>\n

This spring, Schoen offered the Titans the Giants\u2019 No. 3 overall pick, their first-round pick next year and more to no avail, ESPN reported Thursday night.<\/p>\n

It marks the second straight year Schoen has offered a future first-round pick to try to move up for a quarterback.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Schoen included picks No. 6 and No. 47 overall and the Giants\u2019 2025 first rounder in a package to the Patriots for No. 3 with his eyes on North Carolina\u2019s Drake Maye. But New England stayed and\u00a0picked Maye themselves.<\/p>\n

This offseason, Schoen then sought numerous solutions to the Giants\u2019 quarterback vacancy created by the shutdown and release of Daniel Jones. Those efforts included an aggressive pursuit of the Rams\u2019 Matthew Stafford, aims at adding Aaron Rodgers and Schoen\u2019s attempt to trade up to No. 1 for Ward.<\/p>\n

In the end, the Giants\u2019 GM signed veterans Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston. And on Thursday night, it sounded like they intend to redshirt Dart and develop him behind those veterans.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in a really good spot where he can come in and sit behind a couple veteran quarterbacks and learn, and he doesn\u2019t have to be thrown out there right away,\u201d Schoen said. \u201cFrom a developmental standpoint and the ability to grow, I think it\u2019s a perfect situation for a young quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daboll added: \u201cRuss will be our starter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dart led all of college football with 1,517 yards and 17 TDs on deep passes of 20 air yards or more in 2024. And he ran the ball at least 119 times in all three of his Ole Miss seasons, including eight touchdown runs in 2023 and 124 carries for 495 yards and three TDs last year.<\/p>\n

Schoen said the \u201coutgoing\u201d Dart is \u201cfiery\u201d on the field but noted that \u201cwe\u2019re going to probably have to teach him how to slide.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou watch him, he\u2019s trying to run people over, in the Senior Bowl, too,\u201d Schoen said. \u201cIt\u2019s like, dude, you\u2019re in an all-star game, you probably shouldn\u2019t trying to be run that linebacker over, and he did that in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story of why the Giants passed on Sanders is not over.<\/p>\n

Schoen acknowledged that \u201cwe were still meeting on Monday of this week\u201d to solidify their final evaluations and decisions on the QBs. The Giants spent a ton of time at Colorado\u2019s games and practices in the fall, let alone their extensive work all spring, including a late private workout in Boulder.<\/p>\n

But there was not a consensus internally and ultimately Sanders wasn\u2019t selected by any of the 32 NFL teams on Thursday night. The son of Deion Sanders now waits to see who will take a chance on him in Round Two.<\/p>\n

Dart, meanwhile, was headed out to celebrate with family and friends on Thursday evening before taking a cross-country flight to New Jersey on Friday to be introduced to New York in person.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can anticipate and expect and try to make predictions about how you\u2019re gonna feel in that moment, but there\u2019s nothing you can do to prepare yourself for that phone call,\u201d Dart said. \u201cI was overcome with a emotion a little bit but I was super exited. This is the place I wanted to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: April 24, 2025 at 11:04 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Schoen traded up into the first round of Thursday night\u2019s NFL Draft to land the Giants a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[200,7,519,221,253,2368,13,201,6,15,17,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-4654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-brian-daboll","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-giants","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-texans","13":"tag-houstontexans","14":"tag-jaxson-dart","15":"tag-joe-schoen","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-nfl-draft","18":"tag-shedeur-sanders","19":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114410804177930940","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}