Big Blue View
Is Dart more than just hype?
Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart has steadily risen over the course of the Draft process, but has also been a very divisive figure in the quarterback discussion.
He was largely dismissed as a “system” quarterback for much of his time at Ole Miss, and largely overlooked in 2024 despite a record-setting senior year.
Dart started to get some recognition as Ole Miss climbed into the Top 10 and the College Football Playoff discussion, but his profile sank again with the loss to Florida. By the end of the week of practice prior to the 2025 Reese’s Senior Bowl, we began to hear chatter that Dart could be the second quarterback behind Cam Ward on some teams’ boards.
The stigma around Dart remained, however, and those reports have been met with skepticism from some corners. It’s often framed as being “insane” to think that Dart could leapfrog Shedeur Sanders and be some teams’ “QB2”. Those rebuttals are often presented axiomatically, as though Dart’s inferiority is self-evident and doesn’t need explanation.
Dart is frequently dismissed in some circles as the beneficiary of pre-draft hype.
It’s always possible that there’s some unwarranted elevation due to recency bias. it’s also frequently the case that players “rising” up public draft boards are actually a case of those of us on the outside catching up to NFL scouts,
So rather than just accept “people are saying” as a profile for Dart, we’ll actually dig into him and see for ourselves whether his rise is warranted.
Dart is in the relatively rare position of being a highly experienced quarterback (he has 45 games under his belt), while also being the youngest quarterback in his draft class. Dart was born on May 13th, 2003, making him just 21 at the time of the draft.
In what seems to be a familiar pattern for Dart, he wasn’t recruited in high school up until his senior year. He had no Power 5 (now Power 4) offers and was unranked as a recruit until his final season, when he finally forced recruiting services to take note.
Dart finished his final year of high school at Corner Canyon High School with a total of 5,886 yards and 79 touchdowns (4,691 yards and 67 touchdowns passing, and 1,195 yards and 12 touchdowns rushing) – to just four interceptions.
His absurd production earned him recognition as the Gatorade Football Player of The Year and the MaxPreps National Player of The Year.
It also earned him a ranking by recruiting services. Dart was ESPN’s top recruit in the state of Utah, their third-ranked “Pocket Passer”, and 19th overall recruit. He was Rivals 2nd ranked player in Utah, 5th ranked quarterback, and 107th ranked recruit.
Dart ultimately committed to, and enrolled at, USC in 2021. He would only spend one year there before transferring to Ole Miss in 2022 following the arrival of Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams from Oklahoma.
Measurables
Dart has solid size for the quarterback...
