Big Blue View
Ready or not, here he comes.
The New York Giants have thrown us all a curveball and named rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart their starting quarterback for the forseeable future. That means it will be Dart, not Russell Wilson, leading the Giants out of the tunnel when they face the 3-0 Los Angeles Chargers.
And in the span of a day the Giants have gone from having one of the oldest starting quarterbacks in the NFL to the youngest. Going from an experienced veteran to an athletic rookie is bound to have an impact on the Giants’ offense.
But just how much of an impact will the change from Wilson to Dart have on the product on the field? It also happens that the Giants are playing one of the best defenses in the NFL when they take the field against the Chargers on Sunday afternoon.
This is the question heading into the Giants’ game against the Chargers.
We can be pretty sure that the offense won’t be fundamentally different from what we saw with Wilson at quarterback. While Brian Daboll tailors his offenses to the specific skill sets and preferences of his quarterbacks, there are definite similarities between Wilson, Dart, and Jameis Winston. Each are strong-armed quarterbacks who are aggressive in attacking downfield.
We know from the bit of the “Jaxson Dart Package” that we saw against the Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs that the read-option will have a place in the Giants offense from now on.
We should also anticipate a relatively high rate of RPO plays for Dart. He executed them well in the preseason, and they were frequently used in Ole Miss’ offense. It will be interesting to see if the Giants use more schemed separation and rub routes, allowing Dart to throw with feel and anticipation as opposed to precise timing. And while the Giants want to be more of a pass-first offense they’ll also likely lean into the running game some with Cam Skattebo. Skattebo had a strong game against the Chiefs, and he could do so again if the the Chargers devote significant resources to taking away Malik Nabers.
Perhaps the biggest question will be how the Giants approach pushing the ball down the field. Dart is an aggressive quarterback and the Giants want to allow him to be aggressive. That said, there’s a time and a place for everything, and the Chargers have a very good secondary. While the Giants have used RPOs and West Coast quick game concepts as the foundation of their passing offense, we’ve seen that they want to use the vertical passing game to open up their underneath offense and pull defenders out of the box for the running game.
Wilson threw deep at the second-highest rate in the NFL behind Lamar Jackson, with (just under) 1 in 5 pass attempts traveling more than 20 yards downfield. Dart may not throw deep at that high a rate, but he...
