Big Blue View
Jaxson Dart excites, and worries, New York Giants fans at the same time.
Dart excites fans because in eight NFL starts he has shown the potential to become the quarterback the Giants can build around to finally change the fortunes of a franchise that has clearly lost its way.
Dart worries fans because his fearless, some would say reckless, playing style makes it easy to wonder if the Giants will be scouring the NFL Draft for a new quarterback much sooner than they would like to be.
We already know Dart won’t get anywhere near the streak of 210 consecutive starts two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning made for the Giants. He probably isn’t getting anywhere near the 16-career and 236 regular-season games Manning played in, either.
After missing two games due to a concussion suffered Week 10 while running with the ball against the Chicago Bears, Dart’s willingness to subject himself on Monday night to the Christian Elliss sideline hit that sent him flying through air — and sent Giants’ fans hearts leaping collectively into their throats — showed clearly that the concussion did not knock any of the aggression out of Dart’s game.
Nor does the 22-year-old intend for it to.
“This is football,” Dart said Monday night. “I’m going to get hit if I’m in the pocket or outside the pocket. I feel like I played this way my whole entire life. It shouldn’t be any shocker to anybody if you followed along with my career. We’re not playing soccer out here. You’re going to get hit. Things happen. It’s just part of the game.”
Dart said he was “trying to get to first down” when he was blasted by Elliss.
Dart was unfazed, saying only that “it was a good hit.”
“I’m going to keep playing aggressive,” Dart said. “Hopefully everybody can take a second to watch my tape going back to high school and realize that this is not a shock. I play the game aggressively. I took one hit that people are talking about. I slid. Got out of the way of a lot of hits.
“I appreciate people wanting me to be healthy and all that stuff and I want to be healthy, too. I play this game aggressively. I’m not just going to change how I play the game.”
You do have to appreciate Dart’s toughness. There are times when that willingness to risk his body could help the Giants win games. There are other times, though, when the risk is not worth the potential reward. That is what the Giants want, no, need, Dart to learn. Like many lessons with young players, probably young people in general, it is not a fine line Dart will learn quickly or always walk without falling off.
“We’ve been through this before [with Josh Allen in Buffal] and what makes these players great is their toughness, their competitiveness, their desire to win and you appreciate that about Jaxson, but you also have to be available...
