Big Blue View
New York Giants interim head coach Mike Kafka left no room for interpretation when asked if he thought rookie Jaxson Dart was an NFL franchise quarterback.
“I don’t have any doubts about that,” said Kafka, the team’s offensive coordinator before replacing Brian Daboll as head coach after 10 games.
“Jaxson’s been a pleasure to coach. He’s been awesome. Learning every single day, absorbing as much information as he can and then also putting his own fingerprint on things, putting his own personality on it. And that’s what’s most important is you see the growth and you see a player that’s continuing to learn from the good, the bad, and then continuing to take steps forward and continuing to step up and rise to the occasion when things aren’t great and take ownership and take accountability and hold other guys accountable. Those are leadership qualities you’re seeing from Jaxson and as a player, he’s going to continue to grow and get better. I’m proud to be working with him and happy for him and I’m excited to continue to do that this week.”
There was a report prior to the Giants’ 34-10 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday that the Giants would “look at” Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Kafka thinks that Dart will continue to get better.
“I think you learn so much faster from year one to year two,” Kafka said. “You have that full season, you’re in the NFL style, you kind of know how things operate. You’ve built somewhat of a framework of a routine on how you want to prepare yourself, whether it’s your body, your mind, getting ready for OTAs. And you now have a little bit longer offseason. It’s not like right from your college season to a bowl game to prepping for the combine, prepping for pro days. Then you get drafted and you’re thrown right into rookie camp and right into OTAs. It’s kind of like a never-ending cycle, that rookie season. And then on top of that, it’s a long season, right? It’s more games than you’ve ever played in your career, in your life. So, that ends up being a long year.
“Now you have time after this season to go through, kind of refine the things that you want, how you want to operate in the offseason, and now you have some time to kind of look back and really dissect yourself and really can make some more steps to improvement.”
Here are more takeaways from Kafka’s Monday morning call with New York media.
The quarterback is generally considered the leader of a football team. That isn’t always easy for a 22-year-old rookie, which is what Dart is.
“I know I’ve seen Jaxson just become more comfortable in that role,” Kafka said. “He started the season off as the backup and that’s a different role, that’s a different set of responsibilities. Now being a...
