Big Blue View
Once upon a time the New York Giants defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in front of a prime time, national audience. Rookies Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo celebrated on the field like the transformative heroes they seemed to be. The sun seemed to finally be coming up for the Giants after more than a decade spent mostly in the dark.
Dart was talking bravely, and maybe naively, about not caring about the franchise’s past and wanting, along with Skattebo, to be part of changing the negative narrative.
Eight games and more than two months later, things are different.
The Giants have not won since that Week 6 victory over the Eagles. Skattebo is gone, the cruelty of the NFL showing up two weeks after that celebration when he suffered a gruesome ankle injury against those same Eagles. Head coach Brian Daboll, who advocated for the drafting of Dart and seemed like he was a good match for the young quarterback, is gone for justifiable reasons well beyond the quarterback. The GM who engineered a draft-day trade to make Dart a Giant might soon be gone, too.
Dart remains the franchise’s bright light. The beacon who might be able to be centerpieces of an eventual resurrection. We don’t know that yet. We don’t know if Dart is going to be Eli Manning, Daniel Jones, or something in-between.
From this vantage point, I do think we know that talking about drafting Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza and replacing Dart is silly. The Giants need to build around Dart, see what he can become, and see where he can take them.
Sunday evening, though, after another disheartening defeat, something else became clear. The Giants need to worry about not only about Dart’s body getting broken before we get to see what he can become with a proper team around him. They need to worry about his spirit getting broken, too.
Dart’s spirit isn’t broken yet, though the reality of his current circumstances has settled in. He said Sunday night that he is “still learning” how to handle the Giants’ reality.
“I haven’t gone this long without a win in my career,” Dart said. “You definitely try to obviously learn from the things that you didn’t play well enough from. I’m trying to just live week to week and trying to get a little bit of motivation, be a little bit of a spark, just trying to communicate as positively as I can. These hurt, so you’ve got to try to take it for what it is and try to rally the troops to get better for the next week.”
Dart is doing the only thing he can — work.
“You just have frustrations that mound up. For me, I try to work harder every day. I try to turn those feelings and these results into motivation,” Dart said. “I love this game, I love coming to work every day, I love my teammates. So, I’m never...
