Big Blue View
As Ed discussed earlier in the week, it’s no surprise that Jaxson Dart was his choice as the most important Giant entering the 2026 season. In that post Ed referenced a film study by Nick Baumgardner of The Athletic about Dart’s pros and cons. This week Pro Football Focus released their 2026 NFL QB Annual, which provides a ton of advanced stats for every QB in the league who played at least 200 dropbacks and allows us to compare Dart to his competitors.
You don’t need PFF to tell you that Dart was a massive asset running the ball, whether by scrambling or designed runs. He was 4th in the NFL among QBs in rushing yards, 3rd in rushing TDs, 1st in designed rushing yards, 7th in yards after contact, and 2nd in breakaway runs. The only issue with Dart’s running is whether he can keep himself on the field doing it. The big question for Dart’s career is whether he can develop into an elite NFL passer.
Let’s look at a few of the salient numbers for Dart’s 2025 passing. For the record, Dart was 33rd in PFF’s despised (by BBV readers) QB passing grade with a very average 64.2 grade. That put him just behind Baker Mayfield and just above C.J. Stroud. Dart finished the season with a very neutral +0.04 expected points added (EPA) per dropback, just below the league average of +0.05.
That said, putting aside the approximately 2/3 of throws an NFL QB should be expected to make (graded zero), 15.6% of Dart’s throws were graded bad (negatively) while 21.9% were graded positively, i.e., he was a net plus as a passer.
This was one of the bugaboos about Dart. He led the NFL during the regular season in number of pressures that PFF judged were his own fault. It’s interesting to look at where his pressures came from:
Dart by himself was responsible for almost 2/3 as many pressures as his offensive line was collectively. You may be surprised to see left tackle as the biggest OL pressure culprit. That’s not the fault of Andrew Thomas, who only surrendered 13 pressures all season (6 against the Eagles in 2 games). The rest were by Marcus Mbow and James Hudson.
That said, Dart was in some good company. Dart’s league-leading 50 allowed pressures were followed by Patrick Mahomes (44) and Drake Maye (43).
No QB wants to face pressure, but some are better at it than others:
Dart was predictably worse under pressure than with a clean pocket. However, his 71.1 passing grade when kept clean was among the lowest among starting QBs, while his 51.6 under pressure, while lower, was in the mid-range of NFL starters. Dart’s EPA/dropback from a clean pocket was +0.33, while only -0.33 under pressure.
Dart was unaffected by blitzes (64.2 when blitzed, 63.2 when not).
Dart does not like play-action:
That’s a huge drop-off when he’s asked to execute play-action....
