New York Giants draft: Is the hype around QB Jaxson Dart justified?

Just like with the rest of the quarterback class, that depends who you ask

Increasingly, fans of the quarterback-needy (desperate?) New York Giants are hearing speculation that the answer might reside in the same place the Giants found their last great quarterback — Ole Miss.

That, of course, is where the Giants found Eli Manning. Manning, as we know, quarterbacked the Giants for 16 years, won two Super Bowls and might be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame this week.

Is Jaxson Dart next?

The fast-rising Dart would certainly love the opportunity to play for the Giants.

“I’m not scared of the big city, not at all,” he told reporters at the Senior Bowl. “I love New York, I visited there a lot growing up. Honestly, that’s not even in the back of my mind. I think it’s a great organization. I’d love to play for them.”

Is the hype around Dart, who spent three seasons at Ole Miss after transferring from USC, real?

Apparently it is.

On Dec. 16, Dart was the 118th-ranked prospect on the NFL Mock Draft Database Consensus Big Board. That would have made him a likely fourth-round selection.

As of this writing, Dart is 47th. That puts him in the early second round. There are plenty of analysts who think Dart is going earlier than that in the 2025 NFL Draft, perhaps much earlier.

BBV’s Chris Pflum wondered recently if Dart had worked himself into the QB2 discussion in the upcoming draft class.

In a recent look at the Giants’ 2025 quarterback options, Pflum even floated the idea of trading down to No. 6 with the Las Vegas Raiders and taking Dart at that spot.

“I think If I would have a “1-2” grade on him, which would basically be 34, then taking him in the first isn’t that big a leap. The fifth-year option makes it worth it if you develop him, and I’d rather “reach” and have a chance at having a stable foundation for the rest of the team than not have one at all,” Pflum told me. “If that’s where you have to draft him to make sure you get him, then that’s what you have to do.”

Is that hype justified?

Todd McShay of The Ringer said on ‘The McShay Show’ that some within the league believe it is.

“There are people in the league who legitimately have him as QB2,” McShay said.

“He’s got a way about him. There’s this ease and sense of confidence … almost where he’s a byproduct of Lane, Lane Kiffin … it’s this relaxed confidence that he carries himself with.

“There’s nothing that jumps out … it’s just the consistency, the sweet stroke of the ball, timing, trajectory, ball placement, getting it out on time. It’s one of those things where over time you just grow to appreciate. There’s no specific thing that he does exceptionally well, it’s the whole package.”

Start listening at the 40:13 mark for more on Dart from McShay:

McShay also told Ryan Russillo that “there are some teams that think the conversation between Shedeur Sanders and Jaxson Dart is a lot closer than people might think.”

ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky also put his marker down recently on Dart’s draft stock:

That is not Orlovsky endorsing the idea. It is just him predicting the outcome.

Emory Hunt of CBS Sports isn’t sure the hype is justified.

“The “hype” is real — mainly from some loud voices. But not from scouts that I’ve spoken with,” Hunt said. “Dart is a solid QB but the hype ever since that one throw in a bowl game does not overtake/outweigh four years of game tape.”

Hunt might have been talking about either of these throws:

Dane Brugler of The Athletic told Nate Tice on the Football 301 podcast that he did not think Dart separated himself from the group of QB3 prospects during the Senior Bowl. Tice said he sees Dart as “a Day 3 guy.”

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that “first-round talk is misguided” for Dart. Fowler wrote:

The safer bet for Dart would be early Day 2, but supply and demand looms large in the quarterback market over the next three months. Consider that up to five teams picking in the top 10 need a QB, so even if Ward and Sanders go early, the Raiders, Jets or others could be left hanging — and still looking.

Veteran NFL analyst Mike Tanier, a former writer for ‘Football Outsiders’ who now runs the ‘Too Deep Zone’ Substack, told the ‘Valentine’s Views’ podcast that he is not impressed by the Ole Miss quarterback.

“I cannot perceive that there is Jaxson Dart hype,” Tanier told me. “From what I watched on film and from what I watched those last couple of days [at the Senior Bowl] Jaxson Dart does not look like anything but a day three quarterback.”

Does that clear things up? I thought not.