Patrick Calvert asks: Since Joe Schoen took over GM duties, the pre-draft ‘leaks’ seemed to be plugged. However, the Jaxson Dart smoke was noticeable from reporters to oddsmakers. My concern is that someone has loose lips. Do you have any thoughts or insight?
Ed says: Patrick, I’m not in the front office and folks like Todd McShay, Daniel Jeremiah and others who were on the Dart to the New York Giants train aren’t going to tell me where they got their info.
I think, though, that you are looking for a problem that has not existed during Schoen’s tenure. As far as I can tell, a lot of the smoke came from teams around the league putting 2 and 2 together and connecting Dart and the Giants.
Teams spend a lot of time hunting for clues. Just a quick example: Schoen said the Giants knew on Wednesday that the Browns and Jaguars would be making the trade at No. 2. The media was just catching up to it as the draft was starting.
I think the Giants have done a good job keeping as much information as possible in house.
Steve Bartlett asks: 1. To draft Dart, Schoen found a trade partner in Houston. Did they actually fear losing Dart to someone trading ahead of them at #34 because they had intelligence or intuition that the Rams would possibly take him at #26 for their QB of the Future?
2. I’m thinking that the Rams might have taken that action of picking Dart above – why else would they have immediately traded out of #26 after the Giants selection? That seemed more than coincidental.
Ed says: Two inter-connected Dart-Rams-Giants questions.
Steve, perhaps it is true that the Giants thought Dart might be in play for the Rams. There was a lot of chatter about the New Orleans Saints, who had the 40th pick, being on Dart’s trail. I always thought the Giants would try to get in front of the Cleveland Browns (pick No. 33) if they really wanted a quarterback.
Back to the Rams. There has been conflicting reporting about that. The Rams and Houston Texans were said to be both be targeting Ohio State wide receiver Emeka Egbuka and trying to trade up for him until the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took Egbuka at No. 19.
There is some belief that the Rams would have taken Dart at No. 26 to learn behind Matthew Stafford. That could well be the case. If it is, and I have no reason to believe it isn’t, that’s more reason to give Joe Schoen some credit for properly reading the room. Dart was the quarterback he and Brian Daboll wanted, and he made sure he did not have to live with the regret of missing out by failing to be aggressive.
Adam Jacobs asks: It’s Friday morning, and I am still reveling in the Giants first round success. With them going back into the first round to get Dart, it leads me to ask the following question. Does this give Schoen/Daboll a second year in their jobs? I ask this because unless the team is totally inept in the upcoming season, it doesn’t make sense to draft a QB who will need to sit for a year only to fire the coaching staff and make him learn a whole new system.
What do you think?
Ed says: Adam, I don’t think the move for Dart guarantees Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll anything beyond 2025. Results matter. We have to see how 2025 plays out.
Do the Giants win more games? Do they look like an upper-tier defense with the personnel upgrades that have been made? Does Russell Wilson make them a competent offense? Does Dart, who will do most of his work behind the scenes away from the prying eyes of the media, show promise that Schoen and Daboll made a good bet by selecting him?
I think that what the move for Dart does for Schoen and Daboll, provided everyone likes what they see from him in 2025, is that it helps the GM and head coach build a case for why they should stay.
The franchise will, at some point, be in Dart’s hands. Schoen and Daboll can argue they chose him for their system, they started his development and that firing them runs the risk of doing to Dart what the Giants just lived through with Daniel Jones. John Mara is not going to want that to happen if he can help it.
Chris Chianese asks: The Giants are going to have good defensive players. How confident are you in Bowen to make this defense as good as it can be? As an example, Bowen will have two press corners but has not played much press coverage. With Abdul Carter drafted, there will be opportunities to take advantage of a strength at his position. Will Bowen maximize his players strengths?
Ed says: Chris, the job of a coach is to put his players in the best position to succeed. That means figuring out what they do best and allowing them to do it, not simply plugging them in to a system and making them fit in.
Do I think Shane Bowen might have been guilty of not being flexible enough in certain areas last season? Sure. But, he has now had a year to learn his players and you hope that both he and the players benefit from that.
Bowen will never play the amount of man-to-man coverage Wink Martindale did. Few do. It is what both Deonte Banks and Paulson Adebo do best, though, and he needs to lean into that. Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll need to make sure he knows that.
As for Carter, I think there are plenty of sub packages and ways to mix and match personnel. I have to believe the Giants will figure it out.
Robert Colot asks: Earlier in the year Sanders and Ward were considered to be pretty close in potential. Then Sanders slipped down the draft boards. Why did this happen?
Ed says: Robert, I think there are several reasons. I don’t claim to have any inside knowledge, but this is just my impression.
First, the more teams studied they realized that there is a clear physical difference. Ward is bigger, more mobile and clearly has more pure arm talent.
I also believe that one thing that happens is that teams don’t get in-person contact with these kids until the All-Star games after the season, the Combine, the Pro Days, visits to facilities, etc. I think that the more you read and heard, some people just didn’t like the kid when they got around him.
Finally, and some people don’t like it when this is mentioned, but I do think some teams considered the potential for drama and distraction because of his last name and who his father is.
John U. asks: I did not understand the rush to sign Kayvon to his fifth year option? How long did the Giants have to decide? Although he has underachieved for the 5th pick in the draft, I like Kayvon and think his best football is ahead of him.
Ed says: Rush? John, telling Kayvon Thibodeaux within the last week or so that the Giants would pick up his fifth-year option — which is what GM Joe Schoen said the Giants — is not being in a rush.
The deadline for picking up the fifth-year option on players selected in Round 1 of the 2022 NFL Draft is May 1. That’s only a few days away.
The Giants are already back to work as Phase 1 of the voluntary offseason program has begun. Combine that, the deadline and the trade speculation that had been growing and why wouldn’t the Giants — if their intent was to pick up the option — go ahead and do it?
Scott Herrington asks: I read with interest your article about the “expert” reactions to the Giants’ drafting of Jaxson Dart. And as you said, the reviews were mixed, with two reviewers using the word “desperation” in describing this pick. What do you think? Did this pick seem desperate to you? How do you view the Giants’ decision to pick this player at this point in the draft?
Ed says: Scott, in my post-Round 1 ‘things I think’ column I called what the Giants did in Round 1 a “home run.” I think that tells you how I feel.
Now, as I said on YouTube Friday morning, that doesn’t mean I am ready to fit Jaxson Dart for a gold jacket. I am saying that because philosophically I thought the Giants had two objectives that needed to be met on Thursday night — find an impact player who made them better now and put a rookie quarterback in place who might be able to lead the franchise eventually. I think they accomplished both.
Do I know Dart will succeed? I do not. I know that odds are against every quarterback drafted in Round 1 succeeding. Less than 40% of quarterbacks drafted in Round 1 since 2010 have become solid starters or better.
I do know that to be quality NFL team on a consistent basis you have to have quality quarterback play. So, you have to take a kid you believe in when you have a chance. Brian Daboll said Thursday night that Dart has “got a lot of qualities you look for in a good quarterback” and that he “has the traits that we look for and covet.”
He’s 21 years old. It is now up to Daboll and his staff to try and develop those things and see what Dart can become.
As for desperation, no, I didn’t see it that way. The Giants gave up two third-round picks to get a player they think can be their quarterback of the future. That is not that steep of a price, it’s not a ‘Hail Mary’. If they’re right, no one will care about those picks.
I see it as the Giants doing something that needed to be done. Now, we just sit back and see if they bet on the right guy.
David Kanter asks: The Giants signed a QB who was benched twice last year to a relatively small contract. In the past three seasons he hasn’t been a productive player. They drafted a QB Round 1. Who makes sense to be our starter?
Ed says: David, first of all you are twisting Russell Wilson’s 2024 season to fit your narrative. Benched twice? He missed the first six games due to injury, then started the rest of the season. From Week 7 on, Justin Fields threw two passes the rest of the season.
I know the last three seasons have not been Wilson’s best. I would also argue, though, that Wilson’s “not productive” by your terms has been far better than any quarterback play the Giants have gotten the last two seasons.
The Giants signed Wilson and Jameis Winston for this season, and for this reason. Now, they don’t have to force Jaxson Dart onto the field before he is ready. He is 21 years old, youngest quarterback in this draft class. The offense at Ole Miss is vastly different than what he will have to learn in New York.
Wilson is the starter. Period. Brian Daboll has already said as much, and that is the only thing that makes sense. If Dart is ready at the end of the season and the situation is right for him to play, then play him to get him some experience.
There is zero reason for the Giants to rush Dart into action.
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