Joe Schoen sheds more light on why the Giants chose the Ole Miss QB
There has been a lot of discussion post-NFL draft about the things Shedeur Sanders did not do correctly prior to the draft that contributed to the New York Giants passing on him. In a new post from Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, Giants GM Joe Schoen shed more light on the things Jaxson Dart did right, things that helped convince the Giants to trade up and select him No. 25 overall.
Breer had detailed during a recent podcast appearance how Sanders botched learning an install package given to him by the Giants.
“And there are mistakes intentionally put in the install. He didn’t catch them and got called on it, and it didn’t go well after that,’ Breer revealed, adding, ‘He was p***ed that they did that to him.”
On the other hand, Dart aced the same test.
“Everybody has a different way to learn,” Schoen says. “So if you know how you learn, and what you need to do to get the information to be able to execute it, that’s part of the process, too. Does this person know how to teach himself new material, and then be able to execute it, regurgitate it and talk about it the following day? Jaxson did a really good job with it. He had his process to lead him to that point—all these guys are trying to figure that out. …”
Breer also said that the Giants put each quarterback they worked out privately through the identical on-field drills and Dart “threw the ball well in comparison to his peers.”
Schoen indicated to Breer that there was one other personality thing that he latched on to with Dart, something he noticed while watching him play in person last fall:
“What really stands out about Jaxson is his passion for the game, leadership amongst his teammates and how he can cross sides of the ball,” Schoen says. “Like, he’s not just sitting over with the offense the entire time. You see him interacting with the defense as well. That’s a big part of the live exposure—you have a bad throw, or you have a three-and-out, you come over to the sideline, who are you interacting with? Which coaches? Are you talking to your receivers? Are you talking to your line? Are you by yourself? Are you not?
“You get back up, go to the sideline and watch the defense out there. Those are all things that we’re watching and evaluating.”
There is much more in the Breer piece. Some of it we have already discussed as Schoen gave us those details the night he drafted Dart, but there are a few more tidbits of information worth reading in the full Breer post.
