New York Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka indicated during the spring that the team had a plan for rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart that extended “six months, 12 months, 18 months” into the future. So, where is Dart in the middle of his first NFL training camp?
On Wednesday, Kafka said Dart is “right on schedule from what we’d expect in terms of just understanding the offense, continuing to grow and learn every day.”
“Every day we’re presenting him – not just him but all the quarterbacks – with different situations and some situations you’ve probably never seen before,” Kafka said. “Those have been good to build off of, whether it’s in two-minute, whether it’s a third-down situation or a certain blitz look that we’re getting, he’s able to kind of grow and learn from those examples and now as he starts banking more and more looks, more and more reps – we do a lot of this throughout the walkthrough as well, he can kind of see – now he’s starting to put the picture together a little bit better and cleaner for a rookie.”
Even with veteran Jameis Winston on the roster, Dart has been taking most of the second-team reps during recent practices.
Here are more takeaways from Kafka’s Wednesday media availability.
Malik Nabers’ growth
“Malik has a growth mindset. He’s continuing to grow and learn and get better and master his craft, whether it’s as an outside receiver, as a slot receiver, in the run game. I think he’s just taking a really concerted effort of being really detailed with those things. I think you’re seeing it with those splash plays and the ability that he has but I think there are other elements to it. It’s running off on a screen and collecting two DBs down the field, now those guys are out of the play. It’s those little details that maybe don’t show up on the stat sheet – that, to me, I’m probably most proud of him.”
Evan Neal’s move to guard
“Evan’s doing a really nice job. It’s not necessarily easy to go from outside and move inside. Evan’s doing it from a communication standpoint, you got to be dialed into the calls, you got to be dialed into double teams a little bit more, if we’re going silent cadence – all those things, they get added on so he’s done a really nice job. I’m proud of him and I think we still got some more days in camp and some more work there but he’s doing a great job with the work he’s done.”
Giving Russell Wilson leeway to change plays
“I think it just goes back to being great with the communication, making sure everyone’s on the same page, having a plan for how we want to attack a certain look and having the appropriate tools to use that, whether that’s at the line of scrimmage, whether it’s built into the play call, whether it’s adjusted at the line of scrimmage just by leverage or coverage look. There’s a lot of different ways to get to that and certainly the quarterbacks have the keys to the car in terms of being able to operate that way.”
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