Rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, who will make his first NFL start on Sunday for the New York Giants when they host the Los Angeles Chargers, said on Wednesday that he wants to “try to bring a little bit of spark” to the 0-3 Giants.
“Everybody throughout a season is going to face adversity,” Dart said during his first press gathering since being named the starter in place of Russell Wilson on Tuesday. “For us, it’s going to show what kind of grit we have as a team character-wise.How do we handle a punch when we’re down? How are you going to respond to that?
“I think the biggest thing for me is I want to do my best to be a spark. I want to create excitement on the field. I want to be explosive when opportunities are there and try to bring a little bit of spark.”
Dart said he was “very humbled” by becoming an NFL starting quarterback.
Coach Brian Daboll made the decision to replace Wilson, in his 14th NFL season, with Dart after the Giants played two poor offensive games in the season’s first three weeks.
How will Dart approach the starting job?
“I’m just going to lay everything I have on the line,” he said. “That’s just the way that I play the game. When I step in between those lines, nothing else in the world matters to me except doing everything that I can to win it.
“Whatever rep that is in practice, whatever competition it may be, I just feel like I’m a competitor. Whatever I’ve got to do, prepared for the week, what I’m on the field to do to win, I’m going to give it my all to do that.”
The Giants are not only 0-3 this season, but have lost 14 of 15 games and are 9-28 under Daboll since reaching the playoffs in 2022. I wrote on Tuesday that playing Dart, a quarterback Daboll banged the table for the Giants to draft, was the only card Daboll had remaining to turn the team around and potentially save his job.
“As a player, when you know that your coach has confidence in you, it means a lot because you know that you can trust them and they can trust you,” Dart said of Daboll. “I know that every day that I come out here, every day that I step into the facility, he’s going to give his all for me, and I’m going to do it the exact same way. I’m excited to get out there on the field. I’m excited to take another step with this team and do everything that we can to win games.”
Dart said the noise about Daboll’s job status does not add pressure.
“I don’t really feel pressure. I feel like pressure is given to those who play at a high level,” Dart said. “The best players in the world are the ones that you are involved with that word pressure. I don’t feel it in that standpoint.
“My focus is just trying to win one game at a time. We’ve been so close each week. It’s been tough to watch. It’s been tough as a team to come back in the locker room. Like I said, you’re just that close to winning. Our focus just has to be on each day, each rep, individually. How can we be better? How can we hold each other accountable as players, as leaders of the team? Just find a way to finish games when we need to.”
Dart doesn’t want to be looked as a potential franchise savior.
“I just try to be the best teammate that I can be,” Dart said. “I don’t want to look at it that way. That word or that phrase doesn’t really go in my head.
Dart, echoing Daboll’s contant refrain that 0-3 is a collective failure, said turning the season around is everyone’s responsibility.
“I feel like as a unit on the field, especially as an offense, everybody has to be in sync. There can’t just be attention on one guy to carry the load of everything. It’s got to be collectively as a unit,” Dart said. “When we watch games back, there’s just a few mistakes that if we just correct as a team, as an offense, games can be completely different. That’s our focus. My focus is on the guys, on the players around me.
“It has nothing to do with myself. That’s the approach I’m going to take.”
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