Much has changed for the New York Giants since rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart last spoke to the media three weeks ago. While Dart was in the concussion protocol the head coach who pushed for the Giants to draft him, Brian Daboll, was fired, So, too, was defensive coordinator Shane Bowen.
Dart opened his media availability on Friday by addressing the firing of Daboll, a coach with whom he had exchanged “I love you’s” when the Giants drafted him.
“When I look back on everything, it’s really special to come to a place where a coach genuinely cares about you and loves you and you have that personal relationship on and off the field,” Dart said. “I just have all the respect in the world for him [Daboll]. I think he’s an incredible offensive mind. He’s done an amazing job developing me up to this point.
“This business is a beast, man, and give a shoutout to Coach Shane (Bowen) as well. Unfortunately, we just weren’t able to get enough wins for them. But at the same time, got a lot of respect for them, and Coach Dabs, who knows if I’m here without him, so I’ve got all the respect and love for him.”
Dart said “it sucked” to see Daboll be fired, especially while Dart was in the NFL’s concussion protocol.
“I have a lot of love for Coach Dabs and we’re really close, so to kind of see it go down that way, especially my rookie year, it was hard,” Dart said. “So, just trying to control what I can control, take the next steps, but just wish we could have done more as players to get more wins for him.”
Daboll is gone, though. Now it is incumbent upon the Giants to get the hire of the next coach correct so they don’t put Dart through the constant turmoil Daniel Jones experienced in six mostly unsuccessful years as the Giants quarterback.
“I’ve got to be more available”
Dart has seven rushing touchdowns and has proven his willingness to take — and dish out — punishment. He has consistently received a message from the organization about being smart and protecting himself when he can. From what Dart said on Friday, perhaps that has begun to sink in.
“When I watched the whole [Bears] game – and it’s kind of been a point of emphasis going into each game of just being smarter with the hits that I take,” Dart said. “When I look back at the game, there’s not a hit where I’m like, dang, I shouldn’t have taken that hit, to be honest. I felt like I was making smart decisions. I didn’t take really any unnecessary hits. That was just a situation where you kind of lose control of your body when you fumble it and you’re not really bracing for the ground. But obviously, moving forward, now I’ve got to be more available for this team, so, that’s obviously on the forefront of my mind going forward.
“I’m still getting used to this game. I’m getting used to the speed of this level. In college, you can watch my tape, I very rarely slid. But this is a different beast. So, for me, I’ve got to be obviously a little bit more responsible when I’m in the open field. But I felt like, quite honestly, I was getting better at it each and every week.”
Waiting to be cleared wasn’t easy for Dart
The rookie quarterback was on the practiced field before the Week 11 game against the Green Bay Packers. He practiced on a limited basis the entire week before last Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions. He wasn’t released from the concussion protocol, though, until Thanksgiving Day.
“I feel like I can go and I felt like I can go the week before too. But obviously there are protocols and there are different tests that you have to pass,” Dart said. “Our medical team does a really good job of making sure that we meet all those requirements to be out there on the field. But it’s been hard, man. I can’t stand sitting on the sideline watching. But credit to those guys. Maybe in the moment I wasn’t the happiest, but they’re overlooking our health and our safety.
“It’s definitely not fun to feel like you have no control over the outcome of the game, but you just try to be the best teammate that you can.”
The difference between winning and losing in the NFL
The 2-10 Giants have lost five times this season when they held a two-score lead at some point during a game. The narrow margin in the NFL between victory and defeat has been a bitter lesson for Dart.
“The season so far has been tough because our record could completely be flipped the other way and everybody here is in a completely different state of mind,” Dart said. “But I’ve just come to realize that in the NFL, if you don’t make those crunch-time moment plays and the other team does, you’re going to lose, and it doesn’t really matter how well you play up until the end of the game.
“So, at times, it honestly doesn’t even feel real because you feel like you’re in control of the entire game and somehow things just don’t work. That’s just the beauty of the sport is it could go one way, it could go the other way and when you’re playing at this level of competition, especially for me, I’ve come to realize that it doesn’t matter how you play at all until, who scores last, who has the ball last and who makes that last crucial play at the end of the game.”
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