But Dart never got the call, as coach Brian Daboll said afterwards that he never considered inserting the rookie into Sunday’s game, explaining that the Giants were within range of a comeback behind starter Russell Wilson.
Whether that’s true or not, the Giants offense was undoubtedly anemic Sunday, producing just six points and 231 yards of offense with Wilson at the helm, which begs the question: Is Daboll considering inserting Dart into the starting lineup ahead of next weekend’s trip to division rival Dallas?
Daboll sounded a lot less sure of his answer on that one. The coach was given multiple opportunities to commit to Wilson as the starter for Week 2 and repeatedly declined to do so.
“We’re going to get home and look at our game,” Daboll said when first asked about starting Dart in Week 2. “Collectively, we all have to do better.”
That vague answer invited follow-ups, but Daboll would not confirm if Wilson would remain the Giants’ starter. He only reiterated that the game had just finished, that they’d go back to watch the tape and that he has confidence in Wilson.
“This game isn’t on Russell Wilson,” Daboll said. “It’s not on Russell Wilson. Want to make that clear. I have confidence in Russell; we got to do a better job all the way around.”
The countdown clock to Dart’s debut began the moment the Giants drafted him, but it’s clear after Sunday’s loss that the clock is ticking faster now.
Put another way: The floodgates the Giants tried hard to keep closed all training camp by repeatedly re-affirming Wilson’s status as the starter are now wide open. Until and unless Wilson delivers a consistent run of quality play, Daboll is going to get the Dart questions every time he steps up to the podium. And he should. Dart is a first-round quarterback who played exceedingly well in the preseason, leading to the team naming him the backup quarterback on the unofficial depth chart entering Week 1. It’s worth noting here that Daboll said Sunday that he thought Dart “earned” the backup role.
If anything, the sense that Dart could take snaps in the opener almost felt heightened with the NFL Network reports that New York had a package of plays for Dart in its game plan for Week 1. The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported that Washington was preparing for both Wilson and Dart in the event Daboll threw in the rookie early.
After arriving as the No. 25 pick, Dart seemed poised to enter an ideal development situation with two veterans already on the roster. With Wilson the starter since the spring, the plan was for Dart to sit behind and learn from the veteran, whose leadership was praised throughout the offseason; Dart also had veteran Jameis Winston on the roster to lean on. Giants brass has been talking about its plan to slowly develop the rookie since the moment he was drafted.
But the reality is the Giants’ start to the season didn’t go to plan. Now we’ll find out how a loss — a bad one — impacts Dart’s timeline. Because in an ideal world, it shouldn’t. If the Giants believed the best way to bring along Dart was to give him time to develop behind their veterans, one loss, or even a few, shouldn’t drastically alter the course. But the Giants brass isn’t living in an ideal world.
This isn’t a first-year regime with the luxury of time and the patient understanding of ownership. Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen are entering their fourth seasons at the helm and are coming off a lowly nine wins combined over their past two seasons. In January, after retaining Daboll and GM Joe Schoen, team co-owner John Mara said, “(A turnaround) better not take too long because I’ve just about run out of patience.”
That quote is going to hang over the season until the Giants make it go away. And it’s going to hover even closer after games like Sunday, which felt like an extension of last year rather than the start of something new.
Mara was also asked in January if the team drafted a quarterback, would the Giants really be making a two-year commitment to the current regime — with the idea being that the QB would benefit from continuity (something former Giants first-round QB Daniel Jones didn’t get)? Mara, who understood the thinking, didn’t want to put “any kind of time limit on it.”
Thus, the dichotomy sits at the heart of this year’s season. Obviously, the Giants need to win. They also need to let Dart develop at his own pace. But if they can’t do the first, they might not be able to do the second.
Asked if he felt any pressure with some Giants fans wanting Dart to play, Wilson said, “No, I just focus on what we can control.”
What Wilson can control is his play on the field. On Sunday, it wasn’t very good, and that opened the door to all of the Dart questions.
How long Daboll and the Giants will be able to keep themselves from turning to Dart remains to be seen. But after Sunday’s game, there’s no question the Jaxson Dart countdown clock is ticking a little faster than it was before.
(Photo: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)
