Giants Among Winners from 2025 First-round Trades

Dart might not have been able to cure all the ills of another miserable 4-13 season for the Giants in 2025, nor serve as enough evidence to justify team ownership staving off a swarm of change, beginning in the middle of the season with the firing of Brian Daboll after a 2-8 start to the year.

Still, his presence in their huddle and the broader locker room quickly offered hope that the franchise could finally have the most important position in the sport locked down for the future. The next step in their mission suddenly became building the right team around him.

Dart, who finished third among rookie quarterbacks with 2,272 passing yards and first in combined touchdowns (added nine scores on the ground to go with his 15 through the air), flashed as a dual-threat signal caller with a very strong arm and unique fearlessness to scramble around the pocket and take off with the football for any extra yards he could muster up.

While valiant to some in the fanbase and his new head coach, John Harbaugh, who has made it clear that he values players that are tough, dependable and love to impact the game and seemed to be drawn by the rookie’s aura, the accomplished leader knows that Dart’s untapped potential awaits in him becoming better as a pocket passer with the best pieces on the other end.

In order to start working towards molding that version of his new gunslinger, Harbaugh and the Giants have been busy adding talented pieces to his arsenal, including the coach’s familiar tight end, Isaiah Likely, who has huge potential in an explosive offense, and bolstering the offensive line in parts where depth was severely lacking after free agency.

More work still has to be done during the draft, in which the Giants only have seven total selections after they traded their third-round pick to the Texans last spring. They might wish they still had that pick, especially as they hold just three turns in the first four rounds of the event, where the more talented prospects who can fill Day 1 roles are to be found.

Nothing makes up for a bold risk better than a franchise finding out in due time that they landed the one guy who’s the most capable of leading the forsaken Giants back to the promised land in 2026 and beyond.

Dart has made himself the beacon of light in that regard, and the potential is brewing for him and New York to make a case for the postseason if all goes well.

What comes next in the impending three days of recruiting college talent in Pittsburgh will tell us more about the extent to which the Giants are going to rise to even greater heights.

As long as they can make the right decisions, the kickstart to the Harbaugh era will look light years better than the dismal product that’s been on the MetLife Stadium turf for much of the past decade.

Nailing their biggest one in Dart last year was all the proof needed to know it's possible, as the biggest turnarounds in the NFL often come from having the main voice in the helm who can perform at the highest level when the lights are brightest.