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Coach Brian Daboll with quarterback Jaxson Dart as the New York Giants participate in their 2025 OTA's at the Quest Diagnostic Giants Training Center in East Rutherford. Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Giants' Plan for Jaxson Dart Slowly Coming into Focus

Originally posted on New York Giants on SI
By Patricia Traina | Last updated Jun 11, 2025 10:00 AM ET

The New York Giants have a plan for developing quarterback Jaxson Dart into their next franchise quarterback, who can lead the offense for the next decade or more.

However, the exact plan is being kept under wraps by head coach Brian Daboll and assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, perhaps because they don't want to set milestones if Dart doesn't reach them by the specified time.

“I think whenever you draft a quarterback early, you want to have a plan or some semblance of a plan or schedule put in place to understand that it's not really a one-week; it’s a six-month, one-year, two-year type plan for really any player,” Kafka said last week.

“For any player you get, you want to see what that player is going to be at some point in the distance, six months, 12 months, 18 months in the future, where his progress is and where he should be. Along the way, you can evaluate if he is on schedule. Is he a little bit further behind? Do we need to add or subtract certain things? For the quarterback, that's what you try to put together.”

Based on a handful of OTAs that have been open to the media, some of the details of their master plan have come to light. For one, Daboll has yielded the play calling this spring to Kafka to stay in Dart’s shadow whenever the rookie takes reps. Daboll, who famously helped Bills quarterback Josh Allen develop, can usually be seen conferring with Dart after every practice snap.

At times, the head coach, who must balance being patient with ensuring progress is achieved, can be slightly animated while his student absorbs every drop of information being dispersed. But it’s all done so that Dart doesn’t make the same mistakes twice.

As for the practice reps themselves, Dart is currently ahead of Tommy DeVito for the third spot in the current four-man configuration, which is likely to be the role he’ll take on once the regular season starts.

But this isn’t your standard third-man on the totem pole situation. Dart doesn’t exclusively work with the third-team offense and has taken a fair share of snaps with the second-team, with the occasional one or two snaps sprinkled in with the first team.

The idea is to get him comfortable throwing to guys like Darius Slayton, Theo Johnson, Wan’Dale Robinson, Jalin Hyatt, and, eventually, Malik Nabers.

In diversifying Dart’s reps, it might be inferred that at some point in the coming season, the hope is that he will jump ahead of veteran Jameis Winston as QB2 to where perhaps an opportunity to relieve Wilson in a mop-up role would be there for the taking, something that Dart, as the emergency quarterback, wouldn’t be able to have unless Wilson and Winston were unable to play.

Along the way, Kafka did mention a few of the items on the checklist they’ll be looking for progress from the former Ole Miss signal caller.

“You try to put those touchpoints on, ‘Okay, is he at this point come training camp? Start of the season, where is he with protections or assignments?’ Things like that. We try to put together a little checklist and a plan for every player, and the quarterback is no different.”

Dart figures to get a healthy dose of preseason snaps, and it will be interesting to see if Daboll takes on the play calling during that stretch or if Kafka, who has been calling the plays this offseason, fills the role.

It would not be surprising if Daboll takes on the role of the young quarterback if for no other reason than to ensure the continuity that his voice is the main one Dart hears as he grows into his new role.

As for Kafka, who also was instrumental in the development of another premier quarterback–Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs–he sees his role in Dart’s development as more all-inclusive, while it’s believed that quarterbacks coach Shea Tinery and assistant quarterbacks coach Chad Hall take care of the little nuances related to technique and mechanics.

“It'll just be different based on just the nature of my current position. Just being the quarterback coach, you're in that room with them,” Kafka said. “You're coaching them just on the specific job of the quarterback versus the offensive coordinator putting the whole picture together for the Qs.

“Being in those meetings with the quarterbacks and explaining my intent for a play or my vision for what that play could be or what the offense could look like and how we're going to attack certain things, just being out in front of that with the quarterbacks is always good information.”

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