Jaxson Dart Offers Interesting Take on His NY Giants' Preseason Debut

New York Giants rookie quarterback, packing all the coolness of a veteran who has played hundreds of football games in his life, had himself a mostly positive performance in the team’s 34-25 preseason opener against the Buffalo Bills. 

Dart, the 25th overall pick in the draft, saw the lion’s share of the reps at quarterback, stepping in after Russell Wilson started and led the Giants on a 12-play scoring drive to get the Giants on the right track.

The rookie then went on to deliver a mostly positive showing, completing 12 out of 19 pass attempts for 154 yards and a gorgeous 28-yard touchdown dart to receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey early in the second quarter which gave the Giants a 10-0 lead at that point.

Dart also rushed three times for a team-leading 24 yards, making what appeared to be a host of good decisions.

"It's about what I thought he would do," Giants head coach Brian Daboll said after the game. "Efficient, effective, aggressive, confident in the pocket. Still stuff we can work on, but he's doing good. "

Dart’s take on his NFL debut was, according to Daboll, what the former Ole Miss signal caller described as “mid.”

“I just felt like the only reason that we stopped ourselves from scoring touchdowns were just some of those third downs and not converting,” Dart explained.

“I feel like personally, I'm hard on myself. So, in those moments, I want to capitalize on that. Those possessions in those crunch time situations determine the game. So, like I said, I feel like I can do a lot more, but I was happy with how the guys played around me.”

Among the challenges Dart faced in his first NFL game was working with a silent count, which he said he felt good about.

“It’s kind of my first time doing a silent cadence in a road game atmosphere. So we did have a few pre-snap penalties that we got to grow on and continue to improve on those things, but I was happy overall about it,” he said. 

“I was really happy with how our O-line played. I don't think that we had a sack all game, if I'm right. They played amazing and I was really happy with the operation.”

Dart even showed his toughness when on quarterback scramble, he ran straight into traffic instead of sliding to give himself up.

“I think (Daboll) likes it, to be honest,” he said. “But it was more of my teammates. They're like, ‘Hey, like we don't need to see you take any of those extra shots. So make sure you're sliding.’”