NFC Notes: Daron Bland, Cowboys, Giants, Jaxson Dart

Daron Bland

Cowboys CB DaRon Bland said he hasn’t engaged in contract extension talks with the team and is focused on the upcoming season.

“No talks. Just worried about the season right now,” Bland said, via PFT. “Really just play my heart out, try to do my best out there and do whatever I can.”

Cowboys

Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones believes the team did a “much better job” of improving the roster this offseason and will give them flexibility heading into the draft.

“I think we overall did a much better job than last year of doing quite a bit of volume in terms of improving our roster and giving us the opportunity and having an environment where we can pick the best player,” Jones said, via PFT. “I think our work we did in free agency is really going to pay off. I think it’s going to make us a deeper football team. And what we add through this draft should just make us better and increase the depth that we have. Most of the time, 99 percent of the time, that’s our goal in free agency. Not necessarily to go out and sign the highest-paid guys.”

Giants

The Giants traded back into the first round of the draft to get QB Jaxson Dart as a potential long-term answer at the position. After working with QB Josh Allen in Buffalo, HC Brian Daboll outlined their plan to start things slow and have Dart come in at unpredictable times to give him early on-field adversity. 

“We kind of did that a little bit at Buffalo with Josh in terms of the initial plan of how we wanted to approach it and the reps that we needed to take and the things we wanted to see him do,” Daboll said, via Pat Leonard of the Daily News.

“Jaxson will get a fair amount of reps with the threes. And maybe you’ll see him in there [with other units], sprinkle him in when he doesn’t even know he’s supposed to go in there just to see how he reacts being in a different atmosphere. He won’t know when or why.”

New York GM Joe Schoen likes where the team is at on paper, but knows that doesn’t mean much until they go out and perform on the field. He expressed optimism in their 2025 season because of the type of players on the roster. 

“It’s just on paper now,” Schoen said. “That’s where this time of year [Daboll] is doing a great job, and the coaches and the players themselves. They need to come together and develop their own identity and what type of team they want to be.”

“Until we go out and do it, it’s just on paper. I’m excited to see how this team comes together. I like the players that we have. I like the makeup of the players. I’m confident in the coaching staff, and I’m excited for the 2025 season.”