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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — In the months that had passed since Jaxson Dart's first NFL start, the scramble had faded to back of mind.
Eleven more starts had rounded out the New York Giants quarterback's rookie campaign. Dart had attempted 86 scrambles by season's end. What did a 39-yard gain wiped out by a holding penalty really matter?
To new Giants offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, it mattered plenty.
So in a spring meeting, Nagy cued up the third-quarter play in which Dart looked to his right then took off, zigging and zagging up the field in pursuit of extending the Giants' 13-10 lead. As Dart approached the Chargers' 10-yard line, having barreled more than 30 yards, two defenders began to converge.
Dart attempted a stiff-arm of cornerback Cam Hart. No luck. The quarterback found himself tangled underneath Hart. Dart rose slowly and then hunched over.
The referees called a medical timeout to evaluate him.
This was far from the last moment in which the Giants would wonder whether Dart would return to a game.
By spring, when head coach John Harbaugh hired Nagy to run point on an unusually experienced offensive staff, Dart's proximity to recklessness was one of the biggest risks facing a high-upside Giants team.
So as new Giants staffers settled in, Nagy queued up clips to remind Dart that visits to the blue tent — in the preseason, in his first start and repeatedly through the season — compromise his availability. The goal is not to eliminate Dart's confidence and swagger. But the Giants are working to hone their young quarterback's risk-reward calculus.
And they're working to consider how to send that message most effectively.
"You can't just say, 'Don't run the football here because you could get hurt.' You have to show him the evidence," Nagy told Yahoo Sports during a sitdown interview in June. "'Where did you take the extra hits? Was it necessary?'
"You have to show them clips."
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'You'd rather say "whoa, whoa" than "giddy up"'
Joe Schoen remembers the third week of the 2018 NFL season.
The now-Giants general manager was assistant general manager of the Buffalo Bills at the time. He'd helped scout and draft quarterback Josh Allen, who was playing his third NFL game against the Minnesota Vikings.
The Bills took an early 17-0 lead. Even so, Allen, while taking off on third-and-10 with 2:03 remaining in the first quarter, hurdled linebacker Anthony Barr.
The athleticism impressed. The longevity considerations concerned.
"It was unbelievable, but you're like, 'You're never going to survive,'" Schoen told Yahoo Sports in June. "Then you see him on Monday, Week 3, and then you see him Monday, Week 4, and then Monday, Week 6, and he can barely walk. You're like, 'This stuff starts to add up.' You start to realize that Monday sucks if you take those unnecessary hits because you feel like you were in a car crash.
"So sometimes you just got to go through it, and you got to live and learn."
Schoen was reminded of that earlier than expected last year.
The Giants selected Dart 25th overall before he starred in the preseason. By the Giants’ third preseason game, against the Patriots, his rising arrow was clear. That didn't stop him from playing like he was in the postseason rather than the preseason.
Up by seven with 2:50 to play in the first quarter, Dart examined the field then snuck through a collapsing pocket. He'd long passed the line to gain when, like he'd see a month later against the Chargers, two defenders closed. As in the Chargers clip that Nagy would queue up: Dart did not slide.
He dove with the tackle, slamming his right shoulder — and then his head — into the ground. The ball came out, though a defensive holding flag negated the fumble. The Giants got to keep the ball, but Dart did not; officials pulled him for a concussion check in the blue tent.
"It's like, 'Dude, it's the third preseason game against the Patriots … what are you doing?'" Schoen said. "You'd rather say 'whoa, whoa' than 'giddy up' with these guys. So he understands now what he means to the franchise …
"Sometimes as a young kid, you got to go through it to understand it. So he went through it."
Dart led the Giants to just four wins in 12 tries as a rookie. But his production and command of the team secured his right to keep the job from Week 4 on, even with veterans Jameis Winston and Russell Wilson in the building.
Dart completed 63.7% of his passes for 2,272 yards, 15 touchdowns and 5 interceptions while playing alongside a roster down multiple key weapons, including receiver Malik Nabers (torn ACL in Dart's first start) and running back Cam Skattebo (fractured ankle in Dart's fifth start). Dart also rushed for 487 yards and nine touchdowns — a dual threat that helped anchor the Giants' fifth-ranked rushing attack.
Entering this season, the Giants' goal is not to eliminate Dart's scrambles altogether. But as Nagy saw Patrick Mahomes learn in Kansas City and Schoen saw Allen do in Buffalo, the Giants hope Dart can choose his spots — and his use of slides or sidelines — more judiciously.
"We've said for many years to Pat, 'Use your legs as a weapon,'" said Nagy, who coordinated the Chiefs' offense in 2017 and from 2023 to '25. "What I've really noticed and come to appreciate with Patrick is that when he does use his legs, he makes you pay … otherwise, he's going to throw it.
"It's picking and choosing when are you going to use your legs as a weapon and trying to translate that to Jaxson because he's really good at running the football, and he's tough. So you put all that together, [and] now we just got to figure out, 'OK, when?'
"When do we sacrifice our body for the good of the team versus losing you and not having you play?"
Overlooked part of Dart's game: His ability to 'flick it'
During OTAs, the Giants emphasized Dart's strengths outside of his mobility.
Nagy said he had a better grasp of Dart's dual threat before they teamed up than he did of Dart’s anticipatory throws and ability to read the defense. A deep crosser route over the middle into coverage looked "very easy for him" in OTAs, Nagy said.
Dart's array of arm angles stood out, too. From sidearm throws to three-quarter throws and downfield heaves, the Giants' staff believes Dart's passing ceiling is high.
"I call it the 'flick it,'" Nagy said. "I've always used that with the quarterbacks. Do they have the 'flick it' ability, which is basically different arm angles and how natural are they? …
"It was more impressive than I thought going into it."
Dart is working on growth areas, too, from learning to better visualize play calls from his new offense to mastering chemistry with new teammates such as tight end Isaiah Likely, who's learning how Dart's expectations differ from those of Likely's former quarterback, Lamar Jackson.
Likely expected one OTA throw to come to the first window of a route based on the position of the linebacker. Dart was more comfortable throwing to Likely in the second window. They discussed afterward Dart's preference that Likely keep running on the route.
"Having a dialogue when we see things from different perspectives, that's great," Likely said.
Dart's chance to show how much progress he has made will come quickly and under bright lights. The Giants host the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football in Week 1. New York does not yet know whether it will suit up Nabers, though Schoen told Yahoo Sports in June that he thought Nabers would be "fine" for Week 1, even if his training camp availability looked more in doubt.
Weeks of work await first. Winston thinks Dart will embrace that.
"Jackson's a young superstar because he loves it," Winston told Yahoo Sports. "He's obsessed with football. He's not into all the glitz and glamor. Yes, he's swag. Yes, he's good-looking. Yes, he can play great football, but he's obsessed with this game. And I think when all those things that come with football, when you have a reverence for what the game stands for, you end up panning out to be great."
Especially, the Giants believe, if Dart can run a little more carefully.
