Giants fans…buckle up. The Jaxson Dart era is upon us.
The rookie QB received a vote of confidence from Coach Daboll earlier this week as he announced to the world that Dart would be the starter in Week 4 and beyond.
Let me start off by saying I am super excited to see him play, but in the same breath I am terrified. Terrified that another great player will become a victim of the Giants coaching and play calling. I pray this does not happen again because I truly do not know how much more I can take of this. Even the Jets are deploying a somewhat fun offense to watch.
The Giants just can not seem to get out of their own way. Tell me how the offense lit the world on fire in Dallas back in week 2 with a true balanced approach and solid offensive scheming, and then they come back in week 3 to drop a turd in their home opener against Kansas City? The Chiefs are the Chiefs, but also it was a very winnable game that escaped their grasp due to horrible play calling.
Week 3 was certainly better than week 1, but quite possibly the worst drive in Giants history did occur in this most recent game. During a red zone trip in the 4th quarter, the Giants found themselves down by two scores and needed to pull something off quickly. They found themselves on first down on the 14 yard line and sniffing the end zone. Russell Wilson then launched one over the end zone, followed that up with a 4 yard QB draw up the middle and then two more over thrown passes out of play.
Just absolutely pitiful.
This gross sequence of plays was just the icing on the cake in a 160-yard performance in which he got picked off twice and did not score a touchdown. This is just one week removed from a 450-yard blow-up with 3 passing touchdowns against Dallas, so there are many fans who are puzzled by the move to put Dart in for the rest of the season.
I think it is too early, to be honest. I do not like that he will face a strong Chargers team in his first game and I feel a poor performance could hurt his confidence. They play the Saints in Week 5, which is an ideal time to do this, BUT they will likely get destroyed by the Eagles in Week 6 which offsets any solid performance in New Orleans.
I know what you are thinking. Matty Wheelz, why so negative? Why not have faith?
Because faith is all I had and the Giants took that from me years ago.
Weeks 6-12 looks like this for the Giants: Eagles-Broncos-Eagles-49ers-Bears-Packers-Lions. This schedule is vicious. I would have held Dart back until Week 13 against New England and even then he would have two divisional games against the Commanders and Cowboys and a tilt with the Minnesota Vikings as well.
This schedule is tough for anyone, but a rookie?! Do they want him to fail?! Why not sacrifice Wilson for a full brutal season and let Dart start fresh next year? While this is all likely true, I can also see the other side.
If Dart is supposed to be great, he should be able to handle the challenge. If you want to be a good team, you obviously have to beat other good teams. But the Giants prove time and time again that they are not a good team. They showed a glimpse of hope in Dallas, but then fell back to where they belong in Week 3. I will also shout out Steve Spagnuolo as being the best defensive coordinator I have ever seen and acknowledge that he truly shut down everything the Giants had to offer last week, but it was still a terrible performance by Russell who just seemed lost out there and could not find a good decision to make.
Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka need to figure out the offense, and they need to do it quickly.
They have a stud in Cam Skattebo and a superstar in Malik Nabers who can be the focal points. They do not have a great offensive line, but it is at least better than recent years and have shown signs of opening up the pocket. The common denominator throughout the last decade of trash has been play calling and QB play. They cannot seem to make a playbook that suits their current quarterback’s needs. My biggest fear as a Giants fan is that they will deploy a full RPO playbook with Dart as the QB and I do not think I can bear to watch it.
Dart is a gun slinger with deadly accuracy. He can scramble to avoid pressure and even run for big yardage. He showed off his skills during an undefeated preseason as he had 347 pass yards and 3 touchdowns while rushing another TD in as well. He did not throw a single interception, and he earned a solid 113.1 QB rating. He has swagger and he has a ton of talent. The offense needs to run through him, and he needs to be given a long leash and a full green light to just launch the ball.
Maybe one day soon the Giants will realize that their play-action calls, QB and RB draws from the shotgun formation, and counter run plays have not faked out a single defender in the last decade. Go back to what won two Super Bowls under Eli’s reign. Put all the RPO and West Coast style playbooks in the nearest dumpster and start from scratch. They need to do something to make this offense productive and watchable. They had it in Week 2 and I fear we may never see it again. The Week 2 Giants unleashed a scheme that Dart would thrive in. Let it happen every game.
Another crucial factor for Dart and the Giants, in particular, is the defense. The defense needs to be better. It is a defense that has a ton of money invested in it and a solid amount of talent. Shane Bowen, the defensive coordinator, should lose his job if the defense gets dog-walked again this week. There is no aggression. There is no fire. Abdul Carter needs to be the primary edge rusher with Brian Burns, and Kayvon Thibodeaux should be the OLB. The ”bend don’t break” strategy should be thrown in the same dumpster as the offensive RPO playbook. “Bend don’t break” is a fine strategy for certain scenarios in a game, but doing this on every drive is tiresome to watch.
For too many years now, Giants fans have had to watch an endless stream of tight ends, slot receivers and running backs absolutely eviscerate them for long yardage in crucial moments. Blowing a lead to Dak Prescott and the Cowboys in under 25 seconds should have been the end of Bowen’s tenure, but it’s also the same old story for this team. This has been a problem for far too long. There is no aggression in this strategy and there is no spark. Also, it is kind of hard to deploy this strategy when you have NO LINEBACKERS. Bobby Okereke is fine, but he is in no way an elite linebacker that can carry a whole defense by himself.
The strategy should be heavily focused on ways to get their elite edge rushers on the QB every single play and in turn, the corners and safeties have to press more and stay close to the receivers. In a perfect world, nonstop QB pressure leads to sacks and rushed throws deep into coverage. If coverage is tight, they will see more turnovers. If they are “bending without breaking” in loose coverage, the escaped QB pressures will continue to result in demoralizing and brutally long yardage gains. There is enough talent in the secondary to pull it off, but they are just simply being coached poorly.
The theme of the season and the last several seasons is obviously coaching. We have seen glimpses of greatness and all we can do now is just simply hope for good results. There is nothing we can do as fans to change the strategies of the coaching staff or outcomes of the game, but we can still have hope. I may not have faith, but I still think there is a glimmer of hope in my foolish eyes. Jaxson Dart won me over big time over the offseason and preseason and while I think the switch to him may be premature and possibly dooming, I am also still very pumped to see him in action.
All I could really ask for at this point is a competitive team and one with a future. I want close games in which they are in it until the end. I want aggression on both sides of the ball and high-IQ plays across the board. I want Dart to show me that he is mentally capable of weathering the storm of an impossible schedule and below average coaching. I truly do not know what to expect, but I will be watching with a mental notepad and pen.
Let’s see what the kid has.