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Jaxson Dart preseason stats: Could Giants' first-round pick become 'Rookie of the Year'?
During Saturday night’s game, in the middle of the quarter, Jaxson Dart threw a screen pass to tight end Theo Johnson before returning to the sideline.
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New York Giants’ rookie Jaxson Dart is visibly levelling up his performance in every game. ESPN’s Jordan Raanan called Dart’s second Giants’ performance “even better than the first”, which has led many to question if he could potentially be the ‘Rookie of the Year’.
Jaxson Dart’s preseason performance
“Giants rookie first-round pick Jaxson Dart through two preseason games: Game 1 at Bills 12-of-19 passes, 154 passing yards, one touchdown Game 2 vs. Jets 14-of-16 passes, 137 passing yards, one passing touchdown, one rushing touchdown O interception,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter wrote on his social media account, summing up Dart’s overall performance metric for this preseason.
“Dart went 14-of-16 passing for 137 yards with a passing touchdown and another score rushing on Saturday night in his first game at MetLife Stadium against the rival New York Jets. The first-round pick completed his final 13 passes and led the Giants on a pair of touchdown drives to begin the second half of a 31-12 win,” Raanan wrote for ESPN.
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After being pushed into Saturday (August 16) night’s game in the middle of the quarter, he threw a screen pass to tight end Theo Johnson before returning to the sideline. "I was like, all right, I didn't know that I was going to go in for one play and then come back out," he told ESPN. "So I think that that's just [that] he's making up scenarios where you never know when your number's going to be called, and you got to be ready for that. He's done it in practice. So I think that that kind of taught me that I need to continue to warm up on the sideline. You just never know when things like that are going to happen."
Could Jaxson Dart be ‘Rookie of the Year’?
"Yeah, he's still got a lot to learn," coach Brian Daboll said of Dart, as reported by ESPN. "But he's growing every day. Like I said, that's why we drafted him. We spent a lot of time with him, have a lot of confidence in the young man. He's done a good job for us since he's been here in every area you could do -- off the field, on the field, leadership, moxie, intelligence, but it's early. We've played a couple preseason games against probably some vanilla looks, but he's making strides every day, and that's all you can ask of any other young player."
Despite handling a drive with the first-team offensive line late in the first half, Dart remains the No. 2 quarterback, falling behind Russell Wilson on the roster.
- With inputs from Stuti Gupta
