What do Bryce Young, Cam Ward, C.J. Stroud, Bo Nix, and Trevor Lawrence all have in common? None of them ranked ahead of Jaxson Dart and the New York Giants in Christopher Kline’s quarterback room rankings.
Show of hands if anyone had the Dart-led G-Men beating all of them and landing 18th in the rankings. Yeah, didn’t think so. Operating in the trust tree, I didn't either. Sure, the 22-year-old showed some promise as a rookie, but having him ahead of guys like Nix and Lawrence was surprising.
Granted, having Famous Jameis Winston as the backup doesn't hurt, but as Kline said in his criteria, it was about "factoring in depth while also understanding that the best quarterbacks win championships and backups, in a perfect world, never need to play." That tells you how much he’s buying into the former Ole Miss star, which says a lot about how he views Dart:
"New York has escaped the Russell Wilson cloud and has a bright future ahead with Jaxson Dart and John Harbaugh teaming up. ... If Dart can keep his head out of harm's way, however, his natural gifts stack up with the best young QBs in football.
Jameis Winston, for all his faults, is probably better than a few QB1s around the league, too. He has turned into a real mentor to Dart and he can produce when called upon."
Jaxson Dart single-handedly flipped these QB rankings on their head
Dart’s coming off a good, not great, rookie season. In 12 starts, he went 4-8, throwing for 2,272 yards on 63.7% completion with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions, while adding 487 yards and nine scores on the ground. He finished fourth in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting, which is funny considering the only quarterback who got more votes was Tyler Shough, whose Saints ended up 23rd in Kline’s rankings.
Now they've got John Harbaugh and Matt Nagy running the show, and they're not exactly subtle about what they want the offense to look like.
This isn’t going to be some pass-happy free-for-all where Dart’s hunting for single-season records. They'll have a more physical, smash-mouth offense, and the front office followed through with guys like Isaiah Likely and Patrick Ricard, understanding they already have guys like Dart and Cam Skattebo ready to buy all the way in.
It helps that the new HC has also bought all the way in on his QB.
It still feels early seeing the Giants QB room land that high, and that part probably isn’t going away anytime soon. But this didn’t just come out of nowhere either. Dart Vader showed enough last year to warrant the eyes, and now he’s got a setup around him that could push him further up the list.
It’s not about where they rank right now as much as why they’re even in the conversation. And for a team that couldn’t get that position right for years, that alone is a pretty big shift.