Jaxson Dart is a 22-year-old rookie. He’s the youngest quarterback in the NFL — and the future franchise signal-caller of the New York Giants. Through thick and thin, wins and losses, he needs to be the leader on and off the field for this perennially struggling team.
Giants fans and players got their first real look at how Dart handles adversity. Big Blue entered Week 5 riding high after securing its first win of the season — Dart’s debut. Vibes were at an all-time high after the first quarter of Sunday’s matchup against the New Orleans Saints. But then, everything came crashing down.
Related: 2 winners (and 4 losers) from Giants' brutal Week 5 meltdown vs Saints
Darius Slayton got the party started with a second-quarter fumble, opening the floodgates for everyone else and their mother to turn the football over. When it was all said and done, the G-Men turned the ball over on five consecutive drives, all but crushing any hope of a Week 5 win in NOLA. Dart was responsible for three of them, and immediately after the game, he showed what this new iteration of leadership will look like from here on out.
Jaxson Dart owns ugly loss with the kind of leadership Giants needed
When he met with the media, Dart summed it up in five words: “This one is on me.”
And for the most part, he’s right. He’s the quarterback of the team, and that comes with the territory of being responsible for wins and losses. It’s a heavy crown to wear, but one he seems willing and able to bear. He followed with a longer postgame reflection that showed maturity beyond his years:
"I'm the leader of the offense, so i think that any time those things happen it falls back on the leaders. I take that responsibility and I'm going to continue to have conversations with the guys, and we're going to clean that stuff up."Jaxson Dart on loss to Saints
Own it. Learn from it. Get better. Move on. It's exactly what Giants fans need from the future of the franchise right now.
Dart finished the game 26-of-40 for 202 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions, and a lost fumble. After not turning the ball over in Week 4 against the Chargers — and rarely doing so at Ole Miss — this felt more like a “welcome to the NFL” game than anything else.
Fortunately, he won’t have too much time to let it fester — regardless of how badly the Saints’ social media team wants it to linger. It’s a short week, and Thursday night brings the Philadelphia Eagles to MetLife in primetime. There’s no better time to shrug off the loss and call it what it was: a bad game.
Dart’s going to be responsible for a few more losses — hopefully accompanied by a lot more wins. Regardless, this rookie’s got moxie and the mindset to be the guy. Now he just needs the full support from the team to get there.