It’s only training camp, but things just feel different this time around for the New York Giants. There’s an energy fans haven’t seen or felt in years. Since the offseason began, Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll implemented a plan, stuck to it religiously, and it’s yielding immediate results.
Related: Biggest winners and losers from electric first week of Giants training camp
Camp has been going well so far. The team is just over a week into the program, but there’s been a lot to like. Evan Neal looks reborn at guard. The receivers look dangerous. Abdul Carter looks like the clear frontrunner for Defensive Rookie of the Year. And fellow first-rounder Jaxson Dart has had his moments as well.
Dart’s been making throws and impressing the staff, but no throw has been more impressive than his practice-ending back-shoulder fade on Tuesday to Lil’Jordan Humphrey for six:
WHAT A THROW FROM JAXSON DART
— Marshall Green (@MarshallGreen_) July 29, 2025
video: @MadelynBurke pic.twitter.com/MmynUyHDOC
Everything about that throw was electric. But it’s Daboll’s comments before practice Thursday that made the pass even more impressive. When speaking to the media, the head coach admitted he had nothing to do with the play. That was all his rookie signal-caller, which will only fire fans up even more.
Jaxson Dart aces first Brian Daboll test at Giants training camp
Daboll explained that he turned off all headset communication to his rookie QB, practicing situational football and simulating what would happen if it were a real game. He admitted the touchdown pass was a play Dart called on his own... no help from Dabs.
Let’s overreact. That is so awesome and not what was expected. Dart was viewed as a developmental project, but this suggests he's miles ahead. The fact that the 22-year-old is already aware enough to install a red zone play on his own with no coaching communication says everything fans need to know about his future. Because that’s what this is — it’s for the future.
Immediately after the G-Men selected Dart, Daboll made it obvious that Wilson was going to be the starter. And for anyone who thought Dabs might go back on his word, he reiterated the same exact story on the first day of training camp. Dart is not starting Week 1.
And he shouldn’t. That wasn’t the plan. The plan was for him to take as much time as he needed to learn and develop, and grow under Wilson and Jameis Winston. But if this is what he’s doing in just half an offseason, imagine how much more he’ll improve playing the waiting game.
It’s plays like the Dart-Humphrey draw-up that will get this fanbase up in the morning. Because, as great as the defense is with its new additions, this team will only go as far as the quarterback can take it. Looking back over the past decade or so, they just haven’t had a reason to believe. Dart’s back-shoulder fade touchdown just bucked that trend.
This might’ve been the first moment in a long time where Giants fans felt like the future’s finally worth betting on.