There might not have been a more annoying 2025 Draft Day trend than that of what the New York Giants were going to do at quarterback. Could they weasel their way into the Cam Ward sweepstakes at No. 1? Would they really draft Shedeur Sanders at No. 3? Can they wait on developmental prospects like Jaxson Dart and Tyler Shough until later?
Fortunately for Giants fans, the team went full-on conviction mode and traded up with the Houston Texans to get the 25th overall pick, which turned into Dart. And I've been making Star Wars-related puns ever since.
It’s so much more than just Big Blue getting Dart Vader -- it’s that they stole him from other quarterback-needy teams that overthought everything on draft night. They got outfoxed. Admitting you got it wrong isn't exactly a party, but it happens, and owning up to it makes the world a better place.
Which brings us to SNY’s Connor Hughes, who took a look at Year 1 of the Dart experience with input from sources around the league, and let’s just say one source in particular is having a hard time coping with their decision to talk themselves out of him:
"Before the draft, I thought he was someone who was worth a shot. Now, I wish we had (got him)."AFC source
How to downplay passing up on a potential generational talent 101.
Jaxson Dart has one team in its feels looking back at draft night
Pour one out for the team that talked itself out of the best quarterback in the class last year. Thoughts and prayers.
One team’s overthinking is another’s next franchise quarterback, and that has to sting. It’s clear the 22-year-old is something special. He finished his rookie campaign, finishing fourth in Rookie of the Year voting after throwing for 2,272 yards on 63.7% completion percentage for 15 touchdowns to five interceptions, adding 487 yards and nine scores on the ground.
Coming out of Ole Miss, he was viewed as a fringe first-round talent with a long road of development ahead and a relatively low ceiling. Teams saw a QB in an unlikely-to-translate-to-the-pros Lane Kiffin offense, which sounds pretty foolish now.
My read from the AFC source is that there was a desire to take a signal-caller in the draft, and they did -- it just turned out to be the wrong one. Let me play detective here and see if I can suss out which team (probably one of several) is stuck wondering what could have been.
In total, 14 rookie QBs were selected in the 2025 Draft. Nine of them landed with AFC teams. We can rule out the Titans with Cam Ward, the Texans with Graham Mertz, and the Dolphins with Quinn Ewers, leaving the Browns, Raiders, Colts, and Steelers.
Vegas has the No. 1 pick and is taking Indiana signal-caller Fernando Mendoza in this year’s draft, so it’s unlikely they’re losing sleep over passing on Dart now. And with Daniel Jones entrenched as the starter in Indy -- a lot to unpack there -- but they’re probably feeling fine, so they’re out too.
That leaves the Browns and the Steelers.
Sanders earned a totally (il)-legitimate Pro Bowl nod in his first season in Ohio, and with Deshaun Watson potentially getting the nod this year after being healthy for what feels like the first time in a century, I’m willing to bet they (nonsensically) feel pseudo-okay about passing on Dart. That leaves the Stillers as my final guess for Guess Who Reluctantly Passed on Jaxson Dart edition.
With no Aaron Rodgers fallback plan, Pittsburgh is right back in the same quarterback mess it’s been in since Ben Roethlisberger retired in 2021. You hate to see it. They took Oregon DT Derrick Harmon 21st -- four spots ahead of Dart -- and got next to nothing out of him in Year 1. With Rodgers’ retirement looming and no clear path forward, the terrible towels feel more like a reflection of the decisions they’ve made than anything opponents should be worried about.
If that anonymous quote is any indication, they’re probably not the only ones.