To play the rookie quarterback, or not to play the rookie quarterback, that is the question. Literally. It’s the biggest question surrounding the New York Giants’ 2025 season. And no matter how many 450-yard games Russell Wilson has, Jaxson Dart’s status remains the biggest storyline.
Big Blue has been exercising patience with the 22-year-old, much like how several other teams did with their star QBs when they began. But impatience runs rampant in the NFL, and few teams let their shiny first-round signal-callers sit on the sideline. Every situation is different, but it used to be that the rookie would sit behind the veteran and wait their turn. Not anymore.
The G-Men are playing the waiting game with the 25th-overall pick, seemingly because it worked out for offensive coordinator Mike Kafka when he was coaching Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City. The only glaring problem is that the Giants are not the Chiefs. Brian Daboll is not Andy Reid. And Dart is not Mahomes — even if he waits his turn, just like the modern-day GOAT did.
Giants giving Jaxson Dart the Patrick Mahomes rookie treatment
Dart finally got his first NFL snaps in Sunday’s contest against the Dallas Cowboys. It wasn’t much — two plays — but it gave a quick glimpse into what the future could look like in New York. The plan is to continue sideline duty until the game slows down enough and he’s ready.
Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to mind the sideline. When speaking with ESPN, the former Ole Miss standout had an interesting perspective:
"It's fun because I'm able to take time to watch those other quarterbacks around the league and kind of see the things that they do at a really high level," Dart said.
When he’s not on the sideline, he’s running the scout team offense — moonlighting as Jayden Daniels, Dak Prescott, even Mahomes. Which will matter this week, when the two 0-2 teams meet on Sunday Night Football.
Still, Dart can sit like Mahomes and run the scout team as Mahomes, but there’s a massive difference between the two — and it’s not even about talent. It’s about culture and identity.
Kafka told ESPN that Mahomes benefited from more than just watching Alex Smith play — he picked up on how he prepared during the week, studied film, handled game plans, and managed his body, then adapted those habits for himself. The OC sees a similar setup with Dart, pointing to Wilson and Jameis Winston’s combined 288 starts as a built-in advantage.
He even went as far as to say the Giants rookie is lucky: "He doesn't know how lucky he is," Kafka said of having both veterans as mentors.
But therein lies the problem.
When Mahomes took over for Smith, the Chiefs had Andy Reid as their head coach. By then, he’d had 14 years of experience with the Eagles and four more in Kansas City, where he made the playoffs in every season but one. That’s a wildly different setup from what New York has.
So while it’s easy to say that because it worked with Mahomes, and Kafka saw it happen, that it’ll happen again, that kind of assumption skips over a mountain of nuance.
The case for waiting is strong. Tom Brady, Lamar Jackson, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Tony Romo, Jordan Love, and Mahomes all waited and thrived. On the other hand, Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels, C.J. Stroud, and Matthew Stafford started immediately and seem to be doing just fine.
It all boils down to situation, culture, and identity. The G-Men are one of the most lost franchises in football, with seemingly no end in sight. So while Jaxson Dart might be lucky to sit behind two veteran QBs, he’d be luckier if he weren’t doing it in the middle of a clown show.
Mike Kafka is saying all the right things. And yes, the waiting game might be the smart way to play Dart’s development. But the failure to recognize how wildly different this environment is from Kansas City is more than just an oversight — it’s a warning sign. And unless something changes fast, that “Patrick Mahomes rookie treatment” might not end in the same fairytale.