At the end of the day, Jaxson Dart’s debut was a success. The Giants beat the previously undefeated Chargers 21-18, and the team definitely seemed to play with more urgency on both sides of the ball.
Dart’s performance was somewhat of a mixed bag, however.
By the way, that’s okay. He’s a rookie making his NFL debut. No one should have expected him to come out and be Dan Marino right away. And Brian Daboll didn’t ask him to do too much through the air. Instead, the Giants leaned on RPOs, play-action, and some quick game.
But there is plenty that Dart needs to clean up moving forward.
We’ll start with the positives. Dart was able to lean on his legs throughout the afternoon on Sunday, and he was effective doing so. Sometimes that came on the scramble and sometimes that came on designed runs.
On this first example from the Giants’ opening drive, you can see how Dart made something happen on a broken play.
This was supposed to be a play-action fake toss to the right, but running back Devin Singletary had to come off the fake to pick up a blitz from the left. The EMOL (end man on the line of scrimmage) to the right didn’t widen or hesitate since there was now no fake with the running back, and he was able to close quickly as a result. With the play disrupted, Dart made the quick decision to use his legs:
He turned a potential negative play into a 9-yard gain there.
Later in the drive, Daboll dialed up a great play-call. This was a pass-run option. Dart had a stick concept to his left or the option to keep it and follow lead blocker Cam Skattebo up the middle:
Spreading out the formation left a 6-man box. Dart would read this linebacker:
If he went with the #3 receiver’s route, the middle would be open for the run. If he stayed inside, Dart could throw one of the two routes to the left.
Post-snap, that linebacker moved out of the box to take the #3 receiver. That told Dart to keep the ball, and he took it in for a touchdown:
You can see it again from the end-zone angle. Watch that linebacker widen to take #3, which parted the seas for Dart:
That’s a great concept with a simple read, which is exactly what you want in a quarterback’s NFL debut. Great job by Daboll and Dart there.
On this 3rd-and-6 on the Giants’ next drive, Dart once again used his legs to create a completion when nothing was there.
Watch him look left, look to the #2 receiver to his right, and then look to #1. With no one open, he fled the pocket and then made a good throw on the run for the first down:
I liked Dart’s internal clock on that play. You don’t want to hold the ball for too long from your own end zone. He quickly processed that none of his 3 receivers were open, so he got out of harm’s way.
Here are a couple more examples of Dart using his legs to create. This first one was an 11-yard gain on a 3rd-and-10:
On this next play, Dart made one read, saw the safety come down to take it away, and then took off once he saw daylight:
Dart’s got some good athleticism and ability as a runner. He isn’t quite Josh Allen, but his ability to make plays with his legs got him by in this one.
He also showed some proficiency in the quick-passing game. This was where he was most comfortable in college. And you could see on Sunday that he’s got a natural sense for where to go with the ball and how to make snap decisions:
By and large, however, the Giants’ passing attack was not impressive on Sunday. Sure, it didn’t help that Malik Nabers tore his ACL midway through the game, but the simplified passing attack didn’t really challenge the Chargers Defense. And Giants receivers didn’t consistently win their 1-on-1’s.
Dart also left some plays and yards on the field, and a big reason for that was his footwork. Dart’s feet were all over the place at the top of his drops and while moving in the pocket, and it cost him at times.
You could see it on his very first pass of the game: