Jaxson Dart Has a Bright Future, But He Needs to Clean Up These Two Areas of His Game

Jaxson Dart’s rookie season was a promising one for the Giants. He finished with an impressive 24 total touchdowns and just 7 turnovers and showed potential from his first start to his last.

The things that stand out about Dart’s game are his toughness, feel, and the fact that he has so many ways that he can beat a defense.

However, every area that can be considered a strength of his also needs more refinement. He is one of the most interesting quarterbacks to keep an eye on because he is capable of taking off and becoming a star. But he is also capable of stagnating due to some bad habits and his overall style of play.

The way he develops over the next couple of years will be critical.

Below, I take a deep dive into the two key areas that Dart needs to clean up in order to take the next step.

He Has to Clean up His Feet

The biggest issue to Dart’s game isn’t his desire to mix it up and take too many unnecessary hits (although that is an issue). It’s his feet in the pocket.

Too often, Dart will unnecessarily throw from off balanced positions, impacting his accuracy.

He often drifts back as he drops instead of precisely dropping back and syncing up his footwork with the timing of his receivers’ routes.

Sometimes, he won’t even set his feet at the top of his drop. This prevents him from being ready to make throws at the intermediate level, and that leaves lots of opportunities on the field as you’ll see below.

This was Dart’s first pass attempt in his first start. I’m not sure why he felt the need to throw a fade-away jumper:

On this next throw, I like that he at least stayed in the pocket and kept his vision downfield, but he completely lost his throwing base as he moved and ended up making an inaccurate pass as a result:

Both of those plays came during his first start. So maybe he had some NFL-debut jitters. But he did much of the same thing throughout the season, as you could see on this next throw during a Week 15 game against the Commanders. Note the huge pocket and absence of pressure. Yet his feet were all over the place:

7-yard runs are nice. 20-yard completions are better. From the sideline angle, take a look at the receiver on the outside to his right, which would have been Dart’s second read and a relatively easy completion: