How The New York Giants Entered Their Jaxson Dart Era

For much of this offseason, the New York Giants defined who they wouldn’t be over the long-term plan implemented by general manager Joe Schoen.

They wouldn’t be trading for Matthew Stafford. Or Trevor Lawrence. Or any answer at quarterback they’d be tethered to beyond next season. But the work to determine who they would place their faith in continued behind the scenes — years in the making. And it bubbled to the surface on Thursday night, with the announcement, a few hours after the team selected Abdul Carter with the third overall pick, that New York had traded its second and third-round picks in 2025 — 34 and 99 overall — plus a 2026 third-round pick to Houston for the 25th overall selection, which they used on Dart.

This isn’t just the acquisition of a quarterback, and cannot be viewed through the prism of value for pick alone, though it is very much a win for the Giants on that front. It is the chance, finally, for Schoen and Brian Daboll to select and develop a player of their own at the position, after inheriting Daniel Jones from the previous regime.

“Yeah, it’s been exhausting, to be honest with you,” Schoen told reporters late Thursday night, after making the trade. “We’ve been, whether it’s here all week and then you go on the road in the fall or all the way up to Easter weekend, we’re still on the road. Credit to the coaches, my staff, the film they watch, the area scouts putting us in the correct direction on the quarterbacks to go see…

“…Credit to them. I’m glad we were able to get a guy that we’re convicted on and we like. So yeah, it’s gratifying. I’ll probably on the ride home be able to decompress, but it was pretty stressful up there the last 15, 20 minutes trying to get this done. I’ll probably reflect on it later in the day, but I’m fired up about the two players that we were able to get tonight.”

The night was already a victory for the Giants when they selected Abdul Carter with the third overall pick in the 2025 draft, another target years in the making for Schoen.

“Yeah, Abdul is one of those guys that as a true freshman jumped off the film,” Schoen told reporters. “If you’re just watching anybody against Penn State, he’s playing off the ball, he’s moving at a different speed than everybody else. So as personnel folks, you’re always, man, who’s that freshman, like the kid at Ohio State this year, that receiver [Jeremiah Smith]

, like that guy is jumping off the film already. He was one of those guys. So he was on our radar from early on in August, like, we’ve got to go see Penn State. We have to go see this guy play.”

A team which found itself in the bottom third of the NFL over the last two years in virtually every defensive metric measuring pressure on the quarterback, from knockdowns to hurries to sack percentage suddenly faced a question of just where all if its dedicated pass rushers will play, from Carter to Kayvon Thibodeaux to Brian Burns, all acquired by Schoen. In non-draft news, the Giants also announced they’d be exercising Thibodeaux’s fifth-year option.

“Kayvon is going to be here,” Schoen said. “We’re excited to have him. You can’t have enough pass rushers. Between those guys coming off the edge, Dex (Dexter Lawrence) in the middle, Nacho (Rakeem Nunez-Roches) , Roy Robertson-Harris, I’m excited about the D-line. We added (Jeremiah) Ledbetter, Chauncey Golston. So we’re turning the corner where there’s some depth at some of these positions, and that will really help us. I’m excited about the group.”

But the real wager the Giants made came later in the night. And for all the criticism New York took for its empty quarterbacks room back in the winter — the Giants, correctly, surmised that there weren’t any games on the schedule until September, and took their time — it is now filled to capacity, with Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston and Dart, plus Tommy DeVito, who is going to have a real challenge making this 53-man roster.

Wisely, Daboll put any quarterback controversy to bed, asserting that Dart is not here to play right away.

“Russ (Russell Wilson) will be our starter, and that’s how it’ll be once we get started here in the spring,” Daboll told reporters Thursday night. “Look, the process of developing a quarterback is just that. So we’re going to do everything we can to develop him and bring him along. We have some good quarterbacks in the room relative to play time, experience, some medals on the wall, if you will. They’ve done a great job here these first four days. It’s really early, phase one, but the two of those guys that we’ve added have added a lot of value already to the room in terms of leadership and communication…Young player, I think he’s got a good skill set, and look forward to developing it with him.”

For all the questions about just what the timetable looks like for the Giants, following owner John Mara’s comments right after the season, the roster that’s been assembled at least provides a framework for a multi-year process. Truly, there’s no record in 2025 which should change that. If the Giants are 3-14 again, but there are improvements on the defensive side of the ball, Malik Nabers continues to build on his rookie success, offensive pieces like Tyrone Tracy Jr. and Theo Johnson settle in at running back and tight end, and the team finally finds some answers on the offensive line — Evan Neal holding down a spot at guard would help a lot — there’s absolutely no reason to start again, especially as doing so would put a new leadership team in the same position Schoen and Daboll found themselves, making the best of a roster assembled by another set ov evaluators.

Of course, if even some of those things happen, it is hard to imagine New York finishing 3-14 once more. But to their credit, both Schoen and Daboll stressed that this is merely the beginning of a new offensive plan. It is hard to imagine they would have the luxury of saying this publicly if they hadn’t received assurances from ownership that the Giants, to the very top, realize that for all the struggles of the past two seasons, this is not a team at the win-or-bust part of the success cycle.

None of it matters, though, if they didn’t get the quarterback right. So there’s a whole lot riding on Jaxson Dart now — including the future of Schoen and Daboll, and really, the chances for New York to be more competitive during the back half of the 2020s than they have been on the front half.

“I’d say there’s a process, too, when he gets here in terms of developing this player,” Daboll said of Dart. “I don’t expect him to know everything right off the bat. It’s a hard position to play, a hard position to coach. But he has the traits that we look for and covet in a guy to be able to learn and grow.”