Jaxson Dart is no Saint.<\/p>\n
But he thought there was a chance he would be after he left his predraft meetings in New Orleans.<\/p>\n
The Giants and Saints were among the most quarterback-needy teams entering the 2025 draft, and Dart was one of the main prizes of the class. Dart hasn\u2019t forgotten the perceived slight after the Saints passed on him with the No. 9 pick \u2014 choosing left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. \u2014 as he prepares to lead the Giants into the Superdome on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there is always a chip on your shoulder any time that something like that happens,\u201d Dart said after Wednesday\u2019s practice, the first before his second career start. \u201cI\u2019m just going to go play as hard as I can.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like my visit with [the Saints] went good, so you kind of have thoughts in your head during the draft of what options are realistic, and I definitely feel like that was a place that could\u2019ve panned out. But things didn\u2019t work out that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the night of April 24, the Giants had trusted intel that the Steelers were not going to draft a quarterback at No. 20. But then all bets were off.<\/p>\n
Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart answers questions from reporters after football practice, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. Noah K. Murray-NY Post<\/p>\n
As general manager Joe Schoen paced the draft room looking to move up from No. 34, he told his brain trust that he was specifically wary about trades the Browns (No. 33 and No. 36) and Saints (No. 40) might make into the 20s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard because you are trying to come up with what other teams are going to do,\u201d Schoen said on \u201cGiants Life.\u201d \u201cYou assume everybody has their board like yours. You like a player, you are assuming everyone else likes him. That\u2019s definitely not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was lots of buzz in scouting circles connecting the Saints and Dart. One of Schoen\u2019s mentors, former Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland, is a Saints executive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Saints brought Dart in for multiple meetings, and Dart felt like he built \u201cgood relationships\u201d with head coach Kellen Moore and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
But nothing compared to the rapport he built with Giants head coach Brian Daboll, whose job security could ride on Dart\u2019s rookie development<\/a>. After Dart led an 89-yard touchdown drive on the opening possession of last week\u2019s upset win against the Chargers, Daboll turned to the crowd, pumped his first and yelled \u201cThat\u2019s our f\u2013king guy!\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI love it here,\u201d Dart said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a place I\u2019d rather be. I love how passionate people are here outside of the facility, within the facility. I like the attitude the East Coasters have here.\u201d<\/p>\n Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart (6) reacts after scoring a touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers during the first quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. AP<\/p>\n Dart is displaying a little New York-minded toughness this week as he practices with tape around his left leg at the start of practice and a compression sleeve at the end \u2014 the result of soreness from nine quarterback hits behind the line of scrimmage and tackles at the end of his 10 carries.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the sacks I took were some of the biggest ones hit-wise that I could\u2019ve avoided,\u201d Dart said. \u201cA lot of them in the open field were on third down. I\u2019m not going to slide before the sticks. I don\u2019t really regret any of those decisions. \u2026 I\u2019ll be good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n The Giants had predraft trade parameters in place with the Chargers (No. 22), but that deal fell apart when running back Omarion Hampton slid further than expected into San Diego\u2019s arms.\u00a0<\/p>\n Saints quarterback Tyler Shough (6) drops back in the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025. AP<\/p>\n Schoen executed a trade with the Texans (No. 25) to get Dart while on the other phone line with Rams general manager Les Snead, who was picking No. 26 and feared internally to be eyeing Dart.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought he was a top 10 pick,\u201d ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky told The Post. \u201cHe was asked to do a lot of difficult things at Ole Miss. He knows the \u2018why\u2019 of the plays. Once you know \u2018why,\u2019 if you don\u2019t get what you thought [defensively] when you called that play, then you know what the problem is.\u201d<\/p>\n Post-draft reports indicated that the Saints had Tyler Shough \u2014 a seventh-year senior \u2014 graded ahead of Dart. Shough fell into their hands at No. 40 and is their backup behind Spencer Rattler \u2014 a second-year pro with an 0-10 career record.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Giants hosted Shough for a visit, conducted a private workout and sent a contingent including Schoen to his pro day at Louisville.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s a good player, has good athleticism,\u201d Daboll said of Shough. \u201cHe has his own story and his own journey, but I had good visits with him leading up to the draft. I think very highly of him.\u201d<\/p>\n But Dart was identified as the Giants future then. And he is the present now.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just one game,\u201d Dart said. \u201cOur expectation is to win every game. You can\u2019t make it bigger than what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jaxson Dart is no Saint. But he thought there was a chance he would be after he left…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":270532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,12949,9004,405,403,4716,5226,5225,1232,21577,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-270531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-jaxson-dart","10":"tag-new-orleans-saints","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-giants","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-nfl-draft-2025","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115301752989904722","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}