Why wait? Giants have plenty of reasons to turn to Jaxson Dart as QB1 after Russell Wilson’s 2025 debut

Way back at the start of the 2025 NFL offseason, New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen vowed to “look under every rock” to address the quarterback position. Now it’s time for him to look under the right one.

Russell Wilson was the Giants’ signal-caller for Sunday’s opener against the Washington Commanders. That was always the plan. Or at least as soon as Wilson inked a one-year, $10.5 million contract in March. And yet, exactly one game into Wilson’s tenure as the 2025 starter, it’s already quite apparent the Giants would be better served handing the keys to the man behind him.

That’s right: It’s Jaxson Dart time.

Why the rush? The better question is: Why not? The Giants are 0-1, which means they’re now 18-33-1 under coach Brian Daboll and 52-99-1 over the last decade. You’d have to be wholly ignorant to think this franchise isn’t absolutely desperate for a spark. You’d also have to be at least mildly ignorant to believe this version of Wilson, at the ripe age of 36, is capable of providing that.

He may be a seasoned pro. He may be an unfairly maligned leader. He may have been one of the NFL’s great dual threats at the peak of his powers. But this is Year 14 for Wilson in the NFL. The last time he went to back-to-back Pro Bowls, Eli Manning had just retired as the Giants’ quarterback, and Joe Judge was freshly installed atop New York’s staff. There’s a reason he got $10.5 million, not $35 million, to lead the G-Men this year; he was always destined to be a floor-raising placeholder.

Here’s the issue: The floor keeps getting lower for Wilson. He was once, for a long while, genuinely heroic for the Seattle Seahawks. He was slower and out of place with the Denver Broncos. And then, as a one-year Band-Aid for the Pittsburgh Steelers, he truly showed his age, missing the start of the year due to injury and then finishing it sluggishly. On Sunday, wearing blue for the first time, the trend continued. He completed 46% of his throws. He led an offense that averaged 3.7 yards per play. He didn’t get the Giants into the end zone. The unit he captained had star wide receiver Malik Nabers visibly upset.

It’d be one thing if Wilson was all the Giants’ had. Or if he were the 22-year-old prospect learning on the fly. Neither of those things are true. Wilson was supposed to be the low-risk “safe bet.” The guy to keep the Giants above water and maybe, just maybe, further unlock Nabers and afford Daboll and Schoen a bit of much-needed job security in the process. If he can’t even so much as move the Giants’ offense against, say, a Commanders team without anything resembling an all-world secondary, let alone complete half his passes with Nabers at his disposal, then maybe he’s not the safest bet at all?

And then there’s the heir apparent himself.

Dart may or may not be the answer in New York. But he’s got a few things going for him: No. 1 being that he’s not Wilson. That sounds like a demonstrative condemnation of Wilson as a player and/or person, but it really isn’t. These are just two different quarterbacks at two very different stages of their respective careers. And Dart being an unknown is precisely the reason the Giants should be interested in unveiling him on a real NFL stage. He was good enough at Ole Miss to prompt New York to move up in the first round of April’s draft and make him a first-round pick. He was good enough in a busy preseason to leapfrog veteran Jameis Winston as the Giants’ top backup behind Wilson. He’s almost certainly good enough to get another promotion.

Daboll hasn’t been shy about his affection for Dart as the potential future of the franchise. The fact he wouldn’t overtly commit to Wilson as the indefinite starter after Sunday’s game, and the fact reports leaked prior to kickoff that New York already has plans to utilize Dart-specific offensive packages, means the Giants are already down this road in their minds. Naming Dart the No. 2 for 2025, despite the rookie never taking an official NFL snap, was a chance to fast-track Daboll’s handpicked arm for real work. Wilson opening perhaps his final NFL season with a whimper only gives the Giants more reason to accelerate their plans.

Former NFL cornerback Bryant McFadden argued as much on CBS Sports HQ after Sunday’s opener.

“If you’re Brian Daboll, I don’t know how long you can just sit and watch what we watched today,” McFadden said. “When you have concerns with the offensive line, it’s imperative to have a potential playmaker at the quarterback position — a guy who can extend plays, buy a little time to help the offensive linemen out. You can say whatever you wanna say about Daniel Jones and what did not work out when he was there in New York. One thing he did do was extend plays when given the opportunity … [But Wilson] is a sitting duck. … This could really tear up the locker room if changes are not made sooner rather than later.”

So in essence, there are two paths forward for the Giants and Wilson: Either the latter turns a corner in a hurry, rediscovering some mobility or efficiency in his second game running New York’s offense. Or the mere promise of something different — in this case a spunky 22-year-old fresh off a hefty preseason workload — proves too big to ignore for Big Blue.