Giants say Jaxson Dart will play when “the time’s right or the circumstance is right”
As many times as he had to confirm it during the spring, New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll confirmed again on Wednesday that there will be no controversy over or competition for the team’s Week 1 starting quarterback job.
“Russ is our starter,” Daboll said before the first practice of training camp, once again indicating that rookie first-round pick Jaxson Dart is not competing to unseat Russell Wilson as the season-opening starter.
Daboll did leave the door open for Dart, selected 25th in the draft by the Giants after a trade up from No. 34 with the Houston Texans, to win the No. 2 job. In addition to Wilson and Dart, the Giants also signed veteran quarterback Jameis Winston this offseason and still have Tommy DeVito on the 90-man roster.
“We’re going to go out here, we’re going to practice, guys are going to compete and the roster will be set when the roster’s set,” Daboll said. “Our goal right now is just to improve each person every day and we’ll take it from there.”
Dart’s development is, of course, of paramount importance to the future of the franchise.
“I think it’s important for all the players to develop. That’s what this time of year is for,” Daboll said. “For all young players … it’s really every young player, our goal is to develop those guys and when they’re called upon, be ready to go.”
The Giants do not have a timetable for when — or if — Dart will play this season.
“Going through the process, we have Mike Kafka on the staff obviously as our offensive coordinator. He was in Kansas City with Patrick Mahomes. I think he played one game at the end of the year. So we’ve seen that,” said GM Joe Schoen. ‘Our plan in Buffalo was for Josh (Allen) to probably not play much his first year, but the way it worked out, halftime of the first game, we got blown out by Baltimore and we put him in and he played the rest of the year.
“I think there’s some real benefits from sitting and learning specifically from some of the guys in the room that have the experience that they have. But if the coaching staff at some point feels it’s right and he’s ready, then I’ll leave that up to them.”
Asked how he would know when Dart is ready to play, Schoen deferred to the head coach.
“That’s probably more of a question for him (Daboll). I’ll lean on him for that,” Schoen said. “We’ve got a really good offensive staff and when they feel he’s ready, the time’s right or the circumstance is right, then we’ll have those conversations.”
Unofficially, Wilson was 8 of 14 with a pair of touchdown passes as the Giants did 11 on 11 drills in the red zone on Wednesday. Dart was just 2 of 5, throwing a pick six to Nic Jones on his first pass of training camp.