Detroit went 4-0 in preseason and were “contenders” in 2008. They went 0-16 in the regular season. It’s a reminder about not reading too much into these preseason contests.
The Giants won their second preseason game, putting up 30+ points for the second consecutive time. Is this fool’s gold? Las Vegas certainly doesn’t care. Wonder isn’t budging. You can place your money on Over 5.5 games and GET odds. They’re giving it away!!!!
No, they are not.
There is no free lunch. Remember the Lions.
So what’s the take- is this Giants preseason real or not? The frontline stats are there. The answer is in how the Giants are doing it.
JAXSON DART IS ON TIME.
If you want to learn about football, I will keep telling you over and over- listen to the Big Blue Banter podcast. If you spend the hour+ listening to these guys, you will get a much better understanding of not what the Giants are doing, but how they are doing it. Dan Schneier gives out the Jaxson Dart adjectives: On time. In Command. Surgical. Clinical. Poised.
That’s the how. That’s the difference between what you are doing and how you are doing it. Daboll conned everybody with a 2022 Daniel Jones spam soufflé. Daboll inherited Jones. He made the most of what he had, earning COY honors. Jones was a 1-read guy. And he wasn’t on time.
We are fighting the last battle. That’s the reference to 2019 when Daniel Jones had a good rookie preseason. After all, if Jones could look good in 2019 and end in tatters, then so can Dart, right?! We throw our hands up in the air and abstain with passive resignation. Since we technically “don’t know,” should we also ignore the analysis in front of us? That would also be wrong.
This is not a binary analysis. I’m not going to assign everything either 0 bust or 1 franchise QB to fit one of those two narratives. Just because there will always be doubts doesn’t mean we can’t acknowledge more potential confirmation now than what we had in March, April, or May.
“Football is a game of inches.” For a QB, that means you better be on time. If you’re not on time, you’re going to lose those precious inches which are the difference between success and failure.
Bill Walsh and Joe Montana made it to the Hall of Fame by being on time. “Do it again,” barked Walsh to his offense in practice, working exhaustively to be so precise with the timing during the week so that his offense could be on time on the weekend. Montana hit his receiver perfectly in stride with more frequency than the rest of the league. He was on time. This enabled YAC. The YAC generated more offense, yielding more wins and Super Bowls.
It’s the YAC. Good QBs are on time and get receptions. Great QBs are so perfectly on time that they give their receiver that extra inch for daylight YAC.
Bad QBs are slow in processing. They aren’t on time, and defenders close the gap to break up the pass. Giants fans have been living that outcome for years. We’re tired of that fate.
With the caveat that it’s too early to proclaim victory, Dart thus far is on time. His pitch screen to Theo Johnson (4:55) was one of many plays demonstrating necessary timing. By sidearming the ball, Dart got the ball to Johnson a fraction of a second faster, enabling a rumbling of 30 yards after the catch. As Dan and Nick explain, if the QB throws the ball over the head of the rushing DLman, it takes a half/second longer and defenders are able to cut off lanes more quickly.
Is this an accident? Is it lucky? Is it the Jets second stringers? Is Dart making his own luck? Are we making too much of this? My answer, again, is that it’s not binary. It’s not a choice of draft hit or draft bust at this juncture. We are trending toward hit. It’s pretty damn rare for a rookie to hit 13 consecutive passes. Let that sink in. 13 consecutive passes. Good processing. On time. Could we be getting fooled? Of course. Yet we are seeing Dart on time, in command, poised, surgical, clinical. It’s how he’s doing it that gives us greater confidence in his progress.
CJ Stroud had a tremendous rookie year. He also had a sophomore slump. Nothing is a straight line. There’s no science. There’s potential. Dart is showing potential.
In April, when the 2025 Draft concluded, we would not assign any value, positively or negatively, to Schoen drafting Dart. We heard too many mixed assessments. While we had confidence in Daboll to make an informed QB selection, it was nonetheless too hard to glean anything on Dart’s future. Yet here we are in August with training camp over, and everyone is unanimous about one thing- it’s hard to imagine Dart having had a better start to his NFL career.
Carter. Dart. Skattebo. Mbow. Fidone. All 5 of these picks are showing varying degrees of success thus far. Skattebo is hurt. The TE room is too deep for Fidone. It’s not perfect, but it’s shaping up to be a very good draft class. Whether or not that translates to wins in 2025, the prospect of two consecutive very good drafts should mean more competitiveness.