Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon put Jaxson Dart in the kind of company that tells you exactly where the conversation around the Giants has gone. Even with only 12 starts as a rookie, Dart is already being treated like one of the NFL’s franchise centerpieces, and Gagnon wrote that the second-year quarterback has “become the face of the franchise” while noting there is still plenty left to prove.
That idea won’t exactly shock Giants fans.
New York has spent the offseason building the offense around No. 6, making a series of moves to give him the best possible setup to throw to and hand the ball off to. The message is hard to miss: the Giants have already committed to Dart as the future, and they’re acting like it.
That’s a big shift for a franchise that spent years searching for the next answer after Eli Manning. Daniel Jones was supposed to be that guy for a while, but the fit never fully took hold.
Tommy DeVito had his moments, too, though that always felt more like the charm of a local favorite than a true long-term plan. Dart is different.
He’s the first quarterback since Manning who feels like he has a real claim on the job.
The Giants are betting that this is the start of something bigger, with John Harbaugh brought in to get the most out of No. 6. On paper, it looks like a team trying to move from being a punching bag to a boxer.
Dart gave them plenty to like in his rookie season, even with both Cam Skattebo and Malik Nabers going down with injuries. In a perfect world, both would be healthy for 2026, but that’s not always how it works.
Gagnon’s praise came with a warning attached, though. Twelve starts do not erase the questions that still hang over a 23-year-old quarterback, no matter how encouraging the early signs have been. Recognition brings pressure, and Dart is about to feel plenty of it.
This season should tell the story one way or the other. Dart could push the Giants back to the playoffs for the second time since the Wild Card loss in 2016, or the dream version of this roster could stay just that - a dream.
For now, the reality is simple: the Giants have built this team around Dart, and Bleacher Report just said out loud what a lot of fans were already thinking.
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Sauls late-season run gave the Giants reason to believe they already had a steady answer in place, but Zvadas early showing made this a lot less settled than it looked a few weeks ago. The real separator may not come until training camp and preseason games, when the Giants finally get a longer look at which leg holds up best under pressure. [Read more 🡒]