No. 1 draft pick Jaxson Dart will make his NFL debut on Sunday when the Giants host the 3–0 Chargers at MetLife Stadium. Brian Daboll made the decision Tuesday to go with Dart after Russell Wilson struggled against the Chiefs on Sunday night.
In April, I examined this year’s group of rookie quarterbacks with the help of nine QB-adjacent offensive coaches from nine different teams, and it wasn’t good news.
“I don’t think the class is very good,” said one AFC assistant coach. “I think it’s a lot like the 2022 class, with maybe the exception of Cam Ward. But he’s gonna go first overall. And if you put him in last year’s class, he’s sixth or seventh [overall] for me.”
So far, the early returns on Ward haven’t been good. He’s completing 54.5% of his passes with two touchdowns, one interception and a 71.4 passer rating for the winless Titans.
But the reference point of 2022 isn’t a great one. And yet, after teams picked Kenny Pickett, Desmond Ridder, Malik Willis, Matt Corral, Bailey Zappe, Sam Howell, Chris Oladokun and Skylar Thompson, somehow, the 49ers struck it big, selecting Brock Purdy with the final pick, at No. 262.
So, there’s plenty of time for Ward to show he was worthy of the No. 1 pick, as well as for Dart, who we will examine in this scouting report leading up to the draft.
Jaxson Dart scouting report
Size: 6' 2¼", 223 pounds
Traits comp: Baker Mayfield with less arm
Dart started games as a true freshman at USC, then transferred and started the past three years at Ole Miss—and, as such, there were some preconceived notions for the coaches on what a guy coming out of two spread offenses would be like. But, over time, a few of the guys I talked to had really warmed up to the 21-year-old.
“I wrote down Baker Mayfield watching him,” said an AFC coordinator. “He plays smart, instinctive. The more I watched, the more I found myself liking him more and more. I don’t think I had a great idea of what to expect, but I kept liking what I was seeing and writing down the positives. I think the guy can freaking play.”
The biggest misconception that started to crumble was the idea that Lane Kiffin had him exclusively running a simplistic, rudimentary spread offense. Kiffin, over Dart’s three years running the show, started to move the offense back to his own West Coast roots, and it looked to coaches like it was because he had a quarterback who could handle it. “I can see that,” said another AFC coordinator. “Some old-school West Coast concepts that he hadn’t run with his previous quarterbacks.”
“I was struggling with Dart big-time; I think he’s probably a backup. His arm is O.K.; he has just enough athleticism.”An NFC coordinator
And, at least on tape, he responded by evolving as a quarterback. In the types of spots where coaches saw Shedeur Sanders bailing out of the back of the pocket, they saw Dart climbing through it, with his eyes downfield. They also, by the end, caught him manipulating defenses.
“There are a couple of clips that come to mind where he uses his eyes to move a zone defender,” said the first coordinator. “He knows the guy is looking at him, so he takes advantage of that—it’s pretty high-level stuff.”
Now, where the Mayfield comparison breaks down a bit—which is evident in the fact that four different coaches raised this point independently of one another—concerns physical ability. While Dart has a similar shorter, stout build to the Buccaneers quarterback, and a lot of play-style parallels, he lacks Mayfield’s howitzer arm. And that’s where the questions with Dart really take off, in whether he has the physical traits to ascend to be an above-average NFL starter.
“I was struggling with Dart big-time; I think he’s probably a backup,” said an NFC coordinator. “I had a hard time seeing him as a guy you can build around. His arm is O.K.; he has just enough athleticism. That offense, Lane does a good job getting the quarterback clean looks. But any time he had to progress, and feel the pocket close and make tough throws out of a tight pocket, I didn’t see it. … I don’t see the physical ability.”
And even if there has been evolution in Kiffin’s offense, which Charlie Weis Jr. coordinates at Ole Miss, there will still be an adjustment from a QB-friendly college scheme. “To his credit, it’s not an easy offense to run, how Lane was running it,” said a third AFC coordinator. “But then what are you trying to do with him if he’s going to play right away? He has very few plays under center in play-action.”
There were also, in the words of a fourth AFC coordinator, “some bad decisions in big moments—a really bad interception against Florida, which I think is part of the package, in that he’s got some gamer to him.” But, overall, there’s a guy here who seems to be a Day 2-ish talent who’ll get pushed up a bit by the quality [or lack thereof] of the class.
“He’s still not a natural thrower, there’s some stiffness, and he was a wing-T quarterback in high school,” said an NFC quarterbacks coach. “But he throws with anticipation, generally puts the ball in good spots, he’s a good athlete, big kid, tough. I think he’d be a good pick if you have a guy that’s just O.K. He’s not [Michael) Penix in terms of arm talent. But good touch, anticipation. I see Baker in the instincts, the intermediate game. I like Jaxson. He’d probably be my top guy behind Ward.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jaxson Dart Sparked Divided Opinions Among Offensive Coaches Before the NFL Draft.