Abdul Carter was taken 1.03. No surprise there. Carter is not perfect but he will be an excellent Pro. Amazing bend, elite pass rusher. Wonder believes he is not an EDGE, that he is a pure 4-3 OLBer. I like him to spy and rush Jayden Daniels. The thought of Burns, Carter, Lawrence and Thibodeaux rushing the QB is crazy. As long as the Giants can get a good DT at 3.65, I will feel good about the run Defense and feel really good about the Defense overall.
The 2025 Draft really started for the Giants at 1.21 when the Steelers went on the clock. The Steelers did not take a QB. That put things in motion. And the Giants traded up to Houston’s 1.25 to take QB Jaxson Dart.
Jaxson Dart- “Big arm. Can move. Experienced. Very good QB.” Wonder did not think the payment (late Round 3.99 comp pick + 2026 Round 3) to move up 9 picks was excessive. I thought it was a lot and (basically like with all QB trades) the Giants better be right. As soon as the Giants took Dart, the Rams bailed out of 1.26. Bob Papa thinks that the Rams wanted Dart as Stafford’s understudy.
Daboll and Schoen describe what they saw and liked in Dart (start at 6:36 in the linked video).
“I like his competitive fire, I like his accuracy, I like his ability to push the ball down the field. His athletic ability to run with the football…. this guy has gotten better every year he has played. He is a leader. He is smart.” – Brian Daboll.
Dart turns 22 next month. The thing that is important is that he improved. Draft analysts who did not like Dart referred to issues in 2023. Draft analysts who like Dart referred to his improvement in 2024. He is a young QB who played in a system that is not NFL-ready (lacked progressions), so he will need to learn. Given the questions we had with Jones’ inability to make progressions, that better have been what Daboll wanted to vet in his review. I cannot imagine how that would not have been a major focus. Assuming Dart can process defenses, he will have a good future, because he has the arm talent and accuracy. If he cannot process defenses and make those progressions, the Giants will have problems once again. We have to trust that Daboll’s 3 years of working with a QB who could not do that meant that that was forefront in his and the Giants’ choice of Dart. Remember, if Dart had the film which showed him executing successfully in a pro system with progressions, along with maybe another 1”-2” (he’s 6’2”), he’d be a #1 prospect. So there’s obviously a reason he and most of this QB class were imperfect. The Giants will be judged by whether they were able to successfully handicap those questions so that they could extract the value from 1.25. Only time will tell. Wonder was okay with the risk/reward at 1.25. Now we wait.
Wonder on 2025: “Do NOT keep Wilson 2026… keep cheaper Winston as #2 and start/commit to Dart 2026… I do NOT want to see him on the field 2025.”
The Giants need to beef up the OL and DL at 3.65 and 4.105. You would be surprised to know that there will be a lot of options on the DL at 3.65. Shemar Turner, TJ Sanders, Darius Alexander, Alfred Collins, Deone Walker, Ty Hamilton are there, and some will be there at 4.105 too, so that the Giants can go OL at 3.65.
One last comment- who in that bleeping building is leaking this draft info? Schoen’s son Carson spilled a Dart video on his Instagram feed before muting it. Two reporters had the Giants trading into R1 for Dart. And the Giants were -150 to get Dart. Who is this pos who is leaking? The leaker back in the day was John Mara. Things went silent with smokescreens when Schoen came in. Is Mara’s idiot lips back? Disgraceful. The fact that the Giants were -150 to take Dart is insane in its own right, because with the proliferation of legalized gambling, the NFL needs to investigate who is leaking this information. I find it hypocritical that the NFL will want to protect its product on-the-field from improper influence (valid), but that the same NFL will not protect its product off-the-field from improper influence. This is no different than a public company exec leaking earnings before the release. It is not appropriate to dismiss it as prevalent when no one knew what the Steelers were doing with their highly visible decision at 1.21 on Sanders. The Steelers kept their business in-house. To contrast, someone on the Giants put up a neon sign for Dart. That person, whether it be Mara or anyone else in the organization, should be disciplined by the NFL.