Dart named Giants starting QB aims to spark NYC football season

Jaxson Dart has been named the New York Giants' starting quarterback for the rest of the season, a move aimed at jump-starting a team that opened 0-3 and faces a difficult stretch with an undefeated 3-0 Chargers visiting on Sunday.

In his first public comments since the decision, Dart pushed back on the idea that he is the city’s savior. “That word or that phrase doesn’t really go in my head,” he said Wednesday. The No. 25 overall pick in the draft added that his job is to help the offense improve, one drive at a time, rather than chase a defined win total this year. The Giants, who drafted him with an eye toward long-term development, hope his early reads and playmaking can offer a tangible signal about the franchise’s future.

New York’s football landscape extends beyond the Giants’ pause button. The Jets have yet to win a game this season and travel into Monday Night Football facing the Dolphins, testing a city hungry for a breakthrough moment across its two NFL franchises. The week’s attention is squarely on quarterback development and leadership under the bright glare of a market that has waited for both teams to deliver a competitive product.

The Giants’ decision to install Dart for the remainder of the season comes with high-stakes context. Four straight losses to begin a campaign have historically narrowed playoff expectations quickly, and the Giants are well aware of the long odds if that run continues. Still, the organization has calibrated the move to assess Dart’s ability to execute under pressure, make accurate throws and create offense in real time, rather than to chase a quick fix.

History offers a cautionary note about early-season slumps: only the 1994 Chargers started 0-4 and still made the playoffs. That nugget underscores how much a single quarterback-driven performance can alter a team’s trajectory, even when the odds seem stacked against it. For the Giants, every spark of competence from Dart—whether a precise throw on a crucial third down, a designed run, or a pocket progression that forces a defender to bend—will be weighed against the broader question of how quickly he can grow into a long-term solution in a market this size.

As Dart steps into a high-profile assignment in a city starved for football relevance, the focus will be on steady improvement and the emergence of recognizable strengths. The rest of the season is likely to be a watchful process: a series of moments that reveal whether the Giants’ gamble in the draft has enough upside to shape the franchise’s next chapter. In the near term, wins matter, but the narrative that takes shape may hinge more on the quality and consistency of Dart’s decisions than on the final standings in a tough early schedule.