We knew that the first day of the draft will definitely throw some surprises. A team which rung some bells was the New York Giants. They first drafted Penn State DE Abdul Carter as the third overall pick. But HC Brian Daboll then traded up with the Texans to get the 25th overall pick in the first round. The NY franchise sent the second-round pick (34th overall) and third-round pick (99th overall) from this year’s draft and 2026 3rd round pick to the Texans. More than trading up, it was the player they drafted which shocked everyone: Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart.

The Giants GM Joe Schoen was preparing for this draft for almost one year. It also broke the myth and Daniel Jones’ departure forced them to go for a quarterback in the draft. However, they were already preparing to draft a young signal caller and train him.

The GM and HC Brian Daboll looked happy after the proceedings of the first day in Green Bay. While talking about the 25th overall pick, the GM said, “We went through an extensive quarterback process. It started as far back as last May in terms of evaluating the quarterbacks. And Dabs and I have been through this quite a few times and at the end of the day, we are fired to have Jaxson Dart you know as part of the organization, and look forward to working with him.”

They were planning to draft him for long. He is a talented quarterback as well. In 4 seasons overall (2021 with USC and 2022 to 2024 with Ole Miss), he played 45 games (41 starters) with a 28-12 win-loss record and completed 852 of 1,307 passes (65.2% completion rate) in 11,970 passing yards, 81 touchdowns, and 27 interceptions. Dart even showed a great rushing game with 393 rushes in 1,541 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns.

Overall, in 3 years, with Ole Miss, he had 10,617 passing yards, breaking Eli Manning’s record of 10,119 passing yards in the program.

Brian Daboll sees familiar elements in College QB’s game

The news was already strong that the NY Giants want to sign the Ole Miss QB. Connor Hughes of SNY tweeted a few days back, “Among qualities Daboll values in QBs is toughness. Dart has that.” All those reports were true. It rarely happens that a team gives up their 2nd and 3rd round picks for a player without seeing much value. It’s not just skills, but the head coach also sees a common scenario.

“I know the system that the ran down there at Ole Miss is similar to the one we had at Alabama. So there is you know some carry over on some of these things. But I think this guy’s got better every year he’s played. He is a leader, he has the attributes that we were looking for, so excited to have him, look forward to getting him in a room,” Brian Daboll said about Jaxson Dart before praising the college signal caller for his accuracy and competitive spirit.

With this, the Giants have kicked out the ambitions of Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders who even wore their cleats. There were reports that his interview with the organization, particularly the head coach, did not go down well. The first day is done. Stay tuned as we will keep bringing news from other days as well.