Jaxson Dart waited out Thursday night time’s nervous moments at a again desk of his NFL Draft celebration inside a Minky Couture blanket manufacturing facility in Ogden, Utah.
Seated with Dart because the picks ticked by had been former Ole Miss backup quarterback Walker Howard, Rebels offensive lineman Diego Kilos, Ole Miss offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and Ole Miss assistant coach of quarterbacks Joe Decide.
Dart had invited Decide personally. He wished him there in Dart’s dwelling state when he discovered the place he was going to play within the NFL.
Because the Giants traded as much as choose Dart at No. 25 total within the first spherical, Decide, the previous Giants head coach, mentioned what struck him concerning the second was who Dart had determined to spend it with.
“He celebrated with the people who helped him get there,” Decide added. “It was a mature decision. It wasn’t about being in the spotlight. It was about being around the people he cared about.”
However that’s who Dart is, mentioned Decide, who labored carefully with Dart throughout his first-team All-SEC 2024 season. That’s the reason Brian Daboll and the Giants and different groups, together with the Saints and Browns and Rams, developed an affinity for Dart the particular person in addition to the participant.
‘He’s very honest, very real,” Decide mentioned of Dart. “When he is aware of you’re investing in him, he invests again. Once I first got here in [to Ole Miss], it was to watch, seek the advice of, assist out with gameplans, which developed to teaching quarterbacks. And stepping into the tape, he’s a soccer junky and completely loves it.
“He wants to watch tape,” Decide mentioned of Dart. “He wants to get keys on players and coverages, loves talking through the situations of the game that you’re watching and how to handle it.”
Robust intangibles are an amazing signal. What made him first-round worthy, after all, had been the Giants’ perception in his bodily instruments and manufacturing on the sector. And Decide additionally had a entrance row seat to Dart’s best soccer strengths.
“As a defensive coordinator, you have to prepare for plays with his legs,” Decide mentioned. “He’s not an ‘abandon the play early guy,’ however he can prolong the play. He’s a troublesome runner and strikes very nicely within the pocket, so he creates prolonged performs.
“He also has a good deep ball and is very accurate over the shoulder. You have to defend the deep ball against him. He keeps his eyes down the field. And he won’t repeat a lot of mistakes.”
Decide additionally mentioned Dart is “one of the most instinctive players I’ve ever been around.”
“You can call a play, and he’ll have a wide-open guy that’s opposite of how it was supposed to be,” Decide mentioned, “but he reads it as different and makes a different choice on the field because he knows it’s coming from his film study.”
Decide labored with Dart to assist study a number of groups’ offenses through the pre-draft course of, together with the Giants and Browns, and mentioned “every team that met with him loved him.”
Decide already had an affinity for Dart due to the character his quarterback had proven this previous season whereas main Ole Miss.
He suffered a excessive ankle sprain on the second play of the sport in opposition to Georgia, left for one sequence, returned and completed a 28-10 win on a moist and messy day.
“It wasn’t a small thing,” Decide mentioned. “He just taped it up and kept playing. He earned my respect because he’s legit tough.”
Decide additionally beloved Dart’s compete to the tip of Ole Miss’ 52-20 Gator Bowl win over Duke in Dart’s remaining school recreation.
Not like No. 1 total decide Cam Ward, who sat out the second half of Miami’s Pop-Tarts Bowl loss to Iowa, Dart refused to come back out of his final recreation in opposition to the Blue Devils.
“We’re beating Duke by 40 or 50, and we’re trying to take Jax out of the game to give him a walkoff clap, and he’s like, ‘F–k you, I’m not coming out,” Decide mentioned, laughing. “He wouldn’t come out.
“At the two-minute warning, he told the offense to stay in the middle of the field because he wasn’t coming out and he knew we’d try to take him out if he came to the sideline,” Decide continued. “Then [head coach] Lane [Kiffin] is trying to chase him off the field.”
Decide mentioned that may be a excellent image of Dart’s dedication.
“That’s who he is,” he mentioned. “We’re killing this team, but he’s like, ‘I want to play. I want to finish my career here.’ When you look at who this kid is, that’s stuff about him that I love.”
On high of all of that, considered one of Dart’s most redeeming qualities as a workforce chief is that he seems to be inward after failures.
“We had two hard losses to LSU and Florida, and what stood out after both games — because I sat next to him on the plane — is how hard he takes it and how personally he takes it, the feeling of letting people down,” Decide mentioned. “It’s not ‘this person screwed this up’ or ‘oh well.’ It’s, ‘What can I do better? What can I fix? He’s very hard on himself.”
These are all rave critiques of the Giants’ new quarterback from a former Giants head coach who would have each motive to not endorse or present pleasure for New York’s subsequent chapter.
However Decide is exhibiting no awkwardness or bitterness about it. If something, he mentioned he completely happy for each Dart and the Giants’ followers, as a result of he believes they are going to be an excellent match.
“I’m always gonna pull for him,” Decide mentioned of Dart changing into a Large. “You care about him so much, you want him to succeed and do well. And there’s players on that team I feel the same way about.”
“I’m glad Andrew Thomas and those guys have had success and gotten bigger contracts and want them to have long careers,” he continued. “So anything he can do up there and anyway I can help him, I’m there for him. I do think it’s pretty cool he can play for a cool fanbase.”
Decide mentioned Giants followers “are going to like how he competes, the toughness he plays with, playing through injuries and not wanting to come out of games — things the New York fans that I’ve been around respond to.”
And he mentioned Dart “will be fine” dealing with the highlight within the Huge Apple.
“It’s important for any player to learn the league and get a support structure around him, which he has,” he mentioned. “He has a great family, coaches in his past and coaches on that [Giants] staff now. And Jaxson’s really mentally tough.”
That’s how Dart dealt with Thursday night time’s buildup at his draft celebration, too, Decide mentioned: maturely.
In the midst of all of the household and associates congregating and supporting Dart in their very own manner, the Ole Miss crew ultimately congregated at that again desk and sat collectively for about an hour from round decide 12 on.
They mentioned groups’ methods and actions and eyed the place Dart would finally land. Then, New York traded up and the Giants known as their new quarterback as he sat inches away from a former Giants head coach. And Decide knew they’d gotten an excellent one.
“He just handled everything like Jaxson,” Decide mentioned. “Very even keel smile on his face all night. Then all of a sudden when the draft name gets called, things change pretty fast. The phone rings. And he’s up.”
