Stapleton: Jaxson Dart Fit The Giants Offense Better Than Shedeur Sanders

Art, how are you? What's up, JR? Happy Friday. How you doing? I'm very well.

Happy Friday to you as well. We got a lot of happy people getting ready to be drafted in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Let's talk about what the New York Giants did with their draft. First of all, nobody expected them to kind of double down in the first round and walk away with two picks. Can you talk to us about the Giants decision and their explanation as to why they selected Jackson Dart?

Yeah, well, I mean, I think they put in for the second year in a row a lot of homework on the draft class. And let's go back just a year ago, not to do a full history lesson, but six quarterbacks going, I think it was in the top 11 or 12 picks last year with Pennock, O'Nick and JJ McCarthy, with the top three of May, Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels. And I think if those six quarterbacks were not so front loaded in the draft, I think you may have seen the Giants trade up in the back end of the first round last year to get a quarterback that they like.

And I believe after those top three, it would have been Michael Pennock. But that didn't play out. So a year later, I think they tried to cover themselves with Russell Wilson and Jamis Winston to not have to go in desperate. But I think the way the draft was falling, a lot of these quarterbacks outside of Cam Ward, once the entire evaluation process played out, were viewed as kind of late first round, second round quarterbacks. And it doesn't mean they're bad quarterbacks.

It just means that, you know, they're going to go a little later. We're not used to seeing quarterbacks go later. And, you know, the bottom line is they need a franchise quarterback and they have one that they believe in in Jackson Dart. They think his traits match up with what Brian Gable wants in his offense. And for a regime that, you know, needs to show some promise here moving forward, however games you win or playoffs or whatever else, the bottom line is they had to give themselves an opportunity at the quarterback position.

And I think Jackson Dart, for them, represents that. Now we'll see if the value matches the price and the opportunity. Okay.

All right. Well, we heard why they selected Dart. Of course, we're not going to get a clear answer from the New York Giants brass. Why do you think they went with Dart as opposed to someone like Chidor, who they spent a lot of time with? You know, I'll say this, you know, and look, and I was on the Chidor train, too, back in February because of the time that they spent with Chidor going to the East-West Shrine Bowl and meeting with him and getting captured on video in hotel lobbies talking to Chidor thanks to his video crew, you know, the brothers Sanders that always follow him around. But, you know, I like Chidor as a player and as a quarterback and really as a person. I don't have anything, any issues to say about Chidor, but, you know, sometimes when front offices and coaches tell us it's early in the process, we don't listen to them. We just kind of shrug it off and say, ah, come on, you guys know who you want to take. And I think with Chidor and with several other quarterbacks throughout this process, sometimes you meet with guys more than others because you need to make sure that your read on them is correct. And sometimes the read is you want to make sure that if you're not going to draft them, that you've turned over every stone and vetted every possible opportunity in their evaluation. And I think with Chidor, you know, unfortunately with Chidor, because of who his father is and his legacy and everything else, I think people just don't allow others to just like Chidor. It's either you love Chidor or you hate Chidor. And I just don't think that's fair to Chidor or the teams that are evaluating him. And I think ultimately the Giants got into the process and they felt as though Jackson Dart fit this offense a little bit better. He's a little bit more athletic, which is weird to say with Deion Sanders as your father. But that's the reality. I mean, Chidor said, look, I'm not the athlete that my father was.

Guess what? No one in the NFL, maybe going back to Jim Thorpe, is the athlete that Deion Sanders is. But, you know, I think Babel likes to have a little bit more RPOs in his offense, having this quarterback to be a run-ass threat. And I think Jackson Dart kind of represents it. The bottom line is, JR, all of these quarterbacks, including Cam Ward, who went number one, have warts in their game. They have holes in their game. They have strengths and they have weaknesses. And for anyone to say that they don't, I think is unfair. So as much as Chidor's game gets criticized, I think everyone else, their game should get criticized as well.

So that's kind of where I'm at right now. I just think that the Giants picked the best quarterback that they thought fit their offense and what they wanted out of the franchise quarterback moving forward now. Art Stapleton covers the New York Giants on the beat.

When you think about what they did early on, no shock there. We heard about this, them selecting Abdul Carter out of Penn State. Now, we also understand after there were some rumors that they would trade Kavon Thibodeau that they're going to keep him on.

Do you think he's going to be around for the long haul or with the salary cap eventually in a few years, a season or two, is going to be too much to keep all of these guys? You know, here's my thing with Thibodeau. You draft Abdul Carter. You want to take a solid position that you already had up front with Brian Burns, Kavon Thibodeau, and Dexter Lawrence on the interior and you want to make it a strength.

So you draft Abdul Carter. What sense does it make now to all of a sudden trade Kavon Thibodeau away and now you're weakening something that could really be the identity of your team? And this Giants franchise has been searching for an identity and I think by bringing in Carter and keeping this group together up front, by picking up Thibodeau's 50-year option. I mean, look, he's still on his rookie contract and the 50-year option is only, I mean, I say only with respect in regard to the franchise tag, but the reality is $15 million for Thibodeau. They can make that determination in the off season and say, look, it's not working.

They can look in October and say, it's not working having all these guys on the field together. Let's see if we can trade Kavon because right now Kavon Thibodeau's value is not where you would expect it to be anyway. It's not like someone's going to offer them a second round pick. It's going to be a mid pick.

And I just think you're better off holding on to them and see what it becomes. Do I know that he's going to sign an extension here and be here for the long haul, as you said? I think it's too early for that. But look, the Giants, if there's any franchise in the league who knows what it's like to bring pass rusher after pass rusher after pass rusher, it's this franchise. They won two Super Bowls in part because of it. So I would think that keeping Thibodeau around, at least for the short term, is the right way to go.

Art Stapleton here with us on the JR support brief show Coast to Coast. That's on the defense. We know when the New York Giants have won their championships, they've always leaned on that defense with Russell Wilson here and he's going to be the starter.

He already knows he's on borrowed time. What is your confidence level in this offense this upcoming season with him and Jamis? That's the million dollar question, right? Or should I say the ten point five million dollar question with Russ here? The way I look at it this way, JR, is that look, I think we're going to learn a lot over the next couple of months into training camp. You know, Russ is saying all the right things.

I mean, but the reality is, is now you have a first round rookie quarterback, regardless of how Jackson Dart got here. I mean, they want to red shirt him. They want to keep him out. They want Russ to succeed. They need to have some success this year to kind of stabilize things during the season. But Russ also has a lot of incentives based on playing time and production.

And if he's not performing, you're not just going to throw money away and let him, you know, play 75 percent of the snaps and then just start collecting million dollar bonuses because he's there. I think, you know, look, you look at what Russ did last year in Pittsburgh. Right.

And everybody looked at it and says, oh, it's awful. They had to get rid of them. They made the playoffs.

This giant team won three games. If Russell Wilson comes here and wins six games for the Giants and gets them to the playoffs somehow, they'll be erecting a statue of him outside of MetLife Stadium the way things have gone the last decade. So that's kind of how I see it. I think Russ stabilizes some things. I think he gives this offense a little bit of an identity at quarterback.

Yes, you look at it. He's a little corny. And then you throw in the personality of Jamis, which is very goofy, interesting, humorous when things are going poorly and you need a pick me up. The bottom line is, you know, someone told me that this quarterback room went from milk toast to fireball whiskey. And that was before Jackson Dart, who is kind of Baker Mayfield-esque as far as personality on the field, fiery. You know, this this quarterback room is a little combustible right now. And I think Brian Dabel liked that. I think he needed to kind of spark this offense a little bit. I think maybe he's hoping that, you know, the personality mix kind of feeds into some of these guys on offense. And, you know, Malik Nabors really became a leader last year.

And, you know, that was unexpected. I think that this offense, you know, look, you've got to produce more than you did last year. But I think this defense is really what's going to carry the load for the most part. And they hope they reach their potential. And, you know, look at the teams they've got to play in this division, J.R. They need this defense to play well in order to be able to stay in games with the likes of Jaden Daniels and Jalen Hurts and Dak Prescott if he's back healthy with Cowboys. Art Stapleton here with us on the J.R. sport re-show.

Last question for you, Art. You mentioned Brian Dabel and same thing here with Joe Shane. I mean, they inherited a big part of the roster from Daniel Jones to Saquon. They had to extend them after they beat the Minnesota Vikings in the postseason.

Now that they're bringing in their own quarterback in Jackson Dart, now that they've brought in what a lot of people expect to be a transcendent player in Abdul Carter. Have they bought some time with Mr. Marra upstairs? Well, you know, that's the that's the thing that no one can tell me that they're in John Marra's head.

Right. And I think, you know, he talked about the end of the season. It's all open for interpretation that he wanted to feel better. He had to feel better about where the season goes at this time last year. That was his message the day after the season in which they won three games.

The plane flew overhead, demanding change, and he kept both Joe Shane and Brian Dabel. I think they like their process. I think they they hit it out of the park on night one because they made the most of the opportunities that were presented to themselves. They now have a young quarterback here now for Dabel. It's about you're the quarterback whisperer. We hired you because of what you did with Josh Allen. You did great in year one with Daniel Jones. Year two, year three, there were a bunch of factors, injuries, things just didn't work out.

This is on Dabel now, Dabel and Jackson Dart to get this guy ready to play. And I think ultimately their futures are tied to the quarterback and how this defense plays, because this team needs some hope. And I think at this point you bring in good players.

You be competitive and you give yourself an opportunity to look into the future and expect bigger things. I think that's the way you convince John Mara to keep them around right now. I think Joe Shane has a stronger hold on his job than the head coach does. Quite frankly, I don't think it's easy to replace a front office. It's certainly easier, I guess, to replace the head coach every year because you can always get a hot candidate that's on the market front office or a lot harder.

So right now, I think they're still in lockstep, Cain and Dabel. But I do think that a little bit more pressure is on Brian Dabel going into this season. Because like you said, now you've got the quarterback to develop. There is no more excuse as far as, well, you've got to keep him around, you've got to give him a quarterback. Now he's got a quarterback, this is the guy that he wanted. Let's see how they can develop him and get them into a position where they can look at the quarterbacks in the division. Like I said, Hurts, Daniels, and Dax and say, you know what, in another year, maybe our guy is at their level and then we can compete.

And if you can compete at quarterback, you can compete at just about every spot on the field. And New York Giants are hoping that they can finally move and progress towards being a good organization and a good team again. Hey, Art, thank you so much for the time and your expertise covering the New York Giants.

How many people follow you in all of your work? You can get all my coverage at NorthJersey.com. We've got a podcast all in with Art Stapleton. You can find it on all your podcast channels and on YouTube. And I am on social media at Art underscore Stapleton.