Jaxson Dart‘s new offensive coordinator thinks the world of him.
“When I got here to New York and got to meet him and started talking to him, you could tell right away that everything was true. This kid is different that way,” New York Giants offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said about Dart at a press conference on Tuesday, per the Giants’ team website.
“My initial conversation with Coach Harbs was, hey, excited, really looking forward to being able to help out in many ways and building that relationship and that trust. I know he had a great year last year, but we want to make it even better and continue to have him grow, and I want to be there to help him.”
Dart, whom the Giants traded up to select with the No. 25 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, started 12 games in his 2025 rookie season, taking over as the team’s primary starter in Week 4.
Across the 14 combined games that he appeared in, Dart totaled 2,272 passing yards, 15 passing touchdowns, five interceptions and a 91.7 passer rating, while completing 63.7% of his passes. He also rushed for 487 yards and nine touchdowns. Dart missed two starts due to a concussion.
“Every year I will watch just to kind of see the top guys that are there. I remember coming away really impressed with Jaxson and his accuracy,” Nagy said about scouting Dart in the 2025 NFL Draft process when he was the offensive coordinator of the Kansas City Chiefs. “Back then, I didn’t know how tough he was and how good of a runner he was. He was a really good, sneaky good runner, tough, physical, played the quarterback position well, accurate. You could see he was a competitor.
“I remember then at the [NFL Scouting Combine], us not likely being within the quarterback market, watching him, simply type of observing how he dealt with himself in that group of men on the mix. You can see this moxie that he had, and he had this ‘it’ issue.”
Nagy and the Chiefs parted methods after three seasons with him as their offensive coordinator (2023-25) and 4 seasons on head coach Andy Reid’s workers altogether. He was beforehand the pinnacle coach of the Chicago Bears from 2018-21, preceded by being the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator for 2 seasons (2016-17), amongst different assistant teaching stints.
Relating to Dart, after spending the 2021 college football season with the USC Trojans, he spent three seasons because the beginning quarterback for the Ole Miss Rebels (2022-24), with whom he led the SEC in passing yards (4,279), passer ranking (180.7) and completion share (69.3%) in 2024.
After a 2-8 begin to the 2025 NFL season, the Giants fired head coach Brian Daboll and later employed former Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh as their new head coach within the wake of a 4-13 season. Among the many new faces for Dart to focus on, the Giants have signed former Ravens tight finish Isaiah Likely (three-year, $40 million deal) and former Atlanta Falcons broad receiver Darnell Mooney (one-year deal value as much as $10 million) this offseason.
