Quarterback Jaxson Dart is the New York Giants most important player.
I won’t spoil what Ed has to say about Dart in an upcoming piece, but considering quarterback is the most important position in the major American sports, Dart has to be the most important player on the Giants’ roster. As John Harbaugh said shortly after being hired, it’s all about the quarterback and you need to build around him.
But have the Giants done a good job of that? Are the Giants surrounding Dart with the pieces he needs
for the offense to succeed?
Their offensive line was solid a year ago, ranking 11th in pass block win rate and 18th in run block win rate. It should be improved with another year of development from center John Michael Schmitz and the addition of Sisi Mauigoa at right guard.
That’s an undeniably solid start.
But what about the Giants’ weapons? Have they provided Dart with the tools he needs to attack opposing offenses without needing to use himself as a weapon? There are two types of starting quarterback in the NFL. The first is the average starter who can only play as well as the players around him, and who needs elite talent at the skill positions to raise his ceiling. The other is the Franchise Quarterback, with the subtle (but significant) difference of allowing the players around him to play up to their potential.
The belief seems to be that Dart at least has the potential to be a franchise quarterback, with the evidence that the Giants produced league-average offense despite below-average talent around Dart. We can also see the sentiment in how the drafts of the Giants, Tennessee Titans, New Orleans Saints, Cleveland Browns, and New York Jets were received.
The Titans, Saints, Browns, and Jets were all praised for acquiring young and explosive skill position players to help take the load off their young quarterbacks (or future young quarterback in the Jets’ case). The Giants, meanwhile, were praised for addressing other positions while trusting Dart to cover up their warts on offense.
To be fair, the Giants have invested in their offensive skill positions, adding hybrid tight end Isaiah Likely, fullback Patrick Ricard, and six (6) wide receivers to their roster. The concern, however, is that none of the Giants’ skill position players scare much of anybody and that’s doubly true with Malik Nabers’ status uncertain. In other words, the Giants’ “quantity over quality” approach could leave them with a bevy of options, none of them good.
That’s the point of view taken by ESPN’s Bill Barnwell, who graded the Giants’ skill position players 31st in the NFL, behind only the Miami Dolphins at 32nd.
Barnwell writes:
The Giants would rank higher if not for the serious injuries suffered by their young talent in 2025. It’s unclear whether Malik Nabers will be healthy enough to return from his knee injury to begin the season, a concerning piece of news for a player who is nearly a full year removed from the injury. Even when Nabers does return, it’s fair to wonder whether he’ll be anything close to 100%. And while Cam Skattebo’s return from a gruesome ankle injury appears to be closer to completion, the RB was already below average by metrics such as yards per carry, success rate and explosive play rate as a rookie before the injury.
If Nabers isn’t ready to be the guy, the Giants are going to struggle to find receivers for Jaxson Dart. Wan’Dale Robinson filled that role as the primary wideout a year ago, but he has been replaced by Darnell Mooney, who is both a downgrade and too stylistically similar to Darius Slayton. Veteran Odell Beckham Jr. is a Giants legend, but his last significant full season as a pro was all the way back in 2019.
Third-round pick Malachi Fields will have to make an immediate impact to give the Giants a play-style alternative. Tight end Isaiah Likely flashed during his time with the Ravens, but after an 111-yard game on national television in the 2024 opener against the Chiefs, he has topped 75 receiving yards just once over the ensuing two years. Let’s check back in a year when everyone is (hopefully) healthier.
Meanwhile, Derrick Klassen and Robert Mays of The Athletic Football Show ranked the Giants’ offensive personnel 15th out of 16 teams in the NFC. They ranked the Washington Commanders 16th, and cite a number of similarities between the two teams.
You can listen to the full episode [here], but this is the relevant section:
They [the Giants] are also who I had at 15.
And I think the only reason I kind of gave them the slight edge is that, I know there’s a lot of questions with Malik Nabers’ health. But … maybe he is healthy and does look like himself, he is at least better, not significantly better, than Terry McLaurin. But he [Nabers] does give you, I think, more of a pillar.
And then to me, Darius Slayton is a better number two receiver than anybody that Washington has. I would even say, Isaiah likely, and between him and [tight end] Chig Okonkwo, I think Likely is a better player. The skill [position] Talent is a little bit better.
This is a team where running back room concerns are huge just because of like Cam Skattebo’s health. I think he’s a cool player, but we just don’t know how healthy he’s going to be. And then Tyrone Tracy is kind of just an okay role player.”
Chris’ thoughts
I’m going to push back on the notion that the Giants’ offensive skill position players are bad.
I wouldn’t go nearly so far as to say that they’re great, even with a healthy Malik Nabers, but I would instead say that this is, collectively, a “boom or bust” group. There is a pretty wide array of potential outcomes in how the Giants’ skill position players could perform this year.
On the high end:
- Malik Nabers could return to full health early on this year be the player we thought he was going to be last year.
- Darius Slayton can develop the same kind of rapport with Jaxson Dart as he did Daniel Jones.
- Darnell Mooney can exceed the form he showed in 2021 and 2024 with better quarterback play than Mitchel Trubisky, Kirk Cousins, and Michael Penix.
- Calvin Austin III can become a more consistent deep threat than he was with Justin Fields, and the ghosts of Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers throwing him the ball.
- Malachi Fields can build upon the flashes we saw at Notre Dame and the Senior Bowl and emerge as a legitimate X receiver for the Giants.
- Odell Beckham Jr. and/or JuJu Smith-Schuster can at turn the clock back and be reliable veteran options who also provide the occasional big play.
- Isaiah Likely can emerge from Mark Andrews’ shadow and become a top receiving tight end with Dart.
- Theo Johnson can cut down on the drops consistently show the dominance he flashed with Jameis Winston last year.
- Cam Skattebo can return at 100 percent and pick up where he left off.
- Tyrone Tracy can string together his third 1,000-yard season as a versatile weapon out of the backfield.
It’s highly unlikely that all of those scenarios work out the way the Giants are hoping. But if 6 or 7 of those come up positive for the Giants, I think they have the potential to surprise some people this year. Ideally, enough goes right for the Giants to be able to put up points without Dart feeling like he needs to will the team down the field. If that happens and the defense finally plays up to its talent level, the Giants could be a team that nobody wants to play in November and December.
Of course, each of those players has the real possibility of a bad outcome as well.
Nabers might not be “himself” until 2027. Slayton may show that he probably should have followed Jones to Indianapolis. Beckham and Smith-Schuster might be done and cut. Mooney and Austin III could be the JAGs we thought they were, and so on.
In that case, the Giants could struggle to keep up with other teams. That, in turn, could drive Dart to once again take the kinds of risks that got him labeled “reckless” last year.
In all likelihood, the offensive skill positions will likely come out somewhere in the middle of those outcomes. We could even see the full range of outcomes over the course of the year, where favorable matchups, great gameplans, or player development lead to offensive explosions.
…Or the inverse leading to frustratingly quiet games.
We will, of course, find out in due time. My hope is that the offense comes together quickly enough that personnel concerns prove moot.
