Jaxson Dart is headed to the NFL.
Dart’s draft stock is one of the most fascinating stories of the entire 2025 NFL Draft season. If you look at his trendline on NFL Mock Draft Database, Dart was a fringe Day Three selection as recently as early January.
Since then, he has rocketed up draft boards, and in the hours ahead of the first round many mock drafts had him as the second QB off the board. For example, both Daniel Jeremiah and Dane Brugler had Dart as QB2 in their final mock drafts.
Now, those predictions have proven to be correct, as the New York Giants traded back into the first round to take Daft with the No. 25 pick. New York executed a trade with the Houston Texans, sending Houston a 2025 second-round pick (No. 34), a 2025 third-round pick (No. 99) and a 2026 third-round pick for Houston’s pick at No. 25.
And the rights to draft Dart.
Here is what Dart does well, and where he will need to improve to live up the expectations.
A QB who will take the punch
Many traits enter into a quarterback evaluation. Arm talent, accuracy, footwork, decision-making, and athleticism are all featured prominently on scouting reports. Questions such as character and leadership often figure into the equation.
Then there is a trait that often simmers below the surface, but in many ways, there is no substitute for it.
The willingness to stand in the pocket, accept that a human being much bigger, stronger, and faster than you is about to yeet you into the shadow realm, and still stand in the face of that threat to make a throw.
Quarterback is a position with so many complexities, which makes grading the position one of the hardest things to do in the evaluation space. Beyond what traits matter, there is the factor of how those traits are weighed in the evaluation. If a quarterback does not have an elite-level arm, can they make up for that through decision-making and processing speed? If they lack elite athleticism, can they balance that out with arm talent?
But there is no substitute for being willing to stand in the pocket knowing pain is coming your way.
It is perhaps the most unnatural trait in sports, up there with climbing into the boxing ring or diving into the corner at Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 245 miles per hour with a wall in front of you. Every natural human thought in your brain tells you to run. To flee. The flight response kicks in.
But will you, instead, fight?
Often when studying quarterbacks, writing about them, or both I turn to the words of people much smarter than me. People who have been in the ring, on the sidelines, when it mattered.
Terry Shea’s body of work absolutely stands out, and his book Eyes Up contains a wealth of knowledge about the quarterback position gained from decades of experience.
The subtitle to that book is also instructive here: Coaching the men with the nerve to play the most challenging position in football.
Take this passage from Eyes Up:
It can be argued that toughness — mental and physical — is as important as talent or self-confidence. One of the most challenging factors about Quarterbacking is adjusting to the mental and emotional pressure. The pressure can be enormous in games at all levels. As the game unfolds, a Quarterback’s mental toughness is keenly tested. To hang in there when you are worn down and your body hurts. To possess the nerve to release the ball with anticipation. To keep getting up after each hit. To keep coming back. To refuse to lose. This is how mental toughness is defined. A mentally tough Quarterback produces the poise to play well in pressure situations and that is a defining virtue of Quarterback play.
The best Quarterbacks aren’t necessarily football’s best passers. Winning Quarterbacks tend to be those signal callers who operate with precise Quarterback tools, fueled by a full tank of confidence and toughness.
That is the part of Jaxson Dart’s game that truly stands out to me. The willingness to stand in the pocket in the face of pressure and make a throw, knowing both that the play requires him to do that, and that pain may very well result. Take this example from Dart’s bowl game against Duke:
Note: Readers on Apple News will need to click the above link to see the clips.
The Blue Devils bring pressure here, as Dart works this smash concept into the boundary between his tight end on the corner route and the running back underneath. He knows the big hit is coming — perhaps multiple big hits — but he hangs in the pocket and makes the throw, fighting in the face of pressure.
Or take this throw against Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl:
Consider the situation here: Mississippi faces 3rd and 5 in the red zone, in the fourth quarter, of a one-score game. The Bulldogs bring a Cover 0 blitz, and Dart knows they do not have the numbers in protection to block everyone. Someone is coming free.
He hangs in the pocket, and throws a dime on a seam route, taking another hit in the process.
But he then gets to celebrate.
Let’s look at one more example of this trait in action. This play comes from Dart’s game against South Carolina. One of the most unnerving things you can experience as a quarterback is staring down a free rusher who has a full sprint into your chest, when you need to stand in the pocket, take the hit, and make a throw.
That is exactly what Dart does on this play:
There are certainly questions about Dart’s overall evaluation, starting with how well the offense he ran at Mississippi will translate to the NFL, and how well that offense prepared him for said transition.
But when it comes to one of the most unnatural parts of playing the position, Dart has that down pat.
That speaks volumes about what he can be at the next level.
Can he get to Plan C consistently?
The biggest question facing Dart as he prepares for life in the NFL?
Can he graduate from operating Lane Kiffin’s offense at Mississippi, for what life will put in front of him at the next level?
One of the main jobs of any offensive play designer and/or play caller is to make life easier on your quarterback in the passing game. Give them an answer for any coverage they will see on a given play, and simplify how they get to that answer. A given route design might have two different “half-field” concepts, one that is designed to beat man coverage, and the other designed to beat zone coverage. Diagnose whether the defense is in man or zone, and you will get to your answer.
Other play designs might have a progression read based on what specific coverage the defense is in. If it is Cover 3, read out one set of progressions, but if it is Cover 4, you read a different set.
But what happens when the defense has your first few reads covered? Can you get to Plan C?
That can be hard on Saturdays.
It can be almost impossible on Sundays.
When Dart got into trouble at Mississippi, it often came when the defense took his first read or two away, and forced him deep into progressions. Take this play against Mississippi State on a failed two-point conversion try:
A few things stand out about this play, which Dart should try and improve upon as he moves to the NFL.
First, Mississippi uses motion before the snap, bringing the outside receiver on the right into a stack alignment by motioning them toward the football. These two receivers each run out-breaking routes, and the idea is that the motion will create traffic in the secondary.
However, if you watch how the defense reacts, a defender does not trail the motion man, which is a sign that the Bulldogs are in zone coverage. Dart … might want to get his eyes elsewhere after the snap.
However, he opens to the right, hoping to fit in a throw on one of the out routes. But with Mississippi State in zone coverage, neither is open, and he gets his eyes backside to the dig route. This might have been a better option to begin with, but he gets to it eventually.
Yet, he waits for a pause too long and never sees the underneath “hole” defense lurking. That defender reads his eyes perfectly and gets into the throwing lane for the easy interception.
An offshoot of this is what I like to phrase as follows: “What works on install day might not work on Saturday.”
Or Sunday, in the NFL case.
When watching quarterbacks you can often see plays where the QB just locked into a route because it has worked in the past, perhaps during the “install day” during practice week, and assumes that things will click when that play is called during the game. They stare down the route and, well, you know what happens when you make assumptions …
Take this play against Mississippi State:
Kiffin dials up a lovely design here, with a fake smoke screen to the right. Dart pumps on that fake screen, hoping to influence the secondary downhill to free the vertical route over the middle.
Only, Mississippi State does not bite.
Still, Dart throws that vertical route, eventually into double coverage. While the pass fell incomplete in this example, this is likely a turnover in the NFL.
Then, well, there is the play was probably just shown during the highlight package when this pick was made:
This comes on a 1st-and-10 situation late against Florida. Mississippi trails 24-17, has the ball in Florida territory, and has 1:47 remaining.
Just about anything would have been better than this throw into triple coverage, in this situation. Mississippi’s ensuing loss knocked them out of playoff contention.
Dart is as tough as it gets at the QB position, but he’ll need to clean up mistakes like this — and do a better job of getting to Plan C — at the next level.
