Giants' Russell Wilson, Jaxson Dart give club two exciting quarterbacks
Giants quarterback Russell Wilson looking to throw during a preseason game against the Jets at MetLife Stadium on Saturday. Credit: Errol Anderson
There’s no quarterback controversy on the Giants. Russell Wilson will start. Jaxson Dart will ride the bench unless there’s a good reason for the rookie to play. But both took turns exciting fans at MetLife Stadium on Saturday.
Wilson struck first with his patented moon ball — an 80-yarder to Beaux Collins on his first pass of the Giants’ 31-12 preseason win over the Jets. Devin Singletary scored two plays later from a yard out.
Wilson’s pass, which traveled at least 60 yards in the air, gave fans hope they’ll see more plays like that after not seeing a play longer than 59 yards last season.
Dart shined in the second half. After misfiring on his first pass of the third quarter, he completed his next 13 passes during two scoring drives. He threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Greg Dulcich to open the period and added a 1-yard touchdown run in which he pumped his hands to fire up fans nearby.
They naturally loved what they saw. Dart went 8-for-8 on his second drive. He converted three third downs via pass, all completions to Dante Miller.
It was a fitting end to a bit of planned chaos by coach Brian Daboll. In the second quarter, Daboll inserted Dart on the second play of a drive led by Wilson. Dart responded with a 30-yard pass to Theo Johnson before being subbed out for Wilson.
Wilson and the first-team offense, playing without Malik Nabers, had four drives but stalled after a 93-yard opening series. Dart went three-and-out with the first-team offense to end the first half and the Giants had only 84 yards on four drives after Singletary’s score.
Dart finished 14-for-16 for 137 yards. Wilson was 4-for-7 for 108 yards. The Giants improved to 2-0 in the preseason.
“I just felt like the coaches and the guys on the field helped me [get in] good situations and I’m just trying to distribute the ball,” Dart said.
The first-team defense had three drives, holding the Jets to a field goal. On the defense’s final drive, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Abdul Carter forced a punt by chasing Jets quarterback Adrian Martinez into a third-down incompletion.
But the better takeaway from the game was Wilson’s deep ball exciting fans in the present and Dart’s strong showing exciting them for the future.
Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
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