The New York Giants have had a strong offseason, highlighted by a killer draft class, but the success of the whole exercise will be determined by whether or not general manager Joe Schoen made the right call at quarterback by taking Jaxson Dart at No. 25. Dart isn't expected to start right away for New York, but he has made some progress by working with the second-team offense at OTAs this week.
As Giants' beat reporter Jordan Raanan notes, the Giants had been having Dart work with the third team last week, so the fact that he is getting backup reps is already an encouraging sign. Russell Wilson is still expected to be New York's starting quarterback while Dart would be competing with Jameis Winston to assume the No. 2 role on the depth chart.
Does Jaxson Dart have a chance to insert himself into the QB1 role?
Signing Wilson and Winston before taking Dart was a smart decision by Schoen, who made it so that Dart doesn't have to be the franchise's savior from Day 1. Scouts believed that Dart needed some development time before taking on NFL defenses, so being able to learn from established pros would only be a benefit for Dart's chance to succeed at this level.
It's hard to read a ton into the fact that Dart is getting backup reps since this is still only June and the Giants likely wanted to get him some additional work. These reps could give Dart some confidence entering training camp, however, where he will undoubtedly want to push to unseat Wilson and be New York's starting quarterback in Week 1.
Wilson himself is familiar with that kind of situation since he wasn't expected to play as a rookie for Seattle in 2012 before taking the job from Matt Flynn in camp. While there is no question that Wilson is declining from his peak with the Seahawks, he did win 10 games for Pittsburgh a year ago and threw 16 touchdown passes against just five interceptions, which will set a high bar for Dart to clear if he wants to be the Giants' QB1 from the jump.