The New York Giants' 34-25 win over the Buffalo Bills in their preseason opener on Saturday afternoon could hardly have gone any better. Abdul Carter looked every bit like a No. 3 overall pick and star in the making. Dante Miller and Montrell Washington look like they could be sneaky additions to this skill corps. And the star of the show was rookie QB Jaxson Dart, who did a little bit of everything in his NFL debut — completing 12-of-19 passes for 154 yards and a score while adding 24 yards on the ground and leading three scoring drives.
For a fan base that's suffered as long as this one, that qualifies as cause for celebration. And we really don't want to rain on that parade; Dart was genuinely impressive, and this defense should be stout if Carter plays up to his obvious potential. But at the same time ... I mean, you all know how this ends, right?
It was Russell Wilson, not Dart, who got the start on Saturday. And he looked like, well, Russell Wilson: he completed 6-of-7 passes for just 28 yards amid a string of checkdowns and put three points on the board before departing late in the first quarter. It wasn't bad, necessarily, but it was painfully conservative. Because that's who Russ is at this point in his career, a physically limited passer who will play smarter than Daniel Jones but who certainly isn't going to elevate your team to wins on his own.
Based on how Saturday went, it feels like only a matter of time before Giants fans start wondering why the Dart era doesn't begin right now. Wilson was brought in to be a placeholder, and that's exactly what he is; if Dart is ready now, what place is Russ holding? Unfortunately, we're quite confident Brian Daboll is going to see things the same way, setting up a QB controversy that's painful obvious from weeks away.
Giants aren't going to move on from Russell Wilson nearly as fast as fans want
As a reminder, here's how the Giants begin their 2025 regular season: at Washington, at Dallas, vs. Kansas City, vs. the Chargers, at New Orleans, vs. Philly, at Denver, at Philly. That is quite the gauntlet, one that Daboll and Co. have zero interest in exposing Dart to as he embarks on his NFL career.
Daboll and GM Joe Schoen made this pick with the long term in mind, knowing that Dart would be a bit of a project coming out of Ole Miss. The fact that he flashed his upside against mostly backups in early August won't change that evaluation much at all. But it will change how Giants fans view things: It's all too easy to see this cooked version of Wilson struggling to gain much traction against such a difficult schedule, and all of New York demanding that Daboll make the switch to Dart immediately.
Which, again, simply isn't going to happen. Daboll knows that Dart has physical ability, but he drafted him with a timeline already in mind for his development. The team signed Wilson and Jameis Winston to make sure they weren't forced into rushing him onto the field, and that's not going to change even if (or when) Wilson starts taking his lumps. We're just warning you now: The Dart project is for 2026 and beyond, and don't expect to see him until the back half of this year at the earliest no matter how ugly things get.