“[Dart’s] very talented,” Harbaugh said this summer. “He’s got exceptional arm talent.” ESPNJordan RaananSep 21, 2026, 06:00 AM ETCloseJordan Raanan covers the New York Giants for ESPN and can be heard hosting on ESPN Radio. Raanan joined ESPN in 2016.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsEAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Giants were in the midst of their final training camp practice. It was their 20th camp practice in 29 days stretching across three states and much of the East Coast.It would have been easy for quarterback Jaxson Dart & Co. to be going through the motions on this sunny Wednesday afternoon back at the under-construction Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
The third and final preseason game was just days away, with the 2026 regular season and real games on the horizon.But those who were around the Giants this summer know that going through the motions is not how they operated under new coach John Harbaugh, for whom it’s all football, all the time. Just how Harbaugh and Dart like it.On the 37th of 87 live reps that day, Dart went back to pass and was pressured off the edge by Abdul Carter. He sprinted right, running as fast as he could to elude the speedy linebacker. Rather than hit the brakes and establish a strong base to throw, the quarterback remained at top speed as he spotted wide receiver Darnell Mooney downfield.
To make the play on the move, Dart heaved the ball 50 yards using the most unconventional motion. He threw the football submarine-style with his knuckles coming just inches from the ground. After the ball was released, Dart’s momentum flung him to the ground, where he rolled over twice. His body had no other option.The ball sailed into the bright blue sky, covering half the field in air yards before dropping perfectly on his receiver.
Mooney made the catch for a 40-yard gain. Dart peeled himself off the grass as if nothing had happened and jogged back to the huddle.This is what the young, dynamic quarterback brings to the table: the ability to make special plays and throws from unique angles. It’s part of what made the Giants trade up for Dart last year in the first round of the NFL draft and what persuaded Harbaugh to choose the Giants over the Tennessee Titans and Atlanta Falcons. They think with some refinement, Dart can become one of the league’s best quarterbacks, in large part because of the special throws he can make.It almost defies logic and physics.
It certainly goes against old-school principles.”I was a baseball player my whole life. Played middle infield and thought that I was pretty good,” Dart said. “So, being able to have the arm talent to do those [throws], I think, is something that I feel confident translating over into this game.”The training camp throw was Ozzie Smith-esque. It’s what we’ve become accustomed to seeing each week from some of the league’s best quarterbacks, as well.
Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes normalized unorthodox arm angles and sidearm throws even though quarterbacks have been doing it for years.”Mahomes didn’t take it to the next level. People were capable of doing that, too,” former NFL quarterback and QB coach/mentor Matt Simms said. “But he was the person that allowed people to be more accepting of it.”Dart’s opposing quarterback this week, Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams (Monday, 8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN), is currently one of the best in the league at altering his arm angles to manipulate throwing windows.
Like Dart, he’s a flip-of-the-wrist thrower, which helps on screens, touch passes and fitting the ball into tight windows.The arm-angle variety has suited Stafford well, even if it’s not necessarily for eye-popping throws. He has three Pro Bowl selections and a Super Bowl win on his résumé heading into the Week 2 game against the visiting Giants.”Those are the little throws where the average fan probably watches and just goes, ‘There’s a checkdown for 4 yards to the running back.’ But maybe that ball gets batted or you don’t even throw it with that defensive lineman in your face or something like that. That’s where I feel they come,” Stafford said last week. “It’s not the launches down the field where I’m like, ‘I got a great clean pocket, let me just drop it down for no reason.’ It’s just the instinctual plays.”Dart is an instinctual quarterback.
It was on display in the preseason when he whipped the ball sidearm against his body to rookie Malachi Fields for a touchdown. It worked in Week 1 when he threw several balls around defenders to find tight end Isaiah Likely in the middle of the field during a 28-20 win against the Dallas Cowboys.It gives Dart a chance not just to be a quarterback who makes special throws, but to be a special quarterback.”[Dart’s] very talented,” Harbaugh said this summer. “He’s got exceptional arm talent. He can throw off different platforms.
The quarterback coaches will talk to you about throwing off-platform and things like that, off-balance throws, arm angles. I think he’s really good at that.” DART’S WARMUPS THROUGHOUT his rookie season included practicing all kinds of throws — over-the-top, sidearm, three-quarters and submarine. The routine consisted of approximately 15 minutes of delivering balls to equipment managers turned wide receivers during the early pregame warmups. It’s part of a program Jaxson developed through his work at 3DQB, a quarterback training company he has worked with since he was a teenager and still employs in the offseason.It was only natural after he spent a large chunk of his childhood in Kaysville, Utah, playing travel baseball.Naturally, the skills transferred to the football field.”As a kid, he would do that funky stuff too, and you’d just be like, ‘What the hell?'” Brandon Dart, Jaxson’s father, said.
“But then it would be like, ‘Damn, that’s pretty good.'”Brandon said one of the happiest days of his son’s childhood was when Rivals, a media company that focuses on recruiting and high school player rankings, changed his profile from dropback quarterback to dual threat. Jaxson Dart didn’t want his ability to throw and run minimized. The change was validation of the quarterback he envisioned himself to be and wanted to become.Naturally, his running and unique throws met with some resistance. Dart had a personal quarterbacks coach who showed him film and wanted him to throw like Peyton Manning, and some high school coaches who would get frustrated with the things he did.
During his college recruitment, he eliminated the University of Oklahoma because the Sooners were too rigid with their quarterbacks for his liking at the time, and even Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss was resistant to some of the unconventional things he did.But Dart knew from a young age he wasn’t going to be put into a box.”I just remember laughing when he was a freshman and he had this quarterback coach that was in his mid-to-late 60s, and Jaxson drove him crazy just because he was the in-the-box robotic quarterback coach and Jaxson would just like, ‘Nah, that’s not what we’re doing. We’re not going to do it like that,'” Brandon said. “I just remember them arguing all the time about just ways that he wanted to do it versus the way that Jaxson was being coached how to do it.”Dart’s work with 3DQB and his coaches in high school, college and now the NFL has paid dividends. Already, Dart is one of the best throwers of the football on the run.He completed 52% of his passes outside the pocket as a rookie despite averaging the fifth-most air yards per attempt (9.8) last season.
That’s comparable to two-time MVP Lamar Jackson in 2025.It’s not an accident.”[Dart’s] throwing mechanics on the run are as good as anybody in the NFL,” said Simms, son of former NFL star and Giants legend Phil Simms, who was ahead of the curve in teaching his kids off-platform throws.Dart has also been developing and refining these throws for years. It began in the backyard and has been perfected in the lab.It was done with a vision in mind: become a new-age quart
