Giants 2025 NFL Draft takeaways: The wait begins. When will Jaxson Dart be ready?

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The silver lining to a horrible 2024 New York Giants season was that it set up a fascinating offseason build-up to the 2025 NFL Draft. The current regime, led by GM Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll, was put on notice by ownership. Fix this, or …

They needed, it seemed, to deliver big during the draft. Time will tell if that’s what they did, but in terms of taking some big swings to turn things around, Schoen and Daboll didn’t disappoint.

It all started Day 1, with the Giants selecting Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter with the No. 3 pick before making a huge splash by trading back into the first round for Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart — the franchise’s first QB selection since using the No. 6 pick on Daniel Jones in 2019.

The Giants then tackled some of their biggest remaining needs, adding a new running mate for star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, a potential future starter on the offensive line and an intriguing playmaker who could quickly become a fan favorite.

“Doesn’t matter what I think, till we go out and do it,” GM Joe Schoen said when asked how much better he thinks New York’s roster is after the draft. “Do I like the guys? Heck yeah. I like the makeup. I think they’re wired the right way, the right DNA. I think we have the right people in this building, but it’s up to us to really start to jell and develop who we want to be and what we want to be about.”

Best value pick

Marcus Mbow had his draft party Friday night, so there was clearly an expectation that he’d be picked in the second or third rounds. The offensive lineman wasn’t alone in that assumption, as The Athletic’s draft expert Dane Brugler ranked Mbow No. 84 on his top-300 prospect list. However, Mbow fell to the Giants at No. 154 in the fifth round.

“It was a waiting game, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter,” said Mbow, who celebrated the moment with family at home. “Just got to do what you can with the opportunity you’re given and go kill it.”

A potential reason for Mbow’s fall was his medical history. According to Brugler’s “The Beast,” Mbow suffered a gruesome broken right leg (Oct. 2023) and missed the second half of his sophomore season.

But Schoen admitted Saturday they were surprised Mbow was still available in the fifth round. They knew of no red flags that caused him to slide. The Giants, in fact, considered Mbow in the fourth round before they opted to go with running back Cam Skattebo at No. 105 instead.

But Mbow’s slide could be extremely beneficial for the Giants, whose offensive line has struggled in recent years. While the team returns all of its starters from last season (left tackle Andrew Thomas, left guard Jon Runyan Jr., center John Michael Schmitz, right guard Greg Van Roten and right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor), there’s room for a rookie to compete and take over. That’s especially true at right guard, given Van Roten’s age (35). In the mix with Mbow will be Aaron Stinnie, Josh Ezeudu, Jake Kubas and Evan Neal.

Mbow played tackle and guard in college, and he’s been working at center, as well, since his college season ended.

“I feel like I’ll be able to succeed at all five positions,” Mbow said. “Been working them all, and they all feel pretty good, so I’m excited to see where they want me.”

Most surprising pick

It’s not surprising the Giants traded back into the first round for a quarterback. That gambit was talked about a lot leading up to the draft. It also wasn’t too wild the Giants ended up taking Dart, a QB the Giants seemed to grow fond of during the pre-draft process. No, the most surprising part of this whole thing was that the Giants twice passed on the chance to draft Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders, whom most believed to be the QB2 in this year’s class.

But the Giants’ selection of Dart made him the second quarterback taken, and it officially kicked off Sanders’ historic slide. Really, the surprise was just how swiftly the QB marketplace seemed to change and the role the Giants played in that.

“We went through an extensive process, and we moved up for Jaxson,” Schoen said. “Again, we’re fired up to have him. But at the end of the day, when we went through the process and we ranked them, this is how we had them ranked, and Jaxson, we felt the value matched up with where we saw the player.”

Biggest question mark

Since Jones was benched last November, the future of the Giants’ quarterback position has been the most dominant storyline in New York. Dart’s selection doesn’t quiet that discussion; it merely changes the nature of it. Now it’s: How long until Dart is ready to take over?

It’s obviously way too early to say if Dart will find long-term success as the successor to Jones. But his selection alone has invigorated the fan base with the idea of change.

But as to the question of when he’ll be ready, everything scouting reports said about Dart, and everything the Giants have said so far, indicates he’ll need some time to develop. In that regard, New York is a good fit, as Dart won’t be pressed into action right away. He can sit behind veterans Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston to start the season. Daboll will then get the time to develop Dart, and we’ll see if the coach can replicate the success he had with QB Josh Allen in Buffalo.

You do have to wonder, though, as Schoen and Daboll enter their fourth season at the helm and are coming off a combined 9-25 record over the last two seasons, how much pressure will they be under to show Dart’s progress if things turn south early on? If Dart’s forced onto the field early, will he truly be ready?

Remaining needs

Give the Giants credit: They addressed a lot of their glaring needs in the draft even after picking an edge rusher, a spot they were already set at, with their first selection. While there’s not really an immediate need for a new starter at any spot, the Giants could use quality depth across the board, but especially at inside linebacker.

Micah McFadden and Bobby Okereke return as the inside linebacker starters, and Darius Musau showed some flash as a rookie. But the Giants still brought in free agents Chris Board and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, so adding some young top talent here in the future could be interesting to ponder.

Wide receiver is another position that could use some reinforcements despite having rising star Malik Nabers on the depth chart. They brought back Darius Slayton and Wan’Dale Robinson is a solid slot option, but if there are injuries to any of those three, there’s not much beyond them.

Post-draft outlook

It’s too early to provide a win-loss prediction, but they certainly look a lot better on paper than the 3-14 mess they were last year, especially on defense. For all of the attention the quarterback situation gets, the Giants have been somewhat quietly building a strong defense this offseason. And they needed to.

“Quite frankly, I didn’t think our defense played very well this year at all,” team co-owner John Mara said immediately after the season.

Schoen heard him loud and clear and set about trying to fix the issue. We’ll see if all the investment this offseason does indeed result in a better defensive performance, but the pieces are there, so that it should be this team’s strong suit, no matter what happens with the offense.

(Photo of John Mara, Joe Schoen, Jaxson Dart and Brian Daboll: Thomas Salus / Imagn Images)

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