EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ — For a moment late in Sunday’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers, the Giants‘ rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart crouched on the sideline.
Dart had taken a series of hard hits in the fourth quarter. He appeared to be in some pain. Despite adding two touchdowns in the final frame, it was too little, too late for the Giants’ depleted offense.
When head coach Brian Daboll saw Dart after the Giants’ 34-24 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium, the quarterback told him that he was “good” — but not really. His team had slipped to 2-7 on the season, and sat last in the NFC East.
“He’s a competitor,” Daboll explained. “So, we get these results, it should frustrate you. It should have you, lack of better terms, not happy.”
Dart gave his all on Sunday. He threw for 191 yards and led the Giants with 56 rushing yards. He tallied three total touchdowns. It wasn’t enough. There was only so much he could do with his team’s number one running back (Cam Skattebo) and wide receiver (Malik Nabers) out for the rest of the season with injuries. He simply can’t do it all himself.
San Francisco burned New York in the run game — a fairly obvious outcome given that the 49ers employ Christian McCaffrey, one of the NFL’s best running backs. McCaffrey rushed for 106 yards on 28 attempts and tallied both a rushing and a receiving touchdown Sunday.
Dart is the Giants’ gamebreaker. Entering Sunday, he had totalled 12 touchdowns since being named the team’s starting quarterback in Week 4 — the fifth-most in the NFL during that span. He’s the fifth rookie quarterback since 2000 to total 12 or more touchdowns in his first five career starts, and holds the Giants’ franchise record in this metric. And with his fourth-quarter rushing touchdown on Sunday, he tied Charlie Conerly for the second-most rushing touchdowns in a season by a Giants quarterback — he needs three more to beat Daniel Jones’ record of seven in 2022.
Daboll has entrusted the rookie with his job, which appears to be less stable with each loss. His relationship with the rookie is well documented, and Daboll took it a step further Sunday when he called Dart “the leader of our football team” — a tall order for a rookie quarterback.
“The way he competes, people need to feed off of that,” Daboll said.
Dart marched the Giants’ offense swiftly down the field for 64 yards on the opening drive of the game, and found Theo Johnson for a 15-yard touchdown pass. It was Dart’s fourth opening drive touchdown in six starts.
Theo Johnson walks the tight rope for another #Giants opening drive touchdown.
Jaxson Dart has led four opening drive touchdowns in six starts. pic.twitter.com/21sIb45k2G
— Nick Falato (@nickfalato) November 2, 2025 >
But the next four scoring drives all went to the 49ers. The Giants’ offense could only cough up a single field goal until the fourth quarter, when, at one point trailing 27-10, their two late touchdowns wouldn’t be enough.
“We got to be able to not just let things collapse a little bit,” Dart said. “Good plays are gonna happen for the other team. That’s the league that we play in, and we can’t let one lead to another, and that’s just something that we can get better at. We have to have the intensity, the focus, as a whole team, to weather the adversity storms and always just keep the belief that we’re going to win.”
Throughout his postgame media availability, Dart reiterated his belief in the Giants — a testament to Daboll’s praise of his leadership. The team has several talented players, he said. His confidence doesn’t waver in his teammates or his coaches. He’ll continue to encourage the team and hold himself to a high standard, in turn raising the bar for everyone else.
In the middle of answering a question about how he, as a leader, would help the Giants prepare for a Week 10 road game against the 5-3 Chicago Bears, Dart explained his unwavering support for his team.
“We’re close,” Dart said. “I know that you can say this for a lot of teams, but we’re really close to having this season kind of flip in a different direction. I think it’s just going to take all of us collectively to try to find a way to just win one game at a time.”
That’s the leader the Giants should build around: the competitor who gives his all for 60 minutes and is frustrated by mounting losses, yet maintains the levelheadedness required to keep his team moving forward.
But of course, as Big Blue showed Sunday, the rookie quarterback can’t do it all himself.
