Giants turn to Jaxson Dart, but can rookie QB save Brian Daboll, Joe Schoen? Another reset may await New York

Welcome to the final countdown in New Jersey. Again.

Giants owner John Mara is no stranger to organizational turnover, dismissing four different head coaches since Tom Coughlin's tenure ended in 2015. In fact, Mara's commitment to current coach Brian Daboll, as well as Daboll's partner in crime, embattled general manager Joe Schoen, has been the exception of the franchise's last decade. Mara has clenched his jaw through loss after loss, holding firm in the name of long-lost continuity. And now, with Tuesday's news of a switch to rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, the tides turn.

Dart's promotion over Russell Wilson is wholly unsurprising. Once the magical face of dual-threat signal-callers, Wilson was always destined to find the bench, signed for backup money at age 36 and broadcast as a placeholder once Dart arrived as the 25th overall draft pick in April. But besides representing a breath of much-needed fresh air for Daboll's mostly hapless offense, Dart also represents something more dire for the men tasked with shepherding Mara's team: the last hurrah of the Daboll-Schoen regime.

You see, Schoen has been rebuilding the Giants since his arrival in 2022. Somehow his teams have gotten progressively worse, opening with a surprise playoff bid, then sinking to 6-11 amid injuries and all the way to 3-14 last year. He was the man responsible for paying lucrative money to Daniel Jones, the last first-round quarterback to try his hand at MetLife Stadium, while simultaneously failing to surround Jones with adequate support. (Jones, by the way, is off to a remarkably efficient start to his Indianapolis Colts career.)

Daboll's arguably fared just a bit better, squeezing Pro Bowl-caliber production out of both Jones and Saquon Barkley, then an injury-riddled star for the G-Men, at the start of his tenure. Schoen's inability to outfit his coach with a difference-making quarterback -- like, say, rival standout Jayden Daniels, an obvious Daboll favorite in the lead-up to the 2024 draft -- is another potential mark in Daboll's favor. Yet he's also the guy with the headset. The one who's consistently struggled to adapt his game plans, year after year.

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Bryan DeArdo

Which is a long way of saying: This is it for both of them. Dart is it. Dart is safe, no matter how his 2025 debut plays out. He's 22 years old. He warranted a Day 1 draft pick. He flashed NFL-level composure in the preseason. Even as a total unknown, he offers more promise than any quarterback currently employed by the Giants, and likely any quarterback they might feasibly be able to acquire by next offseason. The only real question is whether he can do enough as a rookie -- right here, right now -- to keep the current infrastructure intact. Dart may have been another Daboll favorite, with his scrappy dual-threat potential giving the coach visions of, say, Philadelphia Eagles star Jalen Hurts, but Mara has no obligation to ensure Dart aims for that kind of impact under the direction of wayward decision-makers.

It's not an unusual practice: a team making a premium investment in a quarterback, only to restart atop the staff the very next season, if not earlier. And it makes sense: Typically teams are only spending such early picks on quarterbacks because they're in a place of desperation, operating under unstable leadership.

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Again, Daboll and Schoen may deserve credit for reaching the playoffs in their first season together, and not only that, but winning a road postseason game. That's not nothing. Unfortunately, it was also three years ago, which is a long time in the NFL. Many of the scrappy stalwarts of that run -- Jones, Barkley, Adoree' Jackson, Xavier McKinney, Julian Love -- are long gone. Since then, the Daboll-Schoen pairing has overseen a combined record of 9-28. That's tied for second-worst among all NFL teams over that span, better than only the 8-29 mark compiled by the hapless Carolina Panthers.

So what, exactly, does Dart have to do to save the jobs of the men who welcomed him to the NFL? There's no perfect answer there, and that's because there may be no answer at all. Even if Dart flashes enough to transcend the mess around him, it's possible Mara will still see Daboll and/or Schoen as weights around the young quarterback's ankles -- impediments rather than accelerators of his ultimate growth. Only time will tell in that regard, such as if Dart routinely makes something out of nothing on otherwise broken plays and head-scratching calls.

But we must also remember Mara was willing to give Daboll and Schoen this 2025 season to begin with, even after they crashed to Earth with a three-win circus the year prior. He was willing to entrust the big draft-day quarterback decision to the same duo that paid and then witnessed Daniel Jones' downfall. Maybe he's just as willing to double-down -- no, quadruple-down? -- on this regime if Dart shows even a semblance of NFL star power, just to ensure he doesn't go deeper down the Cleveland Browns rabbit hole of total overhauls? Even if that's the lean, a reasonable bet is that the Giants need to finish with at least a few more wins than they did in 2024 to justify another run-it-back scenario.

No problem, you say? Three wins isn't a high bar to clear, and now the offense has someone who can actually move at quarterback. Well, let us kindly remind you that the Giants are currently 0-3. To exceed last year's win total and display marked improvement means you're talking about something like a 5-9 or 6-8 finish over the final 14 games, with Dart only set to take his first professional snaps this Sunday against a potential title contender in the Los Angeles Chargers. Impossible? No. Improbable? Yes. Especially when the offensive line remains a concern and the skill weapons are basically Malik Nabers and ... a bruising rookie running back in Cam Skattebo?

Who knows? Maybe Dart will be just the point guard Daboll's needed all along. Maybe his mobility will offset the protection woes. Maybe his fresher touch will prove more reliable than the aging, chuck-and-pray posture of Wilson. Maybe, above all, Mara won't care if the Giants even match the 3-14 record from last year. It didn't get Daboll and Schoen ousted then, so why now? Maybe Giants fans will be subjected to the madness for years and years to come. For now, at least, there is at least one beacon of hope set to touch the football on every play, with or without the long-term security of the guys calling the shots.