Giants GM Joe Schoen must find Jaxson Dart a match made in coach-quarterback heaven
Giants general manager Joe Schoen and quarterback Jaxson Dart, inset. Credit: Noah K. Murray; AP/Steven Senne
Joe Schoen rattled off a number of reasons he thinks the opening for head coach of the Giants will be an appealing opportunity this offseason. They ranged from leading a flagship franchise (although given how they have played in recent times that flag should be flying at half mast) to working for steady ownership to the old standby of this being “the greatest city in the world.”
At least he didn’t try to sing that last part.
Schoen even ducked around what might be the biggest negative to the opening: Himself.
Not him personally, but assuming he sticks around to make this hire he probably won’t be on the surest of footing coming off three straight disappointing seasons. Working under a general manager already on the hot seat is not a very appealing way to begin a coaching tenure.
“The calls we’ve gotten, I think we’re going to be able to fill the job,” he said confidently while addressing reporters for the first time since training camp on Tuesday.
Of course there is one other huge element at play here that should overshadow all of the other positives and negatives:
The Giants have a good, young quarterback who will be on his rookie contract for the next four years, and in the NFL that’s like winning the lottery. Anyone who can scribble an X and an O on a piece of paper should be clamoring to want to coach him, develop him, and ride him to whatever levels of success they can together attain.
As Schoen dangles Dart to lure in candidates, he needs to remember that the relationship swings both ways. Yes, Dart makes this an attractive job, but it’s equally important that the attraction be mutual, that the Giants find a coach with whom Dart can connect. Schoen is now in the matchmaking business, and syncing a quarterback with a coach is the most holy union in football.
They already had that magical bond between Dart and Brian Daboll and they fired him last month. Now they need to come up with another soul mate for their star.
Schoen made it clear Dart will play a role in this coming process – “That’s going to weigh heavy in the decision,” he said -- but it certainly won’t be Dart’s call.
“You’re going to take that into account if he has an opinion, but with all due respect to Jaxson he’s been here for nine months,” Schoen said. “You want to lean on him if it’s an offensive mind or a concept or something, but you have people in the building who have been doing this for over 20 years and networks around the league and [people who] know what it looks like and have been doing it for a long time.”
Schoen only gets one shot at this and he’d better get it right because Dart already looks like a player whose patience is capable of waning. Monday night he played his first game without Daboll and there was a noticeable heaviness to his normally free spirit. Part of that may have been the constant coaching points – from this staff and the rest of the world -- about when to slide, when to run, and when to duck out of bounds - that has become the issue of the moment. Another piece is undoubtedly the losing of seven straight games.
This is also a 22-year-old who has started seven NFL games and in the course of that action has lost his best wide receiver to injury, his best running back (and best friend) to another injury, and the head coach who had become his confidante, mentor and biggest cheerleader since the draft process began around this time last year.
Not exactly how he envisioned his career starting out. The football hasn’t been an obstacle for him. He has yet to look overmatched by any opposing defense or scheme. It’s the other stuff that has gotten in his way. The Giants stuff.
“There’s been a lot of adversity,” Dart said on Tuesday. “Obviously there are some things that have happened that aren’t ideal but I am just trying to keep the perspective of controlling what I can control, keeping these guys in the locker room together, continue to stay engaged, finish this year off the right way.”
Dart added that he knows what kind of player and leader he is, but also that he knows “what the vision is here.”
“You have to have an unwavering faith, even when times are tough,” he said. “Continue to have positivity.”
Is his faith in the Giants as strong as it was in April when he was drafted by them?
“One hundred percent,” he said.
Schoen simply cannot allow that to change under this next head coach.
Selecting Dart – and whatever role we think he took in that process, he is the one who made the trade and the pick -- appears to be Schoen’s greatest achievement in four years on the job. Losing Dart’s confidence would be his greatest and likely final failure.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
