Don’t be surprised if Giants’ Jaxson Dart replaces Russell Wilson early in season

How soon will Jaxson Dart replace Russell Wilson?

The question that has hovered over the Giants since the 2025 NFL Draft officially remains unanswered.

But based on Dart’s performance through two preseason games — and how he has handled himself in a variety of practice settings during training camp — it’s clear the Giants are at least getting him ready to start. Which makes perfectly reasonable sense.

Dart (a first-round rookie) and not Wilson (a fading veteran) is their potential long-term quarterback solution. At the very least, Dart is their backup, so they need to have him ready, if Wilson gets hurt or struggles.

Dart impressed during Saturday night’s second preseason game against the Jets. He continued to do so in Tuesday’s practice, when Brian Daboll threw more challenges at him, as the coach keeps the kid on his toes.

Bottom line: Dart is progressing every day. That’s a good thing for the Giants, regardless of when he starts. (And he could start soon.)

While Dart surely won’t start in Week 1 at Washington, on Sept. 7, it’s clear that Wilson’s leash is shortening, as Dart keeps excelling — with back-to-back strong preseason games to open his NFL career.

It all adds up to this: If Wilson struggles early against a brutal schedule (Commanders, Cowboys, Chiefs, Chargers), Daboll could turn to Dart sooner rather than later, as the hot-seat coach tries to keep his job.

After visiting the Bills and facing the Jets in the first two weeks of the preseason, the Giants host the Patriots on Thursday night in their preseason finale. So Tuesday was their last practice before then.

Before Saturday’s matchup with the Jets, Dart had received zero first-team reps this summer. Then Daboll gave Dart one surprise first-team rep late in Saturday’s first half, before immediately putting Wilson back in.

Yet on the next drive — the Giants’ last possession of the first half and Dart’s first full drive of the game — Daboll let the kid work with the starters again. The drive went three plays and out. In the second half, while playing with backups, Dart looked good for a second straight week.

It remains unclear whether he will play Thursday night — with the starters or otherwise — as the possibility lingers that he could replace Wilson before mid-October, if the Giants stumble early.

Dart got 10 reps in Tuesday’s practice — a fairly light workload during a truncated practice.

He did have a couple mistakes. His option pitch to Devin Singletary fell well short. And he had a pass to Greg Dulcich broken up in the back of the end zone, thanks to good coverage. Dart connected with Jordan Bly on a deep ball down the middle, but the pass was under-thrown and might have been picked off, if Bly hadn’t come back to make a great play on it.

Otherwise, Dart handled himself nicely, as he finished 8-of-10 passing, including 7-of-7 to end practice, with a bunch of short throws mixed in.

Late in practice, he threw a perfectly timed ball to Montrell Washington on a crossing route. Dart’s best pass Tuesday was threaded through coverage to Beaux Collins in the back of the end zone, from the 10-yard line. That kicked off Dart’s 7-of-7 finish to practice.

Those are the sort of decisive throws that made Daboll fall in love with Dart during the pre-draft process. And now, it might not be long until their union debuts in a regular season game.