Giants head coach Brian Daboll confirmed on Thursday that first-round pick Jaxson Dart will see his first action as a professional quarterback this weekend when the Giants take on the Bills.
Dart told reporters that he’s excited to take the next step in his career.
“I’m just stoked for the opportunity,” Dart said in his press conference, via transcript from the team. “I hope I can get every situation, just to get those reps, be on that stage and do it at a high level, but I’m just excited for this. I mean, this is just a dream of mine since I was a kid.”
Dart, who started his college career at USC before playing three seasons at Ole Miss, realizes there’s going to be a bump up when it comes to the competition. But he’s not making too much of the change.
“At the end of the day, it’s the same game you were playing when you were a kid, so just enjoy that,” Dart said. “Compete, don’t leave any regrets out there on the field, and don’t ever take this moment lightly, and there’s no light that’s too bright to play in.
“I’m not scared,” Dart later added. “When I go out there, I’m going to play the game that I know how to play and the offense here, they don’t give me restrictions on what I can and can’t do, so there’s obviously going to be things where I’m learning when I can do something, when I can’t do something. I think if you’re going to play scared as a quarterback, you shouldn’t be out there.”
But he also isn’t approaching the contest with the mentality that he has to go out and prove things.
“I want to kind of just be in my game,” Dart said. “I want to be in my own space. I want to be able to encourage others, help raise the play of the guys around me and I just want to win so whatever that takes for me to do when I’m out there on the field, that’s my mindset. It’s not really about, ‘Oh, I’m going to prove this.’ Or, ‘I’m going to prove that.’ How am I going to put our team in the best situation to win?”
Kickoff between the Giants and Bills is set for 1 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon.
