RP Clips: Beginning of The End for Jaxson Dart?

Matt Harmon (0:00)

This is Reception Perception, The Show. James Koh and Matt Harmon.

James Koh (0:06)

All right, in New York, Malik Nabers dealing with a shoulder injury. I didn't even know he was dealing with a shoulder injury. That was new to me.

But again, pretty light contact, and said he hurt his shoulder there. Jaxson Dart now out for the season with a season ending knee injury, multiple ligaments, and maybe a meniscus tear there for Jaxson Dart. Bro, is Jaxson Dart done, man? Like the fact that he has been dealing with so many injuries, he already came into the league as a developmental quarterback is, I don't know, man, like he's gone for the season again. We're going to be going into year number three with barely any kind of playing time experience under his belt. I don't know, man, like what are we thinking about for the career outlook for Jaxson Dart and the season long outlook for the Giants?

Matt Harmon (0:54)

Yeah, it's a great question about Dart. This is also not the coaching staff that drafted Jaxson Dart. I think, man, it's just such a shame because he played well in week one.

I talked about how he was throwing some really catchable balls in week one, and obviously the Cowboys were just seeding the flat over and over again, which is insane. Nevertheless, I thought he looked like he had taken a little bit of a step in week one.

James Koh (1:18)

Good game plan, too.

Matt Harmon (1:19)

Yeah, really good game plan. It's funny, I was talking about this on some other shows that week one felt very much like a Greg Roman offense, and week two felt very much like a Matt Nagy offense, and that's a little bit what you worry about with the two guys sitting next to each other up in the booth. I think it's basically a two offensive coordinator situation up there in New York, and maybe Greg Roman even has more of his thumb on the scale going forward. James came in and looked terrible.

James Winston looked like a guy who spent all off season being a soccer content creator and not a backup quarterback, probably concerning there where he's basically just a gimmick at this point. I mean, James hasn't played good football in a long time. He's been like a scam fantasy quarterback with the Browns for a couple of games. That's another thing. It was like a couple of games that he was doing that with the Cleveland Browns, not a sustained period. So don't feel good about where the Giants are right now. And yet Dart, I mean, do you think you've seen enough from Jaxson Dart to eschew bringing in competition next year?

I'm not 100% sure about that. So it's just tough for him. I saw a stat today that him, Nabers and Cam Scadaboo have been on the field for 43 snaps together. 43 snaps. I mean, Nabers and Dart have barely played together over the course of Jaxson Dart's NFL career. So I feel bad for Dart that this has happened at this point. I'm not really sure what the future holds for him because I think he is a really intriguing quarterback. But I don't really know if the Giants can count on him as their savior, you know, next year. I guess it will depend on how he handles the off time and develops away from the game, but it's tough.

James Koh (2:59)

OK, talk about Malik Nabers, that shoulder injury. You know, they obviously need him to be 100 percent if they're going to have any kind of chance at winning ball games here. But I tell you what, he did not look good in primetime. But I think a lot of that has, again, to do with that shoulder injury.

Matt Harmon (3:15)

Yep. And this is actually a shoulder injury that has been bugging him for years now, all the way back to August 31st of 2021 Nabers missed the first two games of the season at LSU.

And then he was in 2023 This is according to draftstarks.com, by the way, has really good injury information. If you want to look at a player's injury history and just what they've been dealing with.

James Koh (3:36)

Oh, it's the best.

Matt Harmon (3:37)

Yeah. Nabers was, quote, writhing in pain on the sideline after suffering a right shoulder injury.

He did remain in the game again. That's 2023 July 2025, Nabers injured his right shoulder at practice but returned a few days later. And then here again, this is back in 2026

Suffered a shoulder injury in the first quarter of week two's loss. He was down on the sideline. He popped it back in and returned to the game. But it was very much like a no, not, that didn't look like a big hit. If you guys weren't watching the game, it wasn't like some crushing hit or it just was a pretty normal movement. I don't know about the shoulder injury in practice last summer and how that occurred, what the movement was there. But yeah, this shoulder injury has been dogging him for a while and he has never had surgery on it. I just, oh my God, I was talking to a buddy this morning. Don't you just feel as if, and Nabers, by the way, he's looked okay, but definitely not near 100% through two weeks as you'd expect. Don't you just kind of feel like you can see this 10 weeks from now, the Giants are one and eight, Jameis Winston, who cares? Nabers finally gets the shoulder injury and he's going to come back in 2027 and be the best version of himself. I mean, I totally see that happening as much as that sucks.