Jaxson Dart wants to fight to the finish and if that means staying on the field down the stretch of games long since decided, so be it.
With the Giants trailing 34-17 in the closing minutes last week against the 49ers, Dart took some heavy hits while directing a scoring drive, tossing a touchdown pass to Gunner Olszewski with 1:21 remaining.
Later that night, the Commanders were trailing 38-7 to the Seahawks with 7:39 remaining when Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels was sacked and suffered a dislocated left elbow.
A day later, when asked why Daniels was still in the game so late in a blowout, Commanders head coach Dan Quinn admitted: “I missed it.’’ And: “That is 100 percent on me.”
Dart said he has known Daniels since they trained together as high school players. “First of all, prayers to him … You definitely hate to see that,’’ Dart said.
As far as getting taken out of a game to avoid an injury such as the one that put Daniels out of action, Dart was not interested in taking a seat.
“How I view it, I never want to come out of the game, if I’m up or down,’’ he said, “I played in my bowl game last year [a 52-20 Ole Miss victory over Duke] and we were up by like 30 points and I’m telling the coach, ‘There’s no way I’m coming out, I’ll stay on the field even if you try to sub me out.’ As competitors, you’re not going to be an easy out in those situations and you feel like you can get back in the game, because if you’ve paid attention to the NFL, you can look at our Broncos game, you can watch the Bears and Cincinnati game, even with what looks like a little time left, you’re always still kind of in the game. How I see it is you play it through 00:00.’’
The Giants returned to their locker room after practice to see new black cushioned folding chairs in front of their lockers, replacing the old backless stools they grew accustomed to sitting on. Kayvon Thibodeaux came up with the idea and the team offered two different chair models for the players to choose from.
“This one had the thicker cushion,’’ guard Jon Runyan told The Post. “I actually voted for the other one. The stools weren’t bad, we didn’t know any different. It’s nice we get a little chair with a back. More comfortable. When I was in Green Bay we didn’t even have chairs, you kinda just sat in your locker. That was a little difficult.’’
Thibodeaux was pleased with the upgrade.
“Super grateful,’’ he said.
There was good news and not-so-good news on the injury front for the Giants.
S Jevón Holland (knee) was limited and TE Daniel Bellinger (neck) was a full returnee to practice.
CB Cor’Dale Flott (concussion protocol) returned for noncontact work. Several other players were not able to practice, most notably RT Jermaine Eluemunor (pectoral), C John Michael Schmitz Jr. (shin), CB Paulson Adebo (knee), K Graham Gano (neck), LB Darius Muasau (ankle) and DL Chauncey Golston (neck).
Tom Coughlin is one step closer to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Hall on Wednesday revealed nine semifinalists in the coach category and the two-time Super Bowl winning former Giants head coach for the second consecutive year is on the list.
The other eight semifinalists for the Class of 2026 are Bill Belichick, Mike Holmgren, Chuck Knox, Buddy Parker, Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer, George Seifert and Mike Shanahan.
Next in the process is for the Coach Blue-Ribbon Committee to select one finalist to present to the full Hall of Fame selection committee.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
