Jaxson Dart has a big fan in Mike McCarthy.
The former Cowboys and Packers head coach praised the Giants’ rookie quarterback during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Thursday, saying that Dart has an “extremely bright future.”
“I love the way he plays, because when I evaluate quarterbacks, you look at the in-the-pocket ability versus the out-of-pocket. What he does naturally you can’t teach,” McCarthy said. “His ability to make plays with his feet, whether it’s stepping up in the A or B gap and coming out off the movement stuff. Just the fact they run him on so many designed quarterback runs tells you what the coaching staff thinks of him.
“Those are all benefits, but it’s in the pocket stuff that’s the last thing is always I felt … the real challenge for the guys in the National Football League.”
Dart has started eight games and appeared in 10 this season, completing 145 passes for 1,556 yards and 11 touchdowns.
The rookie also has 337 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns.
“This young man has an extremely bright future,” McCarthy said. “I think every quarterback coach in the United States would like to coach this guy. Just because of the way he plays, but he’s got to be conscious of his availability.”
That has been a major topic of conversation after Dart missed two games in November due to a concussion.
In his first game back on Monday night, Dart took a big hit along the sidelines that sent him flying, which has drawn renewed attention to his physical style of play.
Dart defended it this week, telling reporters, in part, that “we’re not playing soccer out here.”
But McCarthy did call it Dart’s “responsibility” to be more cautious when he’s on the field.
“We always talk about the two most important abilities are accountability and availability, and availability is number one. You’ve got to be available to your team,” McCarthy said. “The most important stat for young quarterbacks … is how many consecutive games can he play? You only improve playing every Sunday. You have to line up and play. So, I think it’s clearly part of his role, his job responsibility. And it’s something that he has to be more aware of.”
The ex-coach noted that he “loved” the way Dart plays, but McCarthy said in the instance that Dart was hit by Patriots linebacker Christian Elliss, that he needed to get out of bounds.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
