Jaxson Dart may have helped lead the New York Giants to a statement 28-20 win over the Dallas Cowboys, but the victory didn’t stop the criticism. Former Miami Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder has pointed to one of Dart’s on-field antics this offseason as concerning behavior for a franchise quarterback.
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“The Giants were better prepared than the Cowboys when that whistle blew and kicked that ball off. You saw it from the beginning,” Crowder said on The Pivot Podcast. “And another thing that I love that Jaxson Dart can do: let Cam Skattebo do back flips and do all that goofball stuff that young kids do. Stop dropping your shoulder, Jackson. You are a franchise-style quarterback. You’re showing it. You can run, you can pass, which we’ve talked about a lot of athletic quarterbacks with arms.
“I’m not saying he’s Josh Allen. I’m not saying he’s Jalen Hurts. I’m just saying Jaxson Dart has the ability to be on that level. Stop doing immature Kitty stuff. I saw him throw the ball away. I said, ‘Damn, Jaxson, you could do that. Do that more. Run out of bounds. Stay healthy so you can carry this hard ball team to something special and not just have some little girls at the club think it’s cool that you ran over a linebacker,’ cuz these bastards are big out here.”
The incident that Channing Crowder referred to dates back to August 4, 2026. The New York Giants players were out at The Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia for a training camp session. But when the team was executing red-zone drills, it erupted into heated verbal exchanges.
Jaxson Dart, being the quarterback, took the snap, found an opening, and scrambled three yards into the end zone for a rushing touchdown. However, instead of a standard celebration, a fired-up Dart immediately tossed the football directly at the helmet of CB Greg Newsome II, who was the closest defender.
The ball struck Newsome square in the facemask before bouncing away. Due to this, the cornerback confronted Dart instantly, and notably, multiple defensive players swarmed the second-year quarterback, resulting in a heated confrontation.
Giants head coach John Harbaugh was visibly frustrated by Dart’s lack of discipline since he treated the practice reps strictly like a real game.
“I think it’s a 15-yard penalty for taunting, so we backed up the extra point and had them do it again. I think he understands that we don’t want it for the game-winning extra point. We don’t want it to be a 50-yard extra point,” Harbaugh said. “Do you think I need to say anything in that case? It’s pretty clear-cut.”
Crowder believes incidents like these overshadow Dart’s performance on the field, as he sees the Giants quarterback having immense potential to reach the level of veterans like Josh Allen (2024 season MVP) and Jalen Hurts (Super Bowl LIX winner and MVP).
In his rookie year, Jaxson Dart threw for 2,272 yards, averaging 162.3 yards per game, with 15 touchdowns in 14 regular-season games. In the Giants’ Week 1 clash against the Dallas Cowboys, Dart completed 23 of 29 passes for 230 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, while adding 54 rushing yards on 11 carries.
Dart’s 230 passing yards against Dallas were above his 2025 average of 162.3 passing yards per game. Whether he can sustain that production over the course of his second season remains to be seen. Next up, Dart and the Giants will face the Los Angeles Rams on September 21.