Joe Schoen reveals truth behind not liking Jaxson Dart for Giants' top pick in 2025 NFL

New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart has been the brightest spot for the NFC East franchise amid a rather bleak season.

Dart was selected with the 25th pick in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft. Following the draft, a footage from "Giants Life: How the Jaxson Dart trade went down," showed general manager Joe Schoen telling former coach Brian Daboll to pick Dart if he believed in him.

While Daboll has been largely credited for scouting and backing Dart ahead of the draft, Schoen seemingly dismissed the notion saying it was a "franchise decision."

When USA Today's Art Stapleton asked Schoen about the notion that Dart was Daboll's pick, the Giants GM refuted the claim saying the franchise has the young quarterback on their radar for a while.

Art Stapleton

@art_stapleton

I asked Joe Schoen about the narrative that Jaxson Dart was solely Brian Daboll's pick, and that he somehow was not sold on Dart. Schoen said it's not true, that Dart was on their radar during the season, his 30 visit was scheduled in January, before Daboll and coaches got

"Anytime you’re going to make a decision on a first-round quarterback, that’s going to be an organizational decision,” Schoen said. “Credit to my staff. They did a phenomenal job gathering information. … The research they did was spot on. If you’re going to make the decision to move back up into the first round to get a quarterback, all hands are on deck.”

Giants manager Joe Schoen takes accountability for New York's poor season

The Giants fired coach Brian Daboll after a 2-8 start while general manager Joe Schoen remained in his role. However, with the team continuing to slide with a 2-11 record, Schoen took the blame for the season.

"Defensively, after we were 30th last year at this time, and [with] the addition of Abdul Carter, Paulson Adebo, Jevón Holland, Chauncey Golston, Roy Robertson-Harris, we’re in that same area, unfortunately," Schoen said.

“I didn’t anticipate we’d still be 30th in the league in defense at this point with the addition of those players, and we have to do a better job of executing, a better job of finishing games and I’ve got to do a better job with the personnel.”

Although the Giants have a group of talented young players, they are under immense pressure to perform as the team has gone 5-25 since the start of the 2024 season.