Will Harbaugh get through to Dart?
Mike Florio and Michael Holley break down the future partnership between John Harbaugh and Jaxson Dart, questioning if the head coach will be able to get the quarterback to better protect himself.
Video Transcript
You know, you look at the, you look at their roster, he must, He, he, he mentioned watching a lot of tape.
This is where I thought, Um, Harbaugh was the most authentic and just the most real when he said, I'm watching tape, and I like what I see.
Now, there are certain- you, you don't like everything that you see, otherwise you wouldn't be here.
But I, I look at some of their- The tape doesn't show the scoreboard.
Right, right.
You know, you like parts of it, you don't like it at all.
But you look at some of their... Look at some of their talent, I think is excellent.
I mean, like Abdul Carter, if you can get that guy to wake up, no pun intended, but if you can get him, uh, on, on the, on the right page.
And Burns, I mean, like defensively, for- forget about, Uh, Neighbors and Jackson Dart, which, you know, I like both of those guys.
But defensively, I think there's a lot that Harbaugh can say.
We can win with this.
He... At times, they were in the wrong scheme.
At times, They just didn't do it the way I would do it.
I know I got some building blocks here with the Giants, uh, especially in a division that is a little bit in flux.
So, sure, I, I, I think he's gonna be...
I think he'll be satisfied with where he's able to go with this team.
I don't think this is, he'll go, "Coming to 2026, saying, Oh, we can only win a handful of games."
I think they could be right back in the mix.
The key: Playoff mix... For any NFL team- Playoff mix... Is the quarterback.
And I don't disagree with that at all.
It's not gonna take much.
A win here, a win there, and you're in competition for a playoff berth.
It takes eight, nine wins to get you in that conversation in December and into early January.
For possibly getting a spot.
They're not that far away.
They weren't getting blown out.
They had some good wins last year.
They beat the Chargers.
They beat the Eagles on a Thursday night.
They have the capacity to do it, and the key for any NFL team is the quarterback.
They have Jackson Dart, who was drafted last year by the old regime.
Now, there's stuff floating around social media, clips of conversations which made it was Brian Daboll that really wanted him, and Joe Shane was like, Well, if you really want him...
Regardless, Shane drafted him.
Here's John Harbaugh from yesterday, talking about his new quarterback.
Now second-year first-rounder, Jackson Dart.
It starts with the quarterback, for sure.
I mean, the quarterback, you, you...
The quarterback has got to... You, you build your team around your quarterback.
I mean, that's, you build your team around your players and what they do well.
Uh, and I like, I like the way he plays.
I mean, I like his talent, skill set, all the things he's accomplished.
But more than that, I like who he is and what he's about.
To me, he's about football.
I mean, this young guy loves football.
He wants to talk football all the time, and you know, and, Uh, and that's kind of what I like doing too.
So I think we're gonna have a lot of great conversations, and I can't wait to get started with him.
And look, we've seen what Jaxson Dart can do when he's healthy.
Job number one for John Harbaugh, as it relates to Jackson Dart.
Is going to be to get him to fully appreciate that you've got to play in a way that allows you to continue to play.
And look, the human brain isn't fully developed until you're 25.
You don't fully understand the connection between your behaviors and the potential consequences until you're 25.
Somebody's got to get Jackson Dart to dial it back, to stop with the macho stuff.
And I know that it's a sport that is fueled by physicality, and you gotta have an attitude, and you gotta have confidence.
You gotta know when to dial it back, and we see it all the time with a quarterback who has mobility, a quarterback who doesn't quite have the instinct as to how his movements fit with the other 21 people, and he doesn't know how to avoid contact.
And they got to drill it into Jaxson Dart's brain that one of your most important functions, one of the things we've got to work on is getting you to understand when to go down.
When to get out of bounds, when to throw it away, and we just have to And you have to come up with some creative way.
Turn it into a competition.
Keep track.
"Oh, there's one!"
You know, whatever it is, whatever presses his buttons to get him to redirect that gets him to drop his helmet and try to gain an extra yard.
To making it a game.
I mean, you know, I mean, There's a psychology that goes into it.
Let's come up with a metric.
Let's come up with something that gets Jackson Dart to, to think that he's winning if he's passing on those opportunities to embrace contact or deliver the blow, because that's how you end up getting hurt.
That's gonna be the challenge, 'cause when Dart's healthy and when Dart plays, he can play at a high level, and he can be exactly what they need.
But all due respect to Jameis Winston, whoever the backup's gonna be next year.
There's a reason they're backups, and you wanna go with your starters.
So, and, and I, I think Harbaugh's got the right way to do it.
And I think Harbaugh understands he needs to do it, and, you know, I'd like to think behind the curtain in Baltimore, there was an effort like that made to help uh, Lamar Jackson find that sweet spot between using his full skills and knowing when to not put himself unnecessarily in the line for physical contact.
Yeah, I, I think, uh, I think Dart will get it without even the conversation.
He'll get it before his brain is even even fully developed.
Why?
Because he's had a year of playing football, and he's had too many visits to the blue tent.
And it happens because you start to figure out the speed of, of pro football.
I mean, he was able to do some, uh, pretty cool things at Ole Miss and a great offense playing for Lane Kiffin.
And he was able to do some things in preseason, 'cause it's preseason.
And guys aren't going all out.
I, I, I know the owners think they are, But they're not.
They're not going all out.
When the season starts, and the urgency, the gravity of every game is on the line.
You figure out, "Okay, this is the real thing."
It just, everything moves faster.
Uh, guys are bigger and stronger than you even imagine.
So I think he understands that after that first year, "Hey, I can't do this stuff."
He, probably, of all his times, if he plays Madden, like most of these guys do, if he plays Madden.
He probably never stood above Christian Ellis of the New England Patriots.
Oh yeah, he's no, he's no 90 or 99 on Madden.
Why would I be playing with him?"
Ellis gave him one of the cleanest, most ferocious hits I've seen.
Seen from the 2025 season.
Like, oh, he got there.
He's fast.
He got there faster than you thought.
And he hit you harder than you thought you could be hit.
So that's the NFL.
I think he'll...
He gets that after his rookie season.
