At long last, the Giants have their quarterback of the future.

After trading with the Texans to acquire the No. 25 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, sending picks No. 34, No. 99, and a 2026 third-rounder to Houston, the Giants selected Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart, hoping he will --eventually -- be the new face of the franchise.

General manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll met with reporters after the selection was made, saying that adding Dart was the culmination of a long and sometimes arduous process.

"Fired up to get him," Schoen said. "We went through an extensive quarterback process. It started as far back as last May, in terms of evaluating the quarterbacks. Dabes and I have been through this quite a few times, and at the end of the day, we’re fired up to have Jaxson Dart as part of the organization and look forward to working with him."

According to Schoen, the quarterback evaluation process started as early as last May and continued throughout the fall.

"It’s been exhausting, to be honest with you," Schoen said. "You’re here all week, and then you go on the road in the fall, all the way up until Easter weekend, you’re still on the road. Credit to the coaches, my staff, all the film they watched, the area scouts putting us in the right direction on the quarterbacks to go see. … It’s a very detailed process."

With Shedeur Sanders among other quarterbacks still available, Schoen explained that the Giants stayed true to their rankings, and started exploring a trade-up possibility around the pick No. 22-23 range. And while a lot of teams wanted to stay put and keep their own selections, the Giants "kept chipping away" to get the QB they coveted, much to the delight of Daboll.

"I think he’s got a lot of qualities that you look for," Daboll said, "He’s a good quarterback, he’s tough, he makes good decisions with the football, pushes the ball down the field, has athletic ability, played in a really tough conference. Started there at USC as a young guy, but did a really good job throughout this process of our meetings, board work, workouts, and the tape that we like. So, look forward to working with him. Glad he’s here and we’ll get started as soon as we can."

While Dart's competitive fire and accuracy are two traits that Daboll pointed out as to why the Giants liked him so much, it certainly doesn't hurt to have another Ole Miss product, and a Giants Hall of Famer, on his side as well.

"Eli [Manning] likes him. Big, big fan," Schoen said with a smile. "Archie as well. The family is obviously Ole Miss through and through and follow him and watch a lot of his games, so they’re definitely fans of Jaxson."

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