QB Guru John Beck’s Advice to Jaxson Dart: Keep Running, Just Run Smarter

Rich has been chewing on the same Jaxson Dart soundbite for weeks. Every press availability, the Giants rookie says the same thing. He is not changing. He knows his best ability is his availability, but he is not changing. Rich is a fan, and that is exactly why it bugs him. You are the quarterback of the big blue, Rich tells the room, not the big blue tent.

He brings the question to QB guru John Beck, who has known Dart since the kid was fifteen. Beck does not back down from the running. He just wants to sharpen the finish.

Beck reaches for a line Steve Young gave him as a young player. Your athleticism and ability to make plays has to be part of your game, because that is who you are. But it has to be at the right time. You have to make sure that when you use that grit, you are still available for the next play. Dart's father was a linebacker at Utah, and he raised his son to play a little like a linebacker. Beck does not want to turn that off. He wants Dart to understand the finishing point of the run. Use what you can do, then be smart about when you take the hit and when you get down.

Rich is in. He brings up the moment last year against the Patriots, where Dart danced along the sideline and Christian Ellis lit him up on a hit Rich calls unnecessary. Then he points to the Hard Knocks footage of, he believes, Commanders staff saying the quiet part out loud. We know he is going to give us shots on him. So take them. Just be smart.

Beck says the staff in New York knows how to have that conversation. His business partner Taylor Kelly works with Dart directly. Harbaugh, he assumes, will say something. Then Beck pulls out the Elway helicopter in the Super Bowl. Everybody loved it. But Elway also knew the right time to do that. Dart will get there. The NFL is just a little different now, and any team that gets a chance to put a young quarterback on the ground is going to take it.

Rich lands the button where any Giants fan would want it to land. He hopes Dart gets to be like Elway someday. First ballot Hall of Famer, last game, damn it, just go for it. He hopes Dart earns that version of the run.