The Josh Innes Show - Jaxson Dart: Future Superstar

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

I know we've talked about this before and I know it's only preseason. But, Jaxson Dart is going to be a rock star in the league. I was watching the Prime broadcast last night and Al Michaels kept talking about how the Giants have 4 quarterbacks and some teams have none. Ehhhh...I wouldn't say that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This winter, take a trip to Tampa on Porter Airlines. Enjoy the warm Tampa Bay temperatures and warm Porter hospitality on your way there. All Porter fairs include beer, wine, and snacks, and free fast-streaming Wi-Fi on planes with no middle seats. And your Tampa Bay vacation includes good times, relaxation, and great Gulf Coast weather. Visit FlyPorter.com and actually enjoy economy. All right, everybody. Welcome in all up in us. Smooth the business. How are you? I know I keep hammering this point. And I've said it for the last couple of weeks. And I will continue to say it after watching last night. Jackson Dart is going to be a rock star. And I hate that I feel this way because I've been reading that a lot of people feel this way. And rarely do I fall in line with what a lot of people feel this way. And rarely do I fall in line with what a lot of people. lot of people think is going to happen. You know, usually I'm kind of an outlier.

You know, you go back to like the Verlander thing. Like, the Astros got to trade for Verlander. And everybody else in Houston was like, nope, can't trade for Verlander. He's cooked. He's done. And then I say trade for Verlander. They trade for Verlander. They go on to win the World Series.

Thanks in large part to Justin Verlander, right? Like usually my takes on things are kind of outside of the general consensus. Let's play a few commercials here, and we'll get into that. Hey, so what did you want to talk about? Well, I want to tell you about Wagovi. Wagovi? Yeah, Wagovi. What about it?

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Wagovi by name. Visit Wagovi.comi.com for savings. Exclusions may apply. Yeah, I'm always in an uncomfortable position when my opinions align with those of the masses. But I've been reading a lot of Jackson DART stories and I've been seeing a lot of splashy headlines about Jackson DART. A lot of people like RG3 thinks Jackson Darts a star. I really believe that Jackson Dard is going to go on to become a baller. just again it's it's preseason the defensive you know the coverage aren't what they're going to be in uh in the regular season it's a different game you're not always facing the ones i get all that totally get it and if you're someone that's dismissive and says yeah okay whatever i would totally get that too but when i watch this dude play i just there's something about him there's a there's

an it factor that he has you know it is very possible that he's throwing the ball of around so well because he's facing people in preseason. But if that's the case, why isn't Cam Ward slinging the ball around in preseason? Why isn't Tyler Shuck slinging the ball around in preseason? These are other rookie quarterbacks. You know, Shudur was fine. He was probably the second best of these young quarterbacks. Like Dylan Gabriel threw the ball around fine. But like, there are guys in the preseason who suck. Now, it doesn't mean they're going to suck. It is not a predictor of future performance. What you do in preseason is not a predictor of future performance.

But for anybody that dismisses somebody for playing well in preseason because of the competition, then you have to be equally as dismissive or equally as condescent, not con, equally as, I guess dismissive would be the word. If you're going to be effusive of guys who, or let me put it this way, if you're going to dismiss somebody for playing well in preseason and just kind of write it off as well, it's preseason, then if, someone plays poorly, you have to be like super against them, right? Like, that's kind of how that has to be.

So if you're, if I'm going to sit here and say the Jackson Darts a future star and he's playing in preseason, you have to be somewhat concerned that Cam Ward has played like shit in preseason. You'd have to be concerned that Tyler Shuck has played poorly in preseason, right? When you look at quarterback play, you have to do that, right? So it's easy to dismiss it as preseason. like how Aaron Rogers plays in preseason won't impact me or if he played that which I don't think Aaron Rogers played at all in preseason

maybe a little bit but like you know veterans and how they play in preseason means very little like Russ Wilson is the quarterback for the Giants for the time being how he plays in preseason doesn't concern me how James Winston plays in preseason doesn't concern me how like Joe Burrow and the guys looked kind of mediocre in their last game right the Bengals against Washington who cares right I don't watch those guys and say, oh, God, their preseason was terrible.

You judge it on younger dudes. You see what they can do. That's what preseason is there for to get people in shape and see what younger dudes can do. Jackson Dart is going to be a star. And I hope we see him play football sooner rather than later. Now, for the Giants, they hope that's not the case because they hope Rusty or James go out and do something. Another thing that I find annoying, though, speaking to the Giants quarterback situation, I'm watching the game last night

and Tommy Davido was slinging They threw five touchdown passes in the game last night against Carolina And I'm listening to Al Michaels And he's like you know a team like the Giants You know they have four quarterbacks Some teams have none Well I wouldn't say that the Giants have four quarterbacks

Or even really one real quarterback I mean it is a group of castoffs It's Russ Wilson who is a castoff Russ Wilson's bounced around After being in Seattle Russ Wilson's bounced around big contract in Denver. Russ Wilson's been, you know, in other places, Pittsburgh. So the idea that Russ Wilson is, you know, like, oh my God, like he's just Russ Wilson

and we know what we're going to get. Yeah, you know what you're going to get is kind of mediocre because Russ Wilson's kind of mediocre now. Well, you know, of course I got James Winston. Well, yeah, James Winston as a number one overall pick has bounced around from team to team here recently because James Winston is not reliable enough to be a full-time NFL starter. What I prefer to have James Winston as the starting quarterback for the Saints over Tyler Shuck? Sure. Why not? Would I prefer to have him over Spencer Rattler? Sure. Why not?

Okay. But like the idea that the giants are just flush with fucking like great quarterback play. Like like they're the Detroit Tigers with Verlander and Scherzer and Audible Sanchez and like they got one of these all time great rotations of quarterbacks. Like no, Al Michaels. They don't just have four quarterbacks. And of course, Jackson Dart and Tommy DeVito. And Tommy DeVito was very good, but we know who Tommy DeVito is and Tommy DeVito playing well. Now, this is where I guess I'll be kind of a hypocrite, but like Tommy DeVito playing well in preseason doesn't mean anything to me because we've seen Tommy DeVito play in major games before. He has been a starter for a while. He had his moment. It was a big time, you know, to do. It was a happening when

Tommy DeVito kind of started playing well when he had that opportunity a couple years ago. So, like, Tommy DeVito slinging it around was great for me because I got my passing yards easily in that game. But I don't sit back and look at Tommy DeVito and go, boy, that preseason game determines to me that Tommy DeVito's got what it takes. And Tommy DeVito should be somebody starting quarterback. But like Al Michaels is on the broadcast going, yeah, I mean, there are teams that would love to have any of these guys? Would they? Like, are teams beating down the door to have Rusty Wilson? because I feel like they could have.

I feel like if they truly wanted Russ Wilson, they could have had Russ Wilson. If somebody wanted James Winston to me their starting quarterback, then it wouldn't have taken the Giants signing him as a backup, right? Like, I don't know. I found that viewpoint to be kind of misguided and dumb, but whatever, you know, it's fine. They are, like, remember, a year ago,

they were dealing with a far worse quarterback situation. So I at least look at their quarterback situation as at least somewhat stable, relative to what it was last year with Daniel Jones being awful, right? But still, like, they're in a weird spot. And we've talked about this with the Giants because the Giants are one of those teams where the coach is fighting for his job. So the decision he makes aren't necessarily going to be the best decisions for the future of the organization in the long term. They're going to be the best decisions for the future of the coach short term because that guy needs to win.

When I look at Brian Dable, who, by the way, as he loses weight and his beard, gets a little grayer and he's balder. He looks like Dr. Samuel Loomis in Halloween. A shot of sex times! I mean, he looks like Donald Pleasance, okay? At least someone. He's got a Donald Pleasance-ish quality about him. If he shaved his beard into that kind of wacky goatee that Donald Pleasance had in Halloween,

he'd look like Dr. Loomis. But anyway, so when I look at the giant situation, they are in a similar situation to that of a team like the Colts who have coaches that are desperate to win now. There's some teams that got bad quarterback situations, but the coach isn't on the hot seat because he's new. Like, you can go down and look at Kellynne Moore in New Orleans, for instance. Like, he's got time to fuck shit up because no one's going to fire him after year one, and nobody expects anything big out of the Saints this year.

But Brian Daybowl is squarely on the hot seat, right? So, you know, it's probably for the best for Jackson Dart that he's not playing to start the year. Some guys come out guns blazing. Some guys come out and get their asses kicked early on and never bounce back. from it, right? So it may be hoof dart to sit behind these veteran guys, but I would not be shocked if somehow this guy is playing this year. But you also have to look at their quarterback situation. What are they going to do with the number of spots they have and who they keep around and who they activate, right? Like people are talking about Tommy DeVito. Are you keeping three

quarterbacks? Is James Winston odd man out? Is Tommy DeVito odd man out? I mean, you're only going have too active on game date? What are you going to do with these guys? But it's just weird to say that a team that's got four okay quarterbacks, one guy that's had Super Bowl success, but since then has been mediocre. James, who's an interception machine, but a really likable guy and a competent backup. Like if you say, hey, which backup quarterback out of all the backups in the league would you like to have for your team? Like, you take James Winston for a day or two, because while you know he might throw four picks, he could also lead you down the field and score touchdown for you, right? I mean, you saw it last night. Dart gets hurt. James comes in,

dime for a touchdown out of the shoot. Again, that's a former number one pick and former NFL starter versus backup players. So take that for what it is, but he did it. But you look at what they've got in their quarterback situation and you're like, you know, the idea that they've got four and some teams don't have one, I don't buy that. But will Jackson Dart play by the middle of the season? You know, will there be, there will be pressure. If If Russell Wilson plays poorly, which every indicator is that he will, because he's played in a mediocre way since his glory days in Seattle, right? Like, look at what he was doing in Denver. They gave him this huge deal in Denver, and it was a mess.

He was actually fine in Pittsburgh once he came in and played well a couple of times, made a couple of nice throws, had a couple of nice moments. But he was also, when he kind of settled in and became the day in, day out starter in that situation, he also wasn't really consistent. Consistently good. So what makes us believe that Russ Wilson is going to go to New York, and Russ Wilson is going to be consistently good there to the point that the New York people in the New York media aren't beating the shit out of him on a daily basis and clamoring for Jackson Dart. And at what point do the coaches and everybody else kind of succumb to that and say, fine, Jackson Dart's going in the game? I don't know. You know, you go back and look at the draft from this past year. I do think DART's going to be that guy who in 10 years we look back,

like the same way people look at Pat Mahomes going in the third round. And this won't be quite that level because who's to say he's going to become one of the all-time grades and he's going to win three Super Bowls or whatever that number is and going to be an all-time grade. But we're going to look back and look at the fact that a team like the Saints who needed a quarterback didn't take a quarterback in the first round of the draft and instead took an offensive line. Calvin Banks, who might end up being fantastic, and maybe that's the right pick for them in this moment. But we're going to look back, and that's going to be the guy.

I think the Jackson Dart's going to be the guy where we say, you know, can you believe that the Tennessee Titans passed up Jackson Dart? Like, I think that's going to be that guy that we end up looking at. You know, Jackson Dart went 25th. Okay, so he's the 25th pick in the draft. It's not as egregious as Pat Mahomes in the third round or, you know, oh, it's. just see all the teams that passed up Tom Brady who went in the sixth round. It's not going to be one of those.

You know, obviously those are bigger examples with guys with far more success. Jackson Dart may never win a Super Bowl. He may never beat Pat Mahomes. But I think his style of play, his personality, his look, the whole package he has to offer is that of a guy that I believe is going to be a massive star. I don't know if it's going to be this year. I think Brian Daibble is desperate to win to keep. his job. I don't know if Brian Dayball can do anything to keep his job. He may not.

You know, like, if he wins 13 games, he keeps his job. But do you think they're going to win 13 games with Russ Wilson in the East? Where if healthy, like, Dak can win games with the Cowboys, where Washington was the hottest team last year, where the Eagles won the fucking Super Bowl? Like, do you really think they're going to win 13 games? Like, if I'm Brian Dayball, I'm like, what the hell can I actually do? Like, what can I do to actually go out and keep my job. How do I survive this year? It's a weird situation, man, but I can't wait. We're now two weeks away from the opener on Thursday night. Football, Cowboys, and Eagles, let's fucking go. We got college this weekend. Shit. We're living the dream, baby. All right,

more to come.