Joe DeLeone and Ryan Roberts break down why Ole Miss football QB Jaxson Dart should not be a first round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Tune in for a full Jaxson Dart Scouting Report
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00:00Jackson Dart should not be drafted in the first round.
00:03Here's why.
00:07Ryan, why is Ole Miss quarterback Jackson Dart
00:10maybe not as good as everybody keeps projecting him to be?
00:15Well, I mean, it's because there's a chasm
00:17at quarterback three, right?
00:18There's a hole in this class right now.
00:20Some people like Jalen Milrow,
00:21some people like Jackson Dart,
00:22some other people are even throwing like Tyler Shuck
00:24from Louisville into this conversation.
00:26We're trying to find QB three in this class
00:29in a very quarterback needy group, Joe.
00:31I mean, outside of the first couple of picks,
00:33I mean, the Las Vegas Raiders
00:34are gonna need a quarterback,
00:35the New York Jets are probably gonna need a quarterback.
00:37There's a lot of quarterback needy teams
00:39in this draft for the short and long term.
00:41So we're trying to gravitate towards a guy that people love.
00:46And some people have hooked on to Jackson Dart.
00:48Now, I understand the appeal to Jackson Dart,
00:51but the reason that I remain lower on Jackson Dart
00:54in terms of a first round evaluation or valuation
00:59is just, I think that one, he comes from this offense
01:02that is not incredibly translatable to the NFL.
01:04I think that that's gonna be a little bit of a crash course
01:06early on in his career, a tough transition.
01:08And also I just think athletically he has got some tools,
01:12but the arm strength, I just, every time I watch him,
01:14I'm like, I think that the arm strength is average
01:17for NFL standards at best.
01:19And he's late a lot on his reads, right?
01:21And that's partly because of the system he comes from.
01:24So those inconsistencies,
01:26him not maybe being developed well enough
01:29to figure out that NFL playbook and a read system
01:33in the NFL early on in his career, that processing,
01:35those are some of the reasons that I remain a little bit
01:37lower on Jackson Dart compared to what some people
01:40are trying to build a mass.
01:41Right, the main to address the negatives
01:45on why he's not a first rounder,
01:46why he's better off going somewhere on day two.
01:49And instead of putting these unrealistic expectations
01:51on him, why he deserves to go to a situation
01:54where he's viewed as a backup
01:56who could maybe start instead of a starting solution player.
01:59We're going to do, can he pick it all over again
02:01if we do this to this poor kid.
02:03But his weaknesses, as you just said,
02:04he's playing in an offense where there's,
02:06it's very rarely translatable to the NFL.
02:08We don't know what his decision-making would be like
02:11in an NFL offense, especially when we have on tape
02:13where he's made some brutal, brutal mistakes.
02:16The Florida game, go back to the Florida game.
02:18When things were not flowing the way that they needed to,
02:22he had some awful turnovers that cost him the game.
02:24He can bounce back from that and he can improve from that,
02:27but that is going to hold him back as a prospect.
02:29And you just mentioned the arm strength.
02:31What though gets you excited on why he could maybe
02:35be a day two pick to eventually start?
02:38I mean, the reason that I like Jackson for,
02:41where I think that he should be valued early on was
02:43he's tough as nails in the pocket, man.
02:45Like absolutely fearless navigating the field in the pocket,
02:49which I love.
02:50I think that that's one thing that holds some quarterbacks
02:53back early in their NFL careers when they can't evaluate
02:55and navigate pressure well enough in the pocket.
02:58I think he's nails in the pocket.
02:59And I also think that he's a pretty good athlete, right?
03:01Like he throws a catchable football
03:03and he's a pretty good athlete.
03:03He's a good deep ball thrower.
03:04So there are some things to like again,
03:07but like I'm talking about evaluation versus valuation.
03:10The value of Jackson Dart is somewhere potentially
03:14in second to third rounds.
03:15If you're drafting him in the first round,
03:16I think you said it perfectly.
03:18You're going to put expectations on this young man
03:20that could either sink or swim, but more than likely,
03:23probably sink his confidence early on in his career.
03:26His path to starting at Ole Miss is really interesting
03:29because he steps in at USC and he committed to USC
03:32out of high school.
03:33He was the 13th ranked quarterback in his class
03:36and the second highest rated prospect in the state of Utah.
03:41Goes to USC, he starts, and then Lincoln Riley comes in
03:44after his first year, his freshman year.
03:46He was phenomenal.
03:47A lot of people were saying like,
03:48hey, Jackson Dart, look how good he is.
03:50He can be one of the best quarterbacks
03:51in college football.
03:52He transferred to Ole Miss as a shaky first year,
03:54and then it was speculated that Spencer Sanders
03:59was coming in and was going to take his job.
04:00That didn't come to fruition.
04:02We slowly started to see Jackson Dart get better and better
04:05and become a better decision maker within the offense
04:09and was going to be a driving force for why Ole Miss
04:13could have been a college football playoff team,
04:15but it didn't get to that full ceiling
04:17and we didn't get to see everything actualized
04:20for the Rebels.
04:21What else about Dart's background is worth noting
04:24about this kid?
04:25I mean, it's fascinating.
04:26He's a Corner Canyon kid, obviously, in the state of Utah,
04:29which is a very good football factory in the state of Utah.
04:33A lot of good players come out of Corner Canyon,
04:35but he was, Joe, actually a very under-recruited player
04:38up until like his senior year of high school,
04:40and then he balloons.
04:42Like his dad actually played safety
04:44at the University of Utah.
04:46And despite that, before his senior year,
04:49the only offer he had from Utah
04:51was as a gray shirt safety, right?
04:53So like he wasn't even going to be a scholarship player
04:55initially at the University of Utah to play safety.
04:58Then he has a dominant senior year.
05:00He blows up, becomes like a top 150 national recruits,
05:04and then USC obviously gets into the fold
05:07and they end up winning the Jackson Dart sweepstakes
05:10later on in his recruiting background
05:13and his recruiting story.
05:14So fascinating to see him go to USC,
05:16play a little bit as a freshman
05:18based upon some injuries and necessity,
05:20but then obviously Caleb Williams transfers over
05:23with Lincoln Riley, and that was kind of a little like nudge
05:26to be like, hey, there might be different pastures
05:28that might work out better for you.
05:30So the cool thing about him though,
05:31is that from 2022 to 2023 to 2024,
05:35he got better each season.
05:36So if we're talking about development
05:37and projection and trajectory,
05:39I do think that there's something to be said
05:41about a player that has consistently gotten better
05:43each of the last three years.
05:45Jackson Dart, this is a ceiling comparison.
05:49I don't think that this is guaranteed what he becomes,
05:52but if Jackson Dart works, I think he's Andy Dalton.
05:55Andy Dalton coming out of TCU was multi-year starter.
05:59He was poised in the pocket, good underrated athlete,
06:04and he was good enough to start for the Bengals.
06:07There was no maybe clear expectation
06:08of we're drafting this kid to start,
06:10but he starts for the Bengals,
06:11goes on to have a steady career as the starter for them.
06:15And then eventually he's bounced around
06:16as a stopgap player for multiple franchises.
06:20I really feel pretty good about this Andy Dalton comparison
06:22because coming into the league,
06:24that should be how Jackson Dart is viewed,
06:26the same way of maybe he starts for us.
06:29Maybe this works out.
06:30And if not, we have a really good backup.
06:32And then if Dart does get the chance to start,
06:35he's going to stick around
06:36and he will be the median point of the NFL at the very most.
06:40And eventually someone will pass up on him
06:43and try to go for a more talented starter
06:45and trade him away.
06:46Yeah, well, I like the physical comp
06:48because I've seen now multiple people
06:49who try to do the Jalen Hurts thing.
06:51And like, I just don't see it, man.
06:53I just don't see it.
06:54For Andy Dalton, you kind of compare one to the other.
06:56Both are right around six foot two.
06:58Both are right around 220 pounds,
07:00give or take a couple pounds, North or South there.
07:03But they're both really good athletes.
07:04And neither player has plus arm strength.
07:07They're both league average at kind of the best,
07:10but they do have that little bit of a gunslinger in them
07:12in terms of like,
07:13they're going to take some chances at times
07:14despite not having the biggest arms,
07:15which is a positive remark,
07:18but also a hindrance to them in certain aspects at times.
07:23At the NFL Combine, Andy Dalton was six foot two, 215.
07:27He had a six, nine, three, three cone,
07:30which is a very good number for a quarterback.
07:33So there are definitely athletic comparisons
07:36that could be made there between him and Andy Dalton.
07:39Folks, let us know in the comments below,
07:40where do you want to see Jackson Art play in the NFL?
07:42Hit that like button and subscribe,
07:44and we'll talk to you later.