Giants' Brian Daboll: Jaxson Dart leaning new cadence 'not rocket science'

The New York Giants opened their rookie minicamp on Friday. It was the first real look the coaches would get of their 2025 draft class and any other first-year players who want to make the team.

One player in particular, quarterback Jaxson Dart, was a focal point as he threw passes in 7-on-7 drills.

First look at Jaxson Dart, Giants QB

Via @SNYGiantspic.twitter.com/AWZzLiPvyy— Giants Nation Show (@GiantsNationPod) May 9, 2025

"This is the first practice, so there's going to be mistakes," head coach Brian Daboll said. "You learn from the mistakes. You teach off of them, come back the next day, you build off of it. There'll be some good things. There'll be some bad things. It's the first day of camp. He hasn't thrown with any of these guys. He's calling plays in our system for the first time, but same as all the other positions. They have a lot to learn."

One thing Dart will have to learn is how to deliver the snap count, specifically the cadence, which could take time for a young quarterback to master. Dart mainly used hand gestures during the snap count such as clapping.

"Mostly every college does that," said Daboll. "I mean, I did it when I was at Alabama in 2017 and I think Hurts and Tua are doing a good job of cadences in the league."

Daboll was referring to Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts, two successful NFL quarterbacks he coached in college.

"I mean most college guys haven't done it," Daboll said about cadences. "I would say most of them are, you know, you clap and when I first went to went to Alabama, I didn't know anything about clapping. There's SEC stadiums, you can't hear them. I'm like, how is this going to work, but you hear it.

"Again, any of these new players, quarterbacks, free agent quarterbacks, first round like most of them haven't done a cadence, but I mean it's not too hard to learn a cadence. You say a couple words, voice inflection, you continue to learn from that, but I wouldn't say it's like rocket science to learn a cadence."

Daboll was asked how much freedom Dart would have with the snap count at first.

 "It's a weapon for a quarterback. Fortunately, we have Russ (Russell Wilson) who's done it for a long time and Jameis (Winston)," he said. "You try to let the younger guys, even like (Tommy) Devito, hear those guys and you try to make it as similar as you can because now, they're in with different linemen. You don't want one cadence to sound like something, so those quarterbacks do a good job in the room of trying to get it to sound like the guy that's running it.

"So you know, Russ is running it. He's got a certain style of cadence. We kind of work off him. We'll say it together, hey, you're a little bit off on this rhythm. He’ll be in there with those older guys and, you know, learn how to do it, but you know he did walk through again. I wouldn't say it's rocket science to give a cadence. There is an art to it, and the really, really good ones are exceptional at it, so we'll just, we'll work with them on it."

There's a lot of work to do with this quarterback room. Three of the four players in they room are new to the offense. Daboll has trained many a quartetback, both rookie and veteran. It's what he does.

This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Brian Daboll: Jaxson Dart leaning new cadence 'not rocket science'