How will the Giants’ offense run with Jaxson Dart under center?

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — It was as if there were two different versions of the New York Giants‘ offense this summer and at training camp. One that Russell Wilson and the first-team offense ran and the other that rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart operated with the second team.

In reality, the plays weren’t all that different, in fact, mostly the same. Yet, the on-field product looked vastly different when Dart was behind center.

Dart, the 25th pick in this year’s draft, has better physical skills than the 36-year-old Wilson is at this point of his career. Nobody is going to argue against that. He also brings a youthful exuberance that was part of why he won over coach Brian Daboll during the predraft process.

The Giants are hoping all this is evident on the field Sunday when Dart makes his first career start against the Los Angeles Chargers at MetLife Stadium (1 p.m. EST, CBS).

“Obviously, it’s going to be some new stuff. Just more of what he did in college. Obviously, just going to be some new faces for the NFL to see,” wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson said. “And defenses haven’t seen exactly our offense and the things we can do. It will be exciting to see what we do out there on Sunday.”

New York (0-3) has already put on tape some zone-read and run-pass-option (RPO) with Dart this regular season. He has been on the field for six snaps through three weeks — all runs. Five of the plays were designed runs; the other was an intended pass where he scrambled.

The Giants gained 38 total yards on those six plays, an average of 6.3 yards per play. They’ve ran three zone-reads through three games with Wilson for five yards, an average of 1.7 yards per play.

This is just one of the ways the Giants’ offense should look different come Sunday. The zone-read and the RPOs are almost certainly going to become a bigger part of the offense.

It’s a portion of what Dart did well last year at Ole Miss, when he completed 83% of his passes on RPOs. He also ran for 495 yards and three touchdowns.

“There will be certain elements of what Jaxson has done well, whether it was in college or high school,” Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka said. “You want to fit that system to the player, any player, to what their strengths are. I think Jaxson is going to do a nice job and we’ll put together a plan that he can work with.”

The Giants’ coaches have been in contact with members of Ole Miss’ staff dating back to the predraft process about what worked best for Dart. They wanted to collect schemes and plays that could be implemented into their offense for the young quarterback.

It all makes sense. Find what works and make Dart as comfortable as possible.

There also is an expectation for there to be more of a high-tempo offense. Daboll and the Giants used that in the preseason for Dart, with significant success.

Tempo is also a staple of the Ole Miss offense that Dart ran.

“Our system really has a lot of NFL elements in it offensively for them — protections, routes, different runs and stuff. We just happen to go really fast,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said this week on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “I think over time, defensive coordinators have said, including [former Alabama coach Nick Saban]that what Ole Miss and this system does is it gives you problem plays but goes really fast also. I think that has helped our quarterbacks play really well. It’s awesome for Jaxson.”

Playing with tempo and without a huddle a good chunk of the time is what the Washington Commanders have also done for their young quarterback Jayden Daniels. That led to an NFC Championship Game appearance in his rookie year.

It seems likely the Giants will do the same. They used no-huddle on only eight of Wilson’s 127 dropbacks in the first three games.

What exactly it will look like when Dart is the full-time starting quarterback (Daboll officially named him the starter on Wednesday for the rest of the season) still remains to be seen. But it will likely include some portion of these philosophies.

Daboll likes the element of the unknown.

“We’ll see,” he said of how different the offense will look. “It’s a young rookie quarterback. We’ll see.”

Naturally it will be different. The summer and preseason showed that.

Dart isn’t Wilson and Wilson isn’t Dart. They have varying skill sets, strengths and differences. Wilson doesn’t have Dart’s ability to run and Dart doesn’t have Wilson’s experience reading defenses.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s going to look a lot different, but definitely going to look different. Two different quarterbacks,” Robinson said. “At the end of the day, it’s still our offense. Feel confident in who is back there running it.”