Even though they play in different conferences, much of the attention next season will be on the AFC and the Kansas City Chiefs, as fans wait to see if Patrick Mahomes can lead the team back to prominence. Meanwhile, in the NFC, the focus will be on the New York Giants and whether Jaxson Dart can truly become the star many believe he can be after a promising rookie season.
For the Chiefs, the 2025 season was disappointing. The team missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014, and their offense finished ranked 21st in the league, something that had never happened during the Patrick Mahomes era. Mahomes also suffered a serious injury, tearing the ACL in his left knee in Week 15, which has created uncertainty about whether he will be ready for the start of next season.
Meanwhile, the New York Giants appear to be seeing light at the end of the tunnel after three very difficult seasons. Jaxson Dart showed promising flashes: he started 12 games and recorded 24 total touchdowns, numbers that gave Giants fans hope. However, durability remains a concern, as the quarterback suffered a significant concussion in Week 10 that forced him to miss a couple of games.
Jaxson Dart wants to follow Patrick Mahomes’ path, but there is a problem
With the arrival of John Harbaugh as head coach of the Giants, fans were excited and many expected the team to hire Todd Monken as offensive coordinator. However, Monken ultimately accepted the head coaching job with the Cleveland Browns.
Instead, the Giants hired Matt Nagy as their offensive coordinator, bringing in a coach with significant experience from his time with the Kansas City Chiefs.
The reaction to hiring Nagy was mixed. He worked with Patrick Mahomes in two different stints, and while the second one was not disastrous, it fell short of the standards the Texas Tech product had previously set. In his final season, Kansas City’s offense ranked 21st in the NFL, while in 2023 and 2024 it finished 15th.
Because of that, there is uncertainty about whether Matt Nagy is the right coach to develop Jaxson Dart. The margin for error is small with the Giants’ quarterback, and Nagy has already begun working closely with the former Ole Miss Rebels star: “I really believe he can be really, really good,” Nagy said during an appearance on the Howard Eskin Show.
Another concern surrounding Nagy goes back to his time as head coach of the Chicago Bears. After a solid 2018 season from Mitchell Trubisky, the quarterback regressed significantly in 2019 and 2020 and never fully recovered. Many analysts believe Nagy played a role in that lack of development.
Now, Nagy has another opportunity with Jaxson Dart: he can either rebuild his reputation as a quarterback developer or further damage it.