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Andrew's in-depth Jaxson Dart NFL Draft rookie breakdown of the Mississippi QB. Read Dart's QB scouting report, strengths, weaknesses, and 2025 fantasy football outlook.
Welcome to Coach Knows Ball, an NFL Draft series analyzing the top prospects in the 2025 class. I'm a college football coach with 10 years of NCAA experience and have been scouting NFL Draft prospects for over 15 years. This series will give a deep dive into the film of some of the top players in this draft class, with detailed insight into future NFL standouts' strengths, weaknesses, and projections.
Scouting NFL Draft prospects is about projecting translatable traits. There is often overlap between translatable traits and college performance, but there's a reason many top college players are not considered legitimate professionals. For example, a wide receiver being able to get in and out of breaks efficiently will not change from college to pro. Conversely, an edge-rusher who got most of his sacks due to hustle or missed offensive line assignments may not have shown translatable traits on film.
The film clips in this series show each pro prospect's positive and negative traits. Reading this article will give you a more in-depth look into each player with actual in-game visual evidence. We will continue our 2025 series with Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart.
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Jaxson Dart Rookie Profile
Jaxson Dart is a 21-year-old quarterback prospect who will be 22 as a rookie. He began his collegiate career at USC but transferred to Ole Miss where he started as a sophomore, junior, and senior under Lane Kiffin.
Dart was a highly productive college player, accounting for 95 total touchdowns and 28 wins in 41 games. While he doesn't have exceptional tools, an experienced QB with his production is an intriguing Bo Nix-like bet for an NFL team to make. Let's dive into the film.
Poise, Footwork, and Anticipation
Dart has ideal size and sneaky athleticism. Designed QB runs were a part of Kiffin's offense, and Dart showed enough ability as a ball-carrier to command those types of touches. However, NFL teams won't be drafting him to be Jalen Hurts. Dart will have to win from the pocket in a pro system, and the film shows that he has the potential to do just that.
During combine drills, Dart was particularly accurate, especially compared to the other QB prospects in his group. He is calm and poised as a passer with natural accuracy. While he doesn't have the biggest arm in terms of velocity, he throws a very catchable ball. Dart has shown flashes of being able to layer throws over defenders and use touch when needed.
Dart mastered the footwork and rhythm of the RPO/play-action-heavy scheme at Ole Miss. In the clip below, he shows good weight transfer and delivers a beautiful deep post in the middle of the field.
The clip below is another example of play-action "one-and-a-gather" footwork that leads to an accurate ball. Dart places the field blaze out perfectly and releases the ball before the receiver gets out of the break. He's able to layer the ball over the flat defender and place the ball well while under pressure.
Dart looked extremely comfortable slinging the ball in shorts at the combine. He's a natural passer. When you mix that gift with poise and toughness, you get a potential cool customer who can handle everything pro defenses will throw at him.
In the clip below, Dart navigates the split field coverage to get to the right read. He moves on from the suboptimal stick concept and connects on time to the boundary speed dig with a strike.
The clip below shows Dart's poise and toughness. The defense brings seven blitzers, so Dart knows he has to get rid of the ball quickly and will take a big hit. He lofts a beautiful touch pass to his seam runner, placed perfectly over his outside shoulder. This is an example of a receiver-friendly trajectory and spot against heavy pressure.
Dart can spin the ball and has experience and poise. There will undoubtedly be a market for that. I think coaching staffs may like him more than scouting staffs because of his toughness and cool demeanor.
Struggles Against Top Competition
Dart competed at the Senior Bowl and improved throughout the week of practice. He rushed for a touchdown in the Senior Bowl game, but also took two sacks and fumbled.
Early in that game, it did look like his eyes and processing were not operating in a comfortable way. It reminded me of his performance early in the Georgia game. A quick glimpse of his game log makes it very clear that Dart did indeed pad his stats against inferior competition like Furman and Georgia Southern and did not produce as well against Georgia, LSU, and South Carolina.
Dart's transition from a very QB-friendly situation to the NFL will be crucial in his development. His processing against top competition was not that of a first-rounder. When you mix that with his lack of elite traits, it's fair to wonder if he can reach NFL starter status.
The clip below is a completion, but it shows two negatives in Dart's game. First, his drop curves to his right, and he needs to work on drop angles and depth in a pro-style scheme. He's likely overcompensating for lack of a huge arm, as he's setting up his angle to put everything on the throw.
Even with that cheated drop that passes the hash, the ball dies on the back end and the receiver has to come back negative to get it on the sail route.
The clip below shows another completion and some solid creativity and a strike on the run. Unfortunately, it also shows some poor processing. Dart is staring at the boundary, where the corner blitz leaves his tight end wide open on the out route. The vertical runner on the outside is also wide open for a touchdown. The running back does an excellent job picking up the pressure, and Dart should have an easy five yards, or six points, here.
When quarterbacks aren't seeing the field well, they tend to guess pre-snap and make decisions on where they'll throw the ball before reading the defense. The clip below is an example of that.
Ole Miss is running a play-action concept from a two-back set with a seam from the field back. I'm not sure how Dart was taught to read this concept out, but the seam is covered, while the tight end is running wide open after using the umpire as a pick. Throwing to the other back that close after the fake is almost as bad as taking a sack.
Dart is similar to Shedeur Sanders in that they both simply don't have extraordinary physical gifts. However, both are accurate passers with enough toughness to make plays. If Dart can learn to process in an NFL offense, he can develop into a quality starter, but film against top competition warrants concern about his transition.
NFL Player Outlook
Jaxson Dart is a natural passer who throws a catchable ball. He's athletic enough to make plays on the move and has the poise, toughness, and experience NFL teams covet.
How he processes in an NFL offense will determine his NFL fate, as his transition from a very QB-friendly system at Ole Miss could be rocky. I expect him to be taken fairly high in the NFL Draft and would be surprised if he didn't go in the first round. He's had a solid postseason showing and quarterback thirst is very real.
If you want to read and watch some of my past film breakdowns, click the links below.
- Cam Ward - QB, Miami
- Shedeur Sanders - QB, Colorado
- Brock Bowers - TE, Georgia
- Jayden Daniels - QB, LSU
- Bijan Robinson - RB, Texas
- Jahmyr Gibbs - RB, Alabama
- Ja'Marr Chase - WR, LSU
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more draft content in the coming days.
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