Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart said he was “puzzled” by having to go into the sideline medical tent after taking a big hit during Saturday’s preseason game against the Vikings because he feels like it happens to him more frequently than other quarterbacks.
Dart made five trips to the tent during his rookie season and missed two games with a concussion, which sparked a lot of conversation about Dart’s need to protect himself while running the football. Saturday’s check came after he took a hit while taking a sack, but head coach John Harbaugh said on Sunday that he thinks Dart’s full body of work played a role in the most recent trip.
“I’m sure it’s frustrating,” Harbaugh said, via a transcript from the team. “I guess he maybe got the wind knocked out of him a little bit, but I’m not going to be critical of the league or whoever’s doing that upstairs. They do their job and they want to protect the players. I’m sure history or whatever they might remember, maybe that comes into play. I don’t know if there is a similar situation, another quarterback would have been called in the tent or not. There’s no way for us to know that. So, nothing we can worry about.”
Harbaugh then pivoted back to his initial response. On Saturday, Harbaugh said the team needs to block better and he was critical of the protection again.
“There’s no way he should have been hit there,” Harbaugh said. “I mean, it just shouldn’t have happened. That was a basic protection. Should have been protected and we expect in that situation to be protected in the future. I mean, it’s not like he’s going to be never hit, never tackled, never sacked. But it shouldn’t have been in that one, and it shouldn’t have been that easy to get to him.”
If the Giants can clean that up while Dart is more judicious in his decisions while running, the history that Harbaugh cited has a better chance of receding into distant memory.
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