John Harbaugh appeared to tick a lot of boxes for young quarterback Jaxson Dart when he hired Matt Nagy as his first offensive coordinator with the New York Giants, but Dart and the Giants can’t ignore a warning about their new play-caller’s “awful” record in a key area.
The warning comes from former Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens defensive end Marcus Spears. He told ESPN Nagy’s “development of young quarterbacks have been awful.”
Spears broke down in detail how “Mitch Trubisky, 38 starts, 56 QBR. Justin Fields, 10 starts, 31 QBR. Nick Foles, eight starts, 38 QBR. Andy Dalton, six starts, 39 QBR. That’s been Matt Nagy’s quarterbacks while he’s been calling plays.”
Those lowly numbers prompted Spears to warn the Giants about Nagy: “The last time you had two young quarterbacks, they didn’t perform well. And now, Jaxson Dart, going into his second year, is going to be under his tutelage. It doesn’t give me a lot of confidence, but maybe something has changed.”
That’s a scathing assessment from Spears, who played for Harbaugh briefly during the 2015 season. Spears’ critique is in sharp contrast to how a two-time Super Bowl winner for the Giants views Nagy and his ability to take Dart’s game up a notch or two.
While Spears has highlighted troubling history involving Nagy and football’s most important position, more optimistic takes factor in some crucial work with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Work Harbaugh will be counting on paying dividends for Dart in his second season.
Which Matt Nagy Did the Giants Hire?
Harbaugh will have made a home-run hire if he got the right Matt Nagy. The one who played a key role in helping Alex Smith become a three-time Pro Bowler in Kansas City, before Patrick Mahomes took the reins in 2018 and thrived running a heavy dose of RPOs.
That trend continued when Nagy returned to the Chiefs as quarterbacks coach in 2022. He became offensive coordinator a year later, and “Mahomes had over 100 RPO attempts for the first time in his career in 2025,” according to Talkin’ Giants co-host Justin Penik.
RPO’s became a huge part of the Chiefs offense under Nagy and it’s continued with Mahomes. Mahomes had over 100
Running a ton of RPOs will suit Dart’s natural mobility, but doubts will persist about Naby’s ability to maintain positive progress for his quarterbacks. He couldn’t do it for Trubisky as head coach of the Chicago Bears after a spectacular 2018 season.
Unfortunately, as Dan Duggan of The Athletic pointed out, “The offensive production immediately dropped off a cliff, as Chicago ranked 29th, 22nd and 27th in scoring and went 8-8, 8-8 and 6-11 over Nagy’s final three seasons.”
Nagy couldn’t develop Trubisky, nor his successor Fields, so which version of the OC did the Giants get to mentor Dart?
The one who didn’t call plays under Andy Reid for the Chiefs, but who previously got to work with a pair of talented signal-callers? Or have the Giants entrusted Dart’s development to the man who contributed to 2021 11th-overall pick Fields becoming a draft bust?
The answer will be revealed by how well Dart takes to the core concepts of Nagy’s system.
New System Fits Jaxson Dart
Dart may rue the Giants not being able to reunite him with his preferred OC, but there’s enough in Nagy’s schemes to get Big Blue’s QB1 excited for what the future holds.
There’s some major overlap because, as Duggan noted, “Bears quarterbacks were in the shotgun 71.4 percent of the time during Nagy’s four seasons, which was the eighth-highest rate in the league during that stretch. Dart was in the shotgun 79.9 percent of his snaps last season, which was the eighth-highest rate in the league. Mahomes was sixth at 82 percent. The offense will heavily feature the run-pass options that Dart has run since college, as well as the quarterback runs that were a major asset as a rookie. Trubisky ranked fifth among quarterbacks with 421 rushing yards in 2018. Dart was third among QBs with 487 rushing yards last season.”
Refining the raw athletic traits Dart possesses into something more pro-ready and consistent will be Nagy’s focus, so he’ll have to expand the playbook beyond college-style plays. The talent around Dart will also be key.
Mahomes and the Chiefs faltered this season because the offensive line regressed, the wide receiver corps lacked true go-to targets and the running game sputtered. The Giants have a few more intriguing options to build around, provided they can get All-Pro left tackle Andrew Thomas and dynamic wideout Malik Nabers healthy.
A complementary one-two punch on the ground, loaded with the straight-ahead brute force of Cam Skattebo and slashing speed of Tyrone Tracy Jr., at least gives Nagy a strong platform for his read-option game.
Where the offense and Dart go from there will determine whether Nagy proves a success or if the Giants should’ve heeded Spears’ warning.
Giants, Jaxson Dart Warned About ‘Awful’ Matt Nagy Problem