2025 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Jaxson Dart

Prospect Summary:

Dart was a highly touted recruit coming out of high school and started his collegiate career at USC. In 2021, Dart had three starts with USC and appeared in six games. After the season, Lincoln Riley became the head coach for the Trojans and brought Caleb Williams with him from Oklahoma. That led to Dart transferring to Ole Miss. In his debut playing for Lane Kiffin, Dart completed 62 percent of his passes for 2,974 yards with 20 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. In 2023, Dart had a quality season for the Rebels, completing 65.1 percent of his passes for 3,364 yards with 23 touchdowns and five interceptions. Dart decided to return for his senior year and completed 69 percent of his passes for 4,279 yards with 29 touchdowns and six interceptions.

For the NFL, Dart is an instinctive passer that is tough and competitive. He is a gritty gunslinger who can loft in passes downfield with impressive ball placement. He makes accurate passes with precision strikes to hit receivers in stride and lead them for yards after the catch. While Dart does not have a powerful cannon, he has a quality arm and can make all the throws. Dart is aggressive in pushing the ball downfield and attacking the secondary at all levels. Dart is not a dangerous runner, but if defenses neglect him, he can pick up some yards on the ground. Dart enters the NFL with a lot of experience running a lot of concepts of NFL west coast offenses.

Dart has some physical limitations and areas of his play that he needs to clean up. Dart does not have an elite arm or running ability with average size. While Dart did not throw a lot of interceptions, he should have thrown more as he had several interception-worthy throws that were not picked off by the defense. Dart should have thrown more interceptions in college, and he also had issues with fumbles. A lack of pocket presence is something that Dart will need to work on with pro coaches as well.

These issues and his skill set could lead to Dart being more of a backup-caliber quarterback rather than a starter. Dart could be a day-two pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.