Giants sticking with Russell Wilson as starting QB isn't the popular move — but it's the right one

When Brian Daboll confirmed on Monday that theGiantsare sticking with Russell Wilson as their starting quarterback, the collective groan from Big Blue fans could be heard from Hauppauge to Hoboken.

I get it: Jaxson Dart is the shiny new toy that you unwrap on Christmas morning, only to be told you can't take it out of the box until sometime in the new year. If Wilson is the once-groundbreaking Super Nintendo, Dart is the Nintendo 64 that you're not allowed to play.

But what fans don't want to hear, especially following an ugly 21-6 loss, is that Daboll, and likely GM Joe Schoen as well, are making the right decision by sticking with Russ.

For the time being, that is.

Make no mistake: Dart should eventually take over the reins as the Giants starting quarterback at some point this season. Keeping him on the shelf for all of 2025 would be foolish.

But one game - no matter how bad things looked - is not enough to make that switch.

Let's start with Wilson's side of things. A 45.9 completion percentage and 168 yards are certainly not good enough to get the job done. There's no denying that. But Wilson also didn't turn the ball over (he had a fumble in the first quarter that he was able to recover) and he had the Giants in a game on the road against a team that went to the NFC Championship Game last season.

Again, not pretty, but not get this guy out of the game" bad.

And while the 36-year-old Wilson is nowhere near the player he was when he led the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl win in 2013, his track record should give him a longer leash than just one game.

Prior to this season, Wilson has had a win-loss record below .500 in just two of his 13 seasons. Sure, he had the Legion of Boom with him in Seattle, but quarterback is the most important position on the field, and Wilson's 10 Pro Bowl appearances, including one last season with Pittsburgh, speak for themselves.

Wilson had a rough go in his first game in a brand new offensive system with teammates he's never played a regular season game with - the results weren't pretty, but it can't be the end of his story with the Giants.

Week 1 is always an especially wacky time in the NFL. Overreactions, underreactions, and, well, reactions, are flying left and right. The Chiefs reign in the AFC is over. The Eagles don't look like a Super Bowl contender. Daniel Jones is the Colts' savior.

Week 1 is when teams are still figuring out their own identity. It's often a fairly incohesive product. Russ can't cook if you kick him out of the kitchen after the appetizer.

New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart (6) throws a pass during the first quarter against the New England Patriots at MetLife Stadium. / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Now to Dart, who looked fantastic in the preseason and has an aura of confidence around him that perhaps we haven't seen from a rookie QB since.... Wilson?

The Ole Miss product should get his time to shine at some point this season. The Giants have a particularly unforgiving schedule this year, but I look at Week 7 against the Denver Broncos as perhaps the best time for Dart to leave the dock and test the waters. The Giants play a Thursday night game at home against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 6, and then don't play again for 10 days. That extended time off, really a mini-bye, could be the perfect time to transition to the rookie.

That would mean Dart's first NFL start would be on the road in Denver, a notoriously tough place for anyone to play given both the altitude and the Broncos' stingy defense, but it would also be somewhat of a homecoming with Denver being one of the closest NFL cities to his hometown of Kaysville, Utah.

Another point I'd like to make clear: I am firmly on the let the rookies play" team, especially with first-round quarterbacks. Yes, there are examples like Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes of why it makes sense to let rookies sit back and learn for their entire first year in the NFL. But teams are drafting these quarterbacks in the first round for a reason, so what good does it do to keep them on the bench?

Unfortunately, the Giants pinned themselves to playing a veteran when they signed Wilson to a fully guaranteed $10.5 million contact. Had the club only signed Jameis Winston, whose two-year deal contains just $5.25 million in total guarantees, then I would have been all for Dart starting from Week 1.

However, the Giants invested in Wilson, and vehemently named him the starter from the jump, so then benching him after one game would be another sign of a franchise that has been spinning its wheels to get out of the mud for the better part of the past eight seasons - the 2022 season excluded.

Dart's time will come, just not quite yet. Sticking with Wilson, for the time being, is the right move.