Giants’ Jaxson Dart Has Classy Message for Division Rival Jayden Daniels After Injury

Commanders star Jayden Daniels suffered a brutal elbow injury against the Seahawks.
Commanders star Jayden Daniels suffered a brutal elbow injury against the Seahawks. / Amber Searls-Imagn Images

Young Commanders star Jayden Daniels suffered a terrible elbow injury on Sunday Night Football this week. The quarterback was diagnosed with a dislocated elbow after the fact and seems likely to miss significant time. Just how much has yet to be determined; Washington said this week the team was seeking second opinions and for the time being Daniels would not be placed on IR.

Regardless it’s a very unfortunate turn of events for one of the most exciting young players in football, and the Commanders’ season is fully off the rails. On Wednesday, fellow young and exciting NFC East signal-caller Jaxson Dart was asked about Daniels’s injury. He delivered a classy message for his divisional rival in the midst of Dart’s rookie year with the Giants.

“First of all, prayers to him,” Dart said during media availability on Wednesday. “He’s been a guy who I’ve been around for years, since high school, with us training with each other. You definitely hate to see that and you send prayers for him for his recovery.”

Dart and Daniels are pretty close in age, even though it doesn’t feel like it. Daniels already enjoyed a full and very successful NFL season in 2024, winning Offensive Rookie of the Year while leading the Commanders to a deep playoff run. Dart, meanwhile, was picked 25th in this year’s NFL draft and started his first game just over a month ago. Yet Dart is 22 and Daniels is 24. So it lines up that they might’ve come up through similar training camps and such when they were younger.

Now they are part of the NFL’s most bitter division as far as rivalries. The Giants, Commanders, Eagles, and Cowboys all do not like each other. On the field, that’ll come into play for Dart when he eventually sees Daniels across from him. But off the field it’s clear Dart has respect for Daniels.

New York next plays Washington on December 14. From how bad Daniels’s injury looked on Monday night it seemed like he would be done for the year. But the lack of an established timeline on his injury means there is a chance, however minute, that Daniels could return in time to play Dart.

Regardless, a classy sentiment from the young Giants QB.


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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.