Danny Kanell Jaxson Dart Credit: Imagn Images, CBS Sports
By Matt Yoder on

Although Jaxson Dart was one of the early storylines of the NFL season, injuries and losses caused the bloom to fall off the rose for the New York Giants rookie.

Dart won two of his first three games, including an impressive victory over the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. But after that game, Dart didn’t win another game as a Giants starter until this past week in the tank bowl against the Las Vegas Raiders. In between, Dart lost a lot of games, battled with injuries, and saw himself get surpassed by New Orleans Saints quarterback Tyler Shough in the Rookie of the Year quarterback race.

And on CBS Sports HQ, former NFL quarterback Danny Kanell took a break from trolling the SEC to talk about Dart and his future. Then again, since Dart is an Ole Miss alum, maybe it’s just a continuation of his college football work.

“I don’t know if Jaxson Dart is the long-term answer for the Giants. When I think of a first round draft pick, I think of somebody that you should picture for 10-12 years is going to be your guy. I still haven’t seen development as a passer. He still is running the football and they’re still designing runs for him. But I want to see him take that next step as a passer and I just haven’t seen that yet,” Kanell said.

That doesn’t seem like a scorching hot take, right? After all, before the Raiders game, Dart threw for just 33 yards in a loss against the Vikings. Well, the comment made its way to Jaxson Dart’s father Brandon, who had a very simple, very direct reply for the Florida State alum.

“Bro, eat a fat one.”

Never one to let a good opportunity for a feud go to waste, Danny Kanell responded to Jaxson Dart’s father, while wearing a backwards jersey of the Giants rookie, on his VT Sports show.

“This actually is a big red flag for me. I don’t know why you’re messing and meddling in your son’s business,” Kanell said. “He’s been online before calling out officials, calling out other analysts. And it just, it brings more attention to you than it does your son. And it’s negative attention by calling out anybody in the media. I’m a nobody, why are you attacking me? I get supporting your son.”

“I don’t care, I get it, but as a dad, this reeks of helicopter dad who has been involved. And it’s even been pretty well documented how involved he’s been in his son’s life. Just let him go be him. You don’t have to come to your son’s rescue. You don’t have to defend him. Let his play do the talking and it’ll all be fine… you’re just making a target on his back for any critics,” Kanell added.

It seems like it’s been a long, long time since we’ve had a sports dad in the headlines duking it out with people in the media. Given Jaxson Dart plays in New York and his dad seems willing to get down in the trenches with anyone who calls him out, maybe we’ve finally found someone to carry the torch from LaVar Ball.

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