​New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart. | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images New York Giants second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart ranks 21st in the NFL, at least per The Athletic’s new “QBI” metric.I should probably take a step back and explain what “QBI” is, and what it’s trying to do. Or rather, let the metric’s creator, Austin Mock, describe the stat. Mock explains, QBI is a metric we’ve created that strips away the contributions from a quarterback’s 10 offensive teammates and credits only what the quarterback provides on a per-play basis. QBI is a forward-looking quarterback efficiency metric that uses play-by-play data, adjusts for context in each play and is opponent-aware. Put more simply, QBI takes into account passes, rushes, scrambles, sacks, turnovers and anything else that happens when the football is in the quarterback’s hands.But it goes a step deeper and adjusts for whether the quarterback was pressured, if that pressure was quick (less than 2.5 seconds), as well as the quality of the offensive line and receivers. QBI factors in fumbles in an attempt to take the luck out of recoveries — this can work for and against a quarterback depending on who recovered. QBI also takes into account drops by receivers, as well as yards after the catch and uses an expected YAC model to assign or remove credit from the quarterback. Of course, EPA and success rate are factors in the model, as well. Mock adds that QBI also factors in PFF grades in an attempt to incorporate a film aspect. He also explains that he’s taken inspiration from baseball analytics (wRC+, to be specific) and normalized a ‘100’ QBI grade to be “average”. From there, he considers ‘101’ to be starter caliber play and ‘130’ to be “Pro Bowl” caliber play. Zooming back in to Jaxson Dart, the Giants’ QB is one of three quarterbacks to earn an even “100” grade for last year, along with Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles and Jared Goff of the Detroit Lions. Dart is the second-highest graded rookie from last year’s class, trailing only Tyler Shough, who graded out as a 103. Dart’s 100 was good for 21st in the NFL, while Shough’s 103 ranks him 15th. That said, Dart also finished well ahead of Tennessee Titans’ QB Cam Ward (78) and Cleveland Browns QB Shedeur Sanders (47). We’ve already seen an interesting dynamic forming around Dart and Shough in the eyes of the NFL. Dart led the rookie QBs in The Athletic’s annual Quarterback Tiers ranking at 24th, just edging out Ward (25th) and Shough (t-26th). However, they noted that defensive coaches respect Dart significantly more than the offensive coaches and executives, who prefer Shough. That is largely due to the fact that Dart had a significantly more volatile game in 2025 than did Shough. So while Dart was more apt to thrive in chaos or create huge plays, Shough was more willing to play within the structure of the offense and be efficient on a down-to-down basis. That’s l