* - How well does his skill set carry over
to the fantasy game? For quarterbacks, a player needs to be a
realistic threat for 4,000 passing yards and 500 rushing yards
to be a candidate for a perfect grade. Positional scarcity at
the pro level is also a part of the equation.
Positives
Rhythm passer who repeatedly delivers an accurate
ball and puts his receivers in a position to pick up yards after
the catch.
Senior-year film is full of good examples of throwing
with anticipation and/or into tight windows.
Although his college offense tends to get its first
read open (a hallmark of a Lane Kiffin offense), he flashed
the ability to work through his progression when the situation
called for it.
Above-average athlete who shows no fear as a runner,
almost to a fault.
One of the best deep-ball passers in the draft class
(22.1 percent of his throws traveled at least 20 yards downfield
and 70.9 percent of them were on-target - both class highs).
Experience (41 starts overall, 38 with Ole Miss) playing
in what has been widely considered the best college football
conference for years (SEC).
Negatives
The Ole Miss offense (specifically any offense led
by Kiffin) tends to emphasize tempo and minimize pre-snap reads.
Given the importance of speed in Kiffin's offense, Dart's fundamentals
- such as dropping the proper depth, his footwork or his upper-body
rotation - tend to suffer.
Decision-making and situational awareness can be lacking
at times.
Throws a nice deep ball when he is protected, but he
becomes an average deep thrower at best if he is forced to his
left or has to throw off his back foot.
Too quick to run at times (scrambled on 9.5 percent
of his drop-backs and 19.2 percent of his pressured drop-backs)
and rarely attempted to avoid contact as a runner.
Against the three SEC teams who appeared on the Rebels'
2024 schedule and won at least eight games (South Carolina,
LSU and Georgia), he completed 56 percent of his passes and
threw for two touchdowns versus two interceptions. (Against
10 other opponents, he completed 73 percent of his passes and
posted a 27:4 TD-to-INT ratio.)
Bottom Line
Despite the success Kiffin has enjoyed in his four stops as a
college head coach, Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Matt Corral
are the only quarterbacks he has tutored who have played meaningful
NFL snaps. (He was Jalen Hurts' offensive coordinator for one
year at Alabama in 2016.) Suffice it to say that Kiffin may be
a very good play-caller with an offense that works in college
but does little to prepare his pupils for the pro game. Especially
during his time at Ole Miss, it seems as though Kiffin has chosen
to play with tempo over developing his quarterback, which is a
common yet regrettable shortcoming of today's college football
coaches. This "indifference" can manifest itself in
different ways, and Dart's indifference regarding his drop-back
and overall footwork is among the parts of his game that have
not been prioritized under Kiffin. One could easily conclude that
the reason he was not more productive against the likes of South
Carolina, LSU and Georgia was that each opposing defense had the
combination of NFL-level defensive talent and good coaching to
take away the first read, capitalize on lazy footwork or take
advantage of a lack of urgency in his delivery.
With that said, it speaks volumes about his NFL potential that
he performed as well as he did in the SEC despite sub-par fundamentals.
His footwork and mechanics will be addressed immediately by his
new team, which means there is theoretically significant untapped
upside. Any level of improvement in those areas should allow him
to be more efficient with his process and keep making the tight-window
throws he did in college. There is also evidence - perhaps more
than the other two quarterbacks discussed so far - that he can
(and probably will) be a quarterback who can thrive in a timing-based
passing attack. He is athletic enough to create some chunk plays
as a runner, but he will need to be more calculated regarding
when he should embrace contact. Much like the other quarterbacks
that have been studied so far this spring, Dart should not be
viewed as a Week 1 starter and would benefit from a redshirt year.
With that said, he displayed enough of the accuracy and anticipation
necessary to become a solid starter in the league eventually.
(Think Andy Dalton.) At the very least, Dart probably has the
best chance of the Kiffin quarterbacks to enjoy a decent NFL career.
Doug Orth has written for FFToday since 2006 and joined the
Fantasy Points website before the start of the 2024 season. He is
also a highly successful high-stakes player who often appears as
a guest analyst on Sirius XM. Doug is also a member of the Fantasy
Sports Writers Association. Please check out his new podcast with
JJ Wenner called "The All-Out Blitz."
