When the Giants hired Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll as their new general manager and head coach in 2022, co-owner John Mara said something that resonates now.

“We’ve done everything possible to screw this kid up since he’s been here,” Mara said, referring to quarterback Daniel Jones, who had just finished his third season, after being drafted sixth overall.

So now that the Giants have a new hot-shot rookie quarterback, Jaxson Dart, how will that thought play into Mara’s thinking after 2025, if the Giants stink again? Will picking Dart 25th overall Thursday night save Schoen and Daboll — and keep them around past 2025?

Schoen traded up nine spots to get Dart, shipping off two third-round picks (including one in 2026) in the process. This is a significant commitment, no matter how you slice it, as Schoen passed on Shedeur Sanders, Jalen Milroe and Tyler Shough to pick Dart.

Come Week 1, Dart surely will not be starting. He likely will be listed behind Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston on the depth chart. But those are two fading veterans, and the Giants are committed to neither past this year. Nor should they be. Meanwhile, Dart is their (potential) future.

The Giants face the NFL’s toughest schedule in 2025, coming off back-to-back debacle seasons (6-11 in 2023 and 3-14 in 2024). Schoen and Daboll are both on a scorching hot seat. So if the Giants struggle early with Wilson starting, how soon will this regime go to Dart?

Because at that point, with more losses piling up, the only chance Schoen and Daboll would have of saving their jobs is to show Mara and co-owner Steve Tisch that Dart is flashing enough potential to provide hope.

If that’s the case — and Dart is progressing late in 2025 as a crummy team’s starter under Daboll’s mentorship — Mara and Tisch will have to think twice before they rip Daboll away from Dart.

(By the way, this would have been the case for any quarterback the Giants drafted this year from a weak quarterback prospect group that seemingly includes no sure-thing stars or effective Day 1 starters.)

Remember, after 2019 — Jones’ rookie year — the Giants fired their offensive-minded coach, Pat Shurmur, who was a total failure. Then Jones spent two seasons under Joe Judge, who employed Jason Garrett and Freddie Kitchens (on an interim basis) as his offensive play callers.

That lack of consistency — two head coaches and three play callers in Jones’ first three seasons — is what Mara meant by his “screw this kid up” line.

Of course, as it turned out, that’s not why Jones didn’t work out with the Giants. He simply wasn’t good enough, despite showing some signs in 2022 under Daboll.

Still, the reality remains: When you do have a quarterback who is good enough — and there probably is no way Mara will know that about Dart, one way or the other, after just 2025 — you want to provide consistency, with the same offensive scheme and play caller heading into Year 2.

So it’s not particularly challenging to see how Year 4 for this desperate Schoen/Daboll regime might unfold: Wilson starts the season, sputters into late October or early November against a gauntlet schedule — and then gets replaced by Dart for, say, the final six games.

That’s how Schoen and Daboll — 9-25 over the past two seasons — could (maybe but not definitely) get a fifth year in 2026, even amid more losing.

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Darryl Slater may be reached at [email protected].