Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart has an important goal he’d like to accomplish before these last two games are finished, and it has nothing to do with his own statistics.
Dart wants to get receiver Wan’Dale Robinson to 1,000 yards receiving.
Robinson is having a career year, leading the team with 82 receptions for 901 yards — meaning he needs 99 in the next two games to reach the significant milestone.
“Yeah, it’s huge, just a milestone in his career,” Dart said after practice Wednesday. “I think that he told me that there’s a statistic of something at his size” — he’s listed at 5-foot-8 — “nobody’s ever done before.
“I’m really looking forward to going out there, competing with him. He’s a great player and has done amazing and has been a guy who I’ve loved playing with. Just his ability to compete each and every play, and he does such a great job of leading and working hard and making plays. Definitely going to do my part to help him.”
Robinson said it was teammate and fellow receiver Malik Nabers who put that stat in his head.
“Malik was talking about me supposedly being the shortest [receiver] to ever go for 1,000 yards,” Robinson said. “So, it would be nice to be a first and to prove that there are no limitations [because of size].”
Among the players who didn’t practice Wednesday: LT Andrew Thomas, who left last Sunday’s game against the Vikings with a hamstring injury, C John Michael Schmitz Jr., who suffered a finger injury against Minnesota, S Tyler Nubin (neck), DT D.J. Davidson (concussion) and offensive lineman Evan Neal (neck).
CBs Cor’Dale Flott (knee) and Deonte Banks (shoulder), and DT Rakeem Nunez-Roches (ankle, toe) were limited in practice.
Asked about Thomas’ status for Sunday, Kafka said, “We’ll just kind of see how it feels. He’s got a couple of days here to see how it looks. We’ll look at and see where the extent of the injury is, and then evaluate it and then make a decision.”
The decision will be whether to shut down both Thomas and Schmitz for the final two games.
Giants players have Christmas Day off, will practice Friday and depart for Las Vegas on Saturday.
Dart said he has his entire family in the area to celebrate his first Christmas in New York.
Asked about traditions, he said, “My mom makes the best crescent rolls. They’re all out here right now, so it’s going to be cool to have our first Christmas in New York and be as a family. I’m just excited that they’re out here for it.”
Dart said he’s been taking in the traditional New York sights during the holiday season, including visiting the tree in Rockefeller Center.
“Yeah, I went and saw the tree,” he said. “It was my first time seeing it. I did think it was going to be a little bigger than what it was, but it was cool to see the iconic tree.”
