Just like Jaxson Dart’s father, Michael Strahan is taking shots at Danny Kanell. The difference is that Strahan played alongside Kanell with the Giants, and he used that history on Sunday.
Following New York’s 34-17 win over Dallas in Week 18, Strahan went after Kanell during Fox NFL Sunday.
“One of my old teammates, Danny Kanell, said, ‘Well, I don’t know if Jaxson Dart has proven he’s the quarterback of the future, if he deserves a good contract,'” Strahan said. “But Danny played two good games and got a new contract, so relax there, Danny boy.”
Michael Strahan shots fired at @dannykanell pic.twitter.com/7ORWKo24oB
— Giants Nation Show (@GiantsNationPod) January 4, 2026
Dart closed out his rookie season completing 22 of 32 passes for 230 yards and two touchdowns against the Cowboys, posting a career-high 110.2 passer rating. Over 13 games and 12 starts, he threw for 2,272 yards with 15 passing touchdowns and nine rushing touchdowns.
And while those numbers don’t scream future Hall of Famer, they’re respectable for a rookie playing behind one of the league’s worst offensive lines. Still, they weren’t enough to convince Danny Kanell, who questioned Dart’s trajectory as a franchise quarterback.
“I don’t know if Jaxson Dart is the long-term answer for the Giants,” Kanell said. “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.”
Those comments drew a response from Brandon Dart, who fired back on social media with “Bro, Eat a Fat One!” Kanell then addressed the pushback on his VT Sports show while wearing a backwards Dart jersey, questioning whether Brandon was a “helicopter dad” who was “messing and meddling in your son’s business.”
Danny Kanell played six seasons in the league after the Giants drafted him in the fourth round in 1996. He went 7-2-1 as a starter in 1997, leading New York to the NFC East title before losing the starting job to Kent Graham the following year. His career completion percentage was 51.4%. He threw 31 touchdowns and 34 interceptions. And yes, Strahan was being literal when he said Kanell “played two good games and got a new contract.”
The irony of a quarterback who lasted three years as a Giants starter before bouncing around the league, questioning whether a rookie deserves more time to develop, isn’t lost on anyone. Strahan made sure of that.
This marks the second public response to Danny Kanell’s Dart criticism in the past week. The former Florida State quarterback has built a media career around SEC trolling and contrarian takes, so pushback comes with the territory. But he probably wasn’t expecting that pushback to come from a Hall of Fame teammate who watched his entire Giants career up close.
The Giants finished 4-13 in Dart’s rookie season after firing head coach Brian Daboll midseason. General manager Joe Schoen survived the purge and will lead the search for New York’s next coach. The Giants will pick fifth in the 2026 NFL Draft, and Schoen’s next hire will have to evaluate whether Dart showed enough in year one to warrant building around him.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.