Why Tyler Shough deserved his finish over Jaxson Dart in Rookie of the Year voting

By Ross Jackson

Even though the 2026 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year award was won by Carolina Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, the discourse around the award is central to a pair of quarterbacks who each had impressive inaugural seasons.

New Orleans Saints rookie quarterback Tyler Shough finished second in the award’s voting process, receiving five first round votes and 168.0 points (McMillan received 41 and 445.0 respectively). Meanwhile, New York Giants rookie passer Jaxson Dart earned a lone first-place vote and a total of 88.0 points, landing him in fourth place for the award.

Many have taken exception to the fact that Dart finished behind Shough (and New England Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson) in voting. 

However, upon further inspection of the two rookies’ numbers, it’s clear why Shough received more points and votes.

To be clear, both passers were impressive throughout their rookie seasons. Dart had a strong year with the Giants, notching multiple victories as a starter, playing with a ton of heart and physicality and bringing a sense of optimism back to the Big Apple. There’s no real reason to diminish the performances of either passer.

But when the numbers are compared, Shough simply deserved to finish ahead in the voting for the AP award as well as the fan-voted Pepsi Zero Sugar Rookie of the Year award, which the Saints signal caller did win.

20 Categories to Consider

We dove into the numbers on 20 quarterback categories that take into account numerous elements of the game. Passing stats, clutch elements and ball security are paramount among them. In good faith, rushing touchdowns are also included as both passers have an element of rushing ability to their games, especially Dart.

Below are the 20 categories (21 including game starts) and their results.

NOTE: The third down conversations category specifically considers those that were achieved by a pass or rushing attempt by each passer. 

Deciphering The Results

Starts won’t be counted toward the evaluation of performance, as that has more to do with the decisions of each organization than it says anything about the production of the player. However, it does ad some context to a few points.

For instance, Shough started three few games, but gained more passing yards. On the reverse, Dart started three additional games, taking 97% or more of the snaps in 11 of his 12 starts, but committed fewer one fewer turnover.

Shough bested Dart in 12 of these 20 criteria.

The job of a quarterback is to win games. Shough led in the category while starting fewer matchups and showed up in a way that Dart did not with a pair of fourth quarter comebacks and a trio of game-winning drives. While the award is not a quarterback award, as evidenced by a wide receiver taking home the hardware at NFL honors, the comparison between two quarterbacks in this instance is aided by the metric. 

An argument could be made that were each of these statistics weighted, wins, game-winning drives and fourth-quarter comeback would be among the most important.

Inspecting the Extremes

Every award comes with moments of performances that can be isolated as a part of the resume.

Considering the small margin of statistical categories as a tight race would be completely sensible. Therefore, a look at each passer’s highest and lowest performances could shed some light on award-worthy peaks as well as hope-diminishing valleys.

Best passing performance (starts only)

Shough: 22/27 for 333 passing yards, 2 passing touchdowns, 0 INTs and a 142.7 passer rating in 27/22 win over Tennessee Titans

Dart: 22/32 for 230 passing yards, 2 passing touchdowns, 0 INTs and a 110.2 passer rating in 34-17 win over Dallas Cowboys

Worst passing performance (starts only)

Shough: 13/20, 144 passing yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT, two rushing touchdowns in 24-20 win over Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Dart: 7/13, 33 passing yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT, 27.4 passer rating, no rushing scores in 13-16 loss loss to Minnesota Vikings

Without question, Shough had the highest high while Dart carried the lowest low.

Again, as to not diminish Dart’s performance in this argument in favor of Shough, it is worth providing additional context.

Dart’s lowest performance came against the league’s No. 2 ranked passing defense. Conversely, his best performance came against the league’s bottom-ranked Cowboys passing offense. 

Shough’s best game was against the No. 23 ranked passing defense while his lowest performance was against the No. 27 passing defense in a win.

Unfortunately, the two quarterbacks did not compete against a single common opponent, which would have provided a strong glimpse into their comparison. 

Deep Passing

Shough was the more consistent intermediate to deep passer (10+ yards from the line of scrimmage). The Saints’ rookie completed 53.8% of his passes in those areas for a 102.5 passer rating while averaging 10.5 yards per attempt on such throws. Darts falls behind each of those metrics with a 42.5% completion percentage, 95.7 passer rating and 9.4-yard average.

Dart, however, had the better touchdown to interception ratio, tossing nine passing touchdowns to just two interceptions, but one notch better than Shough’s eight passing touchdowns to three interceptions. 

Shough achieved 57 first downs on those passes while Dart picked up 46.

This coming in a season during which defenses focused on taking away the downfield attack. Despite that, Shough and head coach Kellen Moore combined for a run of games finding success in the very areas where league production trended downward.

Missing Stars

Both passers were without key contributors for all of or a portion of their rookie year. While Dart was without star wideout Malik Nabors, Shough took the field without running back Alvin Kamara for the majority of his starts. 

They each also navigated injured offensive lines and neither had a 1,000-yard rusher to take the pressure off on offense. The Saints did not have. 500-yard rusher. 

Dart missed two games with injury after becoming the starter, Shough managed to stay on the field despite being banged up in-game on a couple of occasions. 

Shough Deserved Higher Finish

Though many in the Giants’ atmosphere appear to disagree, it seems both logical and clear that Shough finished ahead of his 2026 draft classmate. While no public comments have been made from either quarterback about their relationship, it’s very likely a positive one. 

Both had strong and promising showings during their first NFL seasons. Perhaps this will all be fodder for a long-time friendly rivalry and competition between the two young quarterbacks moving forward. 

Following the first round of that bout, Shough should be considered the leader.