Mississippi’s Jaxson Dart is this NFL Draft cycle’s most divisive quarterback. Some evaluators think he’s a mid-round pick, while ESPN’s Mel Kiper mocked Dart going No. 9. Kiper may have been trying to be controversial for engagement, but Dart does have an intriguing skillset and one can see how an evaluator could be drawn to him.

He’s not tall (6-foot-2), but he’s built well (225 pounds). He has good arm talent and is a legitimate big-play threat as a runner. However, he played in a simplistic spread offense and will need time to adjust to an NFL offense. In a weaker quarterback class, can Dart’s theoretical ceiling, along with his steady production, be enough to push him into the first two rounds of the draft?

The skillset

When it comes to natural throwing ability, Dart has every type of throw in his bag. He doesn’t have a rocket arm, but he has a live one, and he can complete outbreakers and move the ball downfield with ease.

He throws outbreaking routes with timing, accuracy and zip. These are defined throws on which he has a high degree of confidence before the snap that the receiver will be open. He doesn’t hesitate to make these throws if he sees off coverage and space outside.

Dart doesn’t just have a fastball. One of his best traits is his ability to throw off-speed and layer passes over defenders. The Mississippi offense is free flowing and routes aren’t precise. Receivers are looking for space and adjusting their angles. Dart does a good job of seeing what his receivers see and leading them into open spaces. Even though he’ll put touch on passes in the middle of the field, he rarely leads his receivers into big hits.

Dart’s deep accuracy is very good. Not elite, but his deep passes are pristine when he’s on. He can hit his receivers perfectly in stride down the field on deep posts and go-balls but can have stretches where he sprays the ball.

Dart has a natural ability as a creator. Sometimes, you want to see him look downfield more when he breaks the pocket (9.5 percent scramble rate) or gets pressured, but he was an effective scrambler (6.87 yards per scramble) so it’s understandable. The clip above was one of his best throws of the season. Against Duke, he was flushed out of the pocket, kept his eyes downfield, and threw a perfect deep bomb, hitting his receiver in stride.

On third-and-14, against Oklahoma, Dart broke the pocket to his right. Originally, Dart’s receiver was running a shallow across the field. As Dart broke the pocket, he threw the ball upfield instead of horizontally to lead his receiver to open space. He and his receiver were on the same page and they converted. This pass shows creativity and instincts when playing outside of structure. He won’t be able to scramble as much in the NFL, so he’ll have to look downfield more.

Dart has good size and vertical speed. Teams will have to gameplan for his ability to scramble, and he’ll be able to execute designed quarterback runs in the league. He’s twitchy in the pocket and has the strength to rip away from pass rushers. He routinely makes the first defender miss in the pocket. He’s a linear runner in the open field but has the speed to pull away from defenders.

Pocket toughness is a trait that you either have or you don’t. Rarely do quarterbacks become more willing to stand in the pocket and take hits. Dart is very willing to keep his eyes downfield and rotate into throws despite knowing he’ll take a hit. He also can generate power and maintain accuracy in muddy pockets without a big runway in front of him.

The offense

Overall, Dart’s skillset offers a lot that you can’t teach. His ceiling relative to other quarterbacks in this class is very high. However, his offense at Ole Miss doesn’t translate to the NFL. It will take time for him to learn a pro system, footwork and even how to take a snap from under center. As we’ve seen, the NFL rarely shows the necessary patience for long periods of development.

There was a free-flow feel to the Ole Miss offense. Receivers weren’t running precise timing routes, so Dart doesn’t have much experience with timing throws and syncing his feet with his progressions. Head coach Lane Kiffin is an excellent play caller and often got Dart’s first read open. There weren’t many examples of Dart getting through multiple reads on a play but that doesn’t mean he can’t eventually learn how to do it.

This third-and-14 play against Arkansas was one of the rare examples of him getting through multiple reads. Dart initially looked to his left. His slot receiver was indecisive and ran a sloppy route, showing his receivers were either undisciplined or given a lot of freedom to find open space. Dart eventually progressed to his right outside receiver and led his target to open space. You can see in the clip that Dart hops from read to read rather than hitch from read to read. Cleaning up his footwork is going to take some time.

One of the few full-field progression concepts that Ole Miss has in their offense is an air raid staple: Y-Cross. On Y-cross, Dart should be reading the fade and shoot route (bottom of the screen) simultaneously. The corner to that side was playing flat-footed and had his eyes on the shoot route. Ideally, Dart would have seen the corner’s body language and thrown the fade route. No one was deep with the corner playing the shoot route. Instead, Dart progressed to his third read but made a nice throw in the middle of the field.

Sometimes it looks like Dart determines his throws pre-snap because he often goes to the same receiver on certain concepts. For example, against Florida, early in the game, he hit his receiver on a deep post on a Mills concept (deep post with a dig route). Kiffin called the same play later in the game. This time, Florida’s defensive backs dropped deep and easily picked off the pass.

Dart has to be better against the blitz. He was sacked 9.6 percent of the time when blitzed (10 sacks overall). His numbers against the blitz are inflated by run/pass options (RPOs) counting as blitzes because defenders are moving toward the line of scrimmage to play the run. On third-and-long (7+ yards), which are true dropback situations, his EPA per dropback against the blitz is 0.05.

Here, the Duke defense showed a cover 0 blitz look with multiple defenders at the line of scrimmage. With more potential pass rushers than blockers, ideally, Dart should abort the play fake and quickly find a “hot” receiver. But he still carried out the play fake which made it easy for an unblocked defender to get to him. His slot receiver to his right found space and quickly got his eyes back to Dart but the quarterback didn’t see him.

In this clip, the defense again showed a heavy-pressure look. Ideally, Dart should look for a quick outlet and hope his receiver can break a tackle in space on third-and-long. He had a three-on-three situation to his left (bottom of the screen) but after the snap, he looked to the single receiver side but that receiver was double covered. Dart broke the pocket and found a receiver on the scramble drill, but this isn’t a reliable answer against heavy-pressure looks.

Though Dart has an intriguing skill set with a high ceiling, a sizable gap must be bridged between the offense he operated at Ole Miss and what he’ll be asked to do in the league. Ideally, Dart will get drafted to a team where he can sit, learn a playbook and clean up his footwork without live action. However, quarterbacks drafted in the first round are rarely afforded redshirt years. With Dart’s developmental gap, getting drafted in the second or third round to a team with an established starter would be the best situation. After Cam Ward, Dart could have the highest ceiling of any quarterback in the draft, and he’s only 21 years old.

(Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)

Maine Rep. Laurel Libby has been largely outspoken about the issue of transgender athletes competing against biological females, to the point where she was censured by the state House.

That move was harshly criticized by the Boston Globe’s editorial board this week.

In a story by its editorial board headlined “Maine Democrats should stop making Laurel Libby a free speech martyr,” the outlet said that the voters, “not the House leadership,” should decide whether to “disqualify her.”

Libby was censured earlier this month by Maine’s Democratic majority and Speaker Ryan Fecteau for a social media post identifying an underage trans athlete. The censure has prevented her from carrying out other legislative actions to serve her constituents.

“There is no need to continue making a free speech martyr of Libby. A basic respect for democracy argues for letting the voters in her district, not the House leadership, be the ones to decide whether her actions disqualify her . . . ,” the story reads. 

“It was unnecessary for Libby to make that argument by singling out an individual – especially when that individual is a minor who had no role in making the rules that Libby opposes. But it was completely legitimate for her to express a view on what is inarguably a controversial political question . . . , ” the piece continued. “A censure is one thing when it’s just a symbolic statement of disapproval. But preventing an elected representative from voting should be a last resort for very serious misbehavior, and no legislature should make that decision lightly.”

Libby filed a lawsuit earlier this month, which seeks to have her voting and speaking rights restored. She was originally told she would have her rights restored if she apologized for the post. However, she has said she will not apologize but has said she is willing to drop it if her censure is dropped. She has said she is willing to drop her lawsuit if the censure is dropped.

Libby’s state of Maine, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, agreed to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to keep transgender athletes out of women’s sports after much public back and forth.

The University of Maine System (USM), a network of eight public universities in Maine, was subject to a temporary pause in funding from the USDA last week during an ongoing battle between the state and the federal government over trans inclusion in women’s and girls’ sports. The funding was reinstated just days later. 

U.S. President Donald Trump, joined by women athletes, signs the “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order in the East Room at the White House on February 5, 2025, in Washington, D.C.  (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

The USDA now claims the UMS is in full compliance with Trump’s executive order. 

Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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The sixth game in eight nights for the Lakers meant they were going to have to pay for all the energy they used fighting shorthanded over the last week.

It meant Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic needed to sit out because of sore ankles, Jarred Vanderbilt had to rest an injured groin and Dorian Finney-Smith was out because of nagging ankle issues. LeBron James also missed his seventh consecutive game because of a groin strain.

So who was in?

“The healthy players are gonna play tonight,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.

That Bronny James is one of the healthy ones, again, is a reminder of how much of his journey is already house money, the Lakers rookie surviving a cardiac arrest less than two years ago.

With the Lakers down to 10 available players against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks in a 118-89 loss, James got his longest runway yet to show the steps he’s taken largely in the shadows of the G League.

James scored a career-high 17 points, sparking the Lakers’ only positive quarter, the second, when the team outscored the Bucks 27-23.

James made seven of 10 from the field along with five assists, three rebounds and three turnovers. He played a season-high 30 minutes for the Lakers (43-26).

“I feel like it’s all coming back. Just being out for that long, stuff that I had to go through, wind-wise and lung-wise,” James said. “Just, I think I’ve been getting more comfortable as I get the reps under me and get the games under me and practices and learning from the bench and stuff like that. And I feel like it’s good for me.”

The performance caps a stretch in which he has been much more comfortable on NBA courts. He has made 15 of his last 26 shots over an eight-game stretch that’s included real rotation minutes twice, including Thursday. Dalton Knecht also scored 17 points.

The stretch has happened amid increased scrutiny after a confrontation between his father and Stephen A. Smith over the ESPN personality’s commentary on the Lakers’ second-round rookie and all-time leading scorer’s son.

Bronny credited the coaching staff with instilling in him the belief that he has a bright future in the NBA. The combination of his athleticism, the potential in his shooting and his character has made Redick a believer since he became coach.

“Since Day 1, I’ve just been impressed with the person that he is. And to deal with, frankly bull—, because of who his dad is and just keep a level head about it and be a class act says a lot about him, says a lot about that family. And the way LeBron and Savannah have raised him was obvious to me from the moment I started spending time with him on the court this summer.

“He was certainly going to be an NBA player and I still believe that he’ll be an NBA player.”

Bronny credited that levelheadedness for helping him navigate a career in which his merits have been judged based on his famous father. And Bronny knows that one strong game against the Bucks isn’t the end of his arc, just like rocky appearances early in the season weren’t either — despite the discourse they sparked.

“Just putting my head down and working. I feel like that’s the only thing that I can control right now is going in every day and staying ready to play, staying ready to learn, getting the work in after hours, early mornings, stuff like that. Just all the controllables that I can do myself,” Bronny said. “There’s not really much I can do [about] people, random people, talking about me every day. Can’t really do much about that, so I just go in the gym and work, put my head down and try to get better.”

The next major opportunity likely will be put on hold, the Lakers looking close to getting back to full health.

Before the game, Redick said the Lakers’ injured players, which also included Rui Hachimura, are all “day to day.” Television cameras captured LeBron going through a high-speed pregame workout Thursday.

Asked if either he or Hachimura could return Saturday when the Lakers host the Chicago Bulls, Redick was “hopeful.”

The outcome of Thursday’s game didn’t provide much hope, the usefulness of it as any big-picture barometer negated by all the pieces missing, including Bucks guard Damian Lillard.

But Bronny James’ readiness to embrace his biggest NBA opportunity to date certainly was positive.

“I’ve gained my confidence and gained my comfortability over just reps and getting out there and taking advantage of my opportunity if it’s given,” he said. “So just being ready at all times, I think, that’s the biggest thing for me.”