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Ole Miss' Jaxson Dart considered among the top-10 returning quarterbacks in 2024

11by: Jake Thompson02/15/24JakeThompsonOn3
NCAA Football: Peach Bowl-Mississippi at Penn State
Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart (2) is pressured by Penn State Nittany Lions defensive tackle Coziah Izzard (99) in the first quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

It is not a stretch to say that Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart is one the top players at his position heading into the 2024 college football season.

The statement is one that makes all the sense in the world given the 2023 campaign Dart had but the folks at Pro Football Focus provided a little validity to the sentiment in the media world with a new list released this week.

On Wednesday, PFF named its top 10 returning quarterbacks for the upcoming season and Dart landed on it at No. 6. Dart was the fourth best Southeastern Conference signal caller on the the list headlined by Georgia’s Carson Beck at No. 1.

A trend of considering the Bulldogs, SEC newcomer Texas, Alabama and Ole Miss as the top four teams in the conference continued with PFF’s quarterback list.

After Beck it was Alabama’s Jalen Milroe at No. 3 and Texas’ Quinn Ewers at No. 5 just ahead of Dart. Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel (No. 2) and Colorado’s Shaduer Sanders (No. 4) rounded out the top five.

Dart’s junior season was his best one of the two spent in Oxford since transferring to Ole Miss ahead of the 2022 season. He was third in the SEC behind Beck and LSU’s Jayden Daniels, throwing for 3,364 yards and the 24 touchdown passes had Dart tied with Milroe for fourth in the conference.

The interceptions were cut down by six between last season and 2022 with Dart only have five passes picked off in 2023.

When it comes to the PFF grading Dart improved his passing number by 13 points between the sophomore and junior seasons (75.2 in 2022 to 88.7 in 2023). In 2022, he posted just a 42.8 PFF passing grade outside the pocket, which was 111th among FBS quarterbacks.

Dart improved that mark to a 74.6 PFF passing grade this past season, which was 15th in the nation. Overall, his 91.2 PFF grade was tied for sixth among all quarterbacks in the country.

The rest of the top-10 returning quarterbacks list included West Virginia’s Garrett Greene at No. 7, Penn State’s Drew Allar (No. 8), Arizona’s Noah Fifita (No. 9) and Missouri’s Brady Cook (No. 10).

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