The New York Giants are entering their third season with Daniel Jones as the starting quarterback after selecting the former Duke Blue Devil sixth overall in the 2019 NFL draft. Jones has experienced his share of ups and downs like most young quarterbacks do early in their career, but in a league that is all about win-now, there’ve been questions surrounding the Giants’ plans behind center in 2021.
It makes sense to wonder whether New York would take advantage of a strong quarterback class in the 2021 NFL draft and perhaps look to swing on another potential franchise passer with the 11th overall pick. Jones hasn’t done enough through his first two years to create unconditional confidence in his ability to lead the Giants into contention. He started 14 games in 2020, failed to reach 3,000 passing yards, and threw just 11 touchdowns to 10 interceptions.
Sure, Jones had a below-average wide receiver corps and yes, Saquon Barkley was hurt all season, but great quarterbacks — or even just above-average ones — oftentimes rise above their supporting cast. Jones flashed a moment or two that suggests he can be that guy, but his 11 fumbles (he fumbled 18 times as a rookie) and overall inconsistency as a passer can’t be ignored.
Still, the Giants’ key decision-makers remain confident in Jones’ ability to be every bit the franchise quarterback they expected he’d become when they called his name with that No. 6 pick.
“We’ve had Daniel for two years; we’ve done the evaluation on him and we really believe he’s the guy. No reason to go look,” GM Dave Gettleman said via NFL.com. “What we’re doing isn’t fantasy football, we’re not playing, we’re not doing that. We’ve got a conviction on him, he’s everything we want, he’s got all the physical skills and again I say this all the time, the kid just finished his second year of NFL football. How many of us after two years at our new job were great? No, we all start at point ‘A’ and we hopefully get to point ‘Z,’ but the one common denominator is it takes time. Everybody has to understand that. We believe in Daniel and that’s where it is.”
All fair points by Gettleman. In fact, it’s somewhat refreshing to hear a general manager stick to a plan rather than cave to the pressure of the moment.
It would be unfair to judge Jones solely by his performance last year. If he’s armed with a first-round wide receiver and a healthy Barkley, there’s no telling how productive he can be.
“Again, we have confidence in Daniel, he’s a player that we want to work with going forward with this team,” coach Joe Judge said when asked if the Giants would consider a quarterback in April’s draft. “He’s shown us a lot of improvement, there’s a lot of things. I can go on and on about how we respect him and like him and how the locker room responds to him, but the simple answer to that is no.”
