Lex: Do The Giants Keep A Potential Risky Daniel Jones In 2023?
With Daniel Jones ending his rookie contract year with the Giants. Will the Giants be looking to sign him in his fifth year to continue playing? Jones’ fifth-year option would have cost the Giants $22.38 million in 2023. The 24-year-old still has a chance to earn roughly $30 million this year if he surpasses expectations in 2022 and the Giants franchise tag him, per Sports Illustrated. However let’s dive into Jones as a whole to weigh his benefits for the Giants, if any.
Daniel Jones, a Charlotte native, is a football product of Duke University. Duke is primarily a basketball-centric school. He had one good year statistically while at Duke. Let me not discount that fact as Duke’s head coach, David Cutcliffe, is one of the most valued and respected QB gurus in football. With a proven track record like his, Cutcliffe coached Heath Shuler, Peyton Manning, Tee Martin, and Erik Ainge while at Tennessee. The former Ole Miss head coach also sent Eli Manning to the NFL while in Oxford, and three more Duke quarterbacks while serving as the head coach of the Blue Devils.
Jones Collegiate Stats:
Height: 6-foot-5, Weight: 221 pounds
College (career): 8,201 yards, 52 touchdowns, 122.9 QB rate, 59.9 completion percentage
Combine: 4.81 40-yard dash, 33.5 vertical jump, 7.0 3-cone drill
Jones 6-5/220 strengths at the time of his draft:
At 6-5, he Stood tall in the pocket despite the rush. He had good height/size for an NFL starting quarterback while retaining his mobility. He was intelligent, showed the ability to read defenses, and knew where his receivers were on each play. His above-average accuracy to throw a ball coupled with his ability to throw: a fastball into tight windows, a catchable ball, and a good deep ball. Jones was not only able to throw the ball, but he was also able to loft in-touch passes, work through his progression, push the ball downfield, and had the ability to buy time or pick up yards on the ground.
Giants Gridiron Affiliate Chill-n-Reel
Jones’s weaknesses at the time of draft:
He would throw into coverage that he shouldn’t, and needed to improve his timing. He had an affinity to hold the ball too long. He also needed to shorten his delivery, his wind-up and pitch were too long. He had also broken his collarbone while playing back in 2018. This is the first of many injuries since signing with the NFL supporting Dave Gettleman’s claim (seemingly indirectly regarding Jones) during his forgettable tenure: “Hurt guys get hurt. It’s just the truth.“
Giants fans went into the draft knowing that they might take a QB in the first round, it appears most fans were hoping that the QB chosen would be Dwayne Haskins or Drew Lock. Really, hoping for anyone except Jones, that the Giants actually drafted. The Giants’ decision to take Jones so early in the draft left many of their fans in a state of shock. This shock spilled over onto multiple social platforms at the time.
All experts had him as an end of day one QB”. Gettleman pulled the trigger on him, afraid another team would take and pick him as the 2019 6th overall pick. Afraid he wouldn’t be there at the 17th pick. Experts had Jones ranked as the 22nd-30th pick overall as he wasn’t fully developed. He may have had a cannon of an arm yet his accuracy was suspect.
GM Gettleman was wanting to replace Manning and reached in for a QB that wasn’t fully developed. He picked up Jones and threw him into the fire without coaches to properly develop him. The Giants tried to surround him with skilled players yet he simply was not developing at the rate they wanted. The Giants declined the 5th-year option on Jones’ rookie contract this offseason, making 2022 the final year on his contract. Was this due to a lack of guidance, motivation, or an offensive line? Possibly even issues in coaching or play calling?
After three years of nothing, when it came to picking up his 5th-year contract, they’re simply not buying into him anymore. Bringing into question the sincerity of Jones’s statement when asked if he thought about the possibility of a 5th-year contract:
“I mean, I’d be lying if I said I never think about it, but I think, for the most part, you want to be present and do what you gotta do each week to play. I think just taking care of what I got to control, to play as well as I can, to help this team win games, I think is the most effective way to kinda deal with that. So that’s kinda how I try to approach it.”
NFL Comparison – Josh McCown. I don’t know if Jones will ultimately stick around for as long as McCown has, but they seem like similar quarterbacks. Smart, good arms, decently accurate to all levels but antsy under pressure, and can be somewhat easily baited into making bad decisions. Jones is a plus scrambler, yet the team that drafts him likely won’t be installing designed runs for him, although he was used on those at Duke. Anyway, Jones is a West Coast Offense signal-caller who you don’t want holding onto the ball for too long.
Will Most Giants Fans, Like Myself, Agree With This Sentiment:
“Now, just because he’s free, doesn’t mean he gets $50 million. Just because you’re a free agent doesn’t mean you’re gonna get $40 [million]. It’s all about value. And I think that’s exactly the job of the Giant front office is to put a value on this and to determine, really, what he is worth, and what he’s worth compared to other players that are available. This isn’t let’s sign Daniel, it’s let’s look at all our options, and then make the best decision.” — Michael Lombardi
This is the worst day of my life. I feel like I’m in a bad nightmare but I keep pinching myself and it’s still real. The @Giants actually just picked Daniel Jones. I hate everything. pic.twitter.com/LWiE6Yakfp — Ohio State Ev (@DoubleVodkaDon) April 26, 2019
Fans React To Giants Draft Pick Of Jones
My roommate @jesseweinberger is a huge Giants fan (huge enough to wear a jersey to watch TV). He had one wish for the #NFLDraft: don’t draft Daniel Jones. You can probably guess who they drafted. pic.twitter.com/9Hy9yxRcXh — Andrew Ettinger (@ettinger) April 26, 2019
Video Of Crushed Giants Fan