Daniel Jones entered the new season looking so terrible, so inept and so dysfunctional that there was so much anxiety and genuine bewilderment that those who have followed his career on and off the field tried to understand what on earth had happened.
Admittedly, expectations weren't all that high for the 27-year-old quarterback fresh off ACL surgery and a grueling cameo in 2023. Entering his third year in Brian Daboll's offensive system and carrying an entirely new playmaking toolbox in Malik Neighbors, there was an expectation that Jones would be competent, capable and appear in control of what he wanted to accomplish, but there was no preconceived notion that his performance would reach the highest level or earn any truly outstanding honors.
What the Giants, and their momentarily horrified fans, saw in their season-opening 28-6 loss to the Vikings was an empty shell of a quarterback who had been able to limit mistakes and win games as recently as 2022. Jones struggled in every way, bouncing the ball, flying over or behind his target and not getting checked in. He failed miserably in the first three-hour test, and it only got worse.
He looked like a regressing player.
“Yeah, he was,” Brian Baldinger, a former NFL offensive lineman and current NFL Network commentator, told The Post on Tuesday. “I don't want to use the word 'shot fighter,' because it's personal. But he didn't look like an advanced quarterback who can operate in the league and play with some awareness and anticipation. Even when he knew where he needed to get the ball, he just couldn't hit it in the right spot.”
“It's his third year in the offense, so he doesn't have to think about it too much. He should know exactly what he's looking at, where he's going to get the ball, where the safety valve is. That sort of stuff should be second nature to him. He should be very calm, but he didn't look very calm in this offense.”
There is no need to reconsider selecting Jones with the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft. That decision was made by former general manager Dave Gettleman. The first big decision Joe Sean made when he was hired was to decline Jones' fifth-year option for a fully guaranteed $22.3 million for the 2022 season. Sean said, without saying it, “Prove you deserve to get paid.” Jones then stayed healthy for a full season for the first time in his career, posting a league-low interception rate of 1.1% (5 of 472 passes) across the NFL and leading the Giants to their second win in the past decade. He flourished on the road in Minneapolis, helping the Giants to their first playoff win since their Super Bowl appearance after the 2011 season.
The Giants believed Jones was worth investing in mid-major quarterback capital for the next few years, not because he was versatile at the position, but because they structured his four-year, $160 million contract the way they did, with a dead-money cap hit of $22.2 million that allows him to opt out after the 2024 season. That's no small deal, but it's not a huge burden.
The Giants were excited about Jones' potential and believed Daboll and his system could get the most out of him.
“Daniel certainly had a good year and he'll be the first to tell you he still has plenty of fitness and room to improve,” Sean said at the time of the signing.
Since Jones signed that deal, there hasn't been enough meat on his bones to feed the pigeons. He's 1-6 as a starter with two touchdown passes and eight interceptions. He's thrown more pick-six interceptions (three) than he's thrown scoring passes to his own team (two).
The offensive line played awful early in 2023 before Jones injured his right knee in Week 9. They were short on playmakers, and Neighbors was supposed to fix that. But the blatant and stunning incompetence of Jones' performance was overwhelming. A guy who threw 24 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions as a rookie and can't run a consistent passing attack after getting paid?
“The injuries have affected his mentality and he's lost confidence in the offensive line,” an NFL defensive assistant told The Post. “He's lacking real trust in the people around him.”
“When quarterbacks get overwhelmed, they start rushing the throw. Instead of looking down the field, they start looking at the rush. The first thing they do is focus on their first read. What really changes is decision-making. This isn't something that just happened. It started happening several years ago.”
That was supposed to be fixed with the addition of three new starters to the offensive line this season. The season opener was a disappointment for the newly retooled team. Left tackle Andrew Thomas had the league's best pass-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus, with an overall grade of 76.6 far ahead of left guard John Runyan Jr. (59.0), center John Michael Schmitz (52.2), right guard Greg Van Roten (46.6) and right tackle Jermaine El-Huehneau (64.9).
“The offensive line was awful,” Baldinger said. “It was just awful. Runyan was bad, Van Roten was bad, El Emnor was okay, Andrew Thomas was solid, but as a team we just didn't perform well.”
Jones completed 22 of 42 passes for 186 yards and two interceptions against the Vikings. One of the interceptions was returned 10 yards by linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel for a touchdown. Jones, who led the entire second half, was pressured on 36.7% of his dropbacks, 21st in the NFL in Week 1, according to NextGen Stats. He threw just 9.5% of his passes in tight windows, sixth-lowest in the league, and his completion rate should have been higher. He threw 14.7% of his passes in tight windows in 2022 and 10.8% in 2023. Jones had more opportunities in this season opener, but he just couldn't find them.
One more from NexGen Stats: Jones' completion percentage was better than expected, minus-16.5%. Only the Packers' Jordan Love was worse in Week 1. This is the difference between a quarterback's actual and expected completion percentage, controlling for the difficulty of each pass. In 2022, Jones' completion percentage was plus-1.2% and in 2023 it was plus-0.5%.
Translation: Jones has had a really poor start to this season.
“One thing Daniel Jones doesn't do is anticipate the ball and not throw it,” Baldinger said, “so he's too slow, that's why he's running. The ball has to go out. Not every pass, but passes to the sideline, a guy breaks, the ball has to go out. And he has to throw it accurately, and he didn't throw it accurately, he didn't anticipate and throw it. That's on him.”
Baldinger wasn't happy with Daboll's approach in the season opener, because he used too many two or three tight ends and didn't get enough deep balls down the field.
“They're doing the same things they did under coach Pat Shurmur,” Baldinger said. “I don't feel like they can move the line of scrimmage, they're all tight ends and they're not doing anything. They've had bad play design. They're only able to throw hitch screens outside a lot. They didn't take any shots deep down the field. They didn't have any shots on Malik or Jarin.” [Hyatt]nothing? Not a single deep ball.
According to Chase Daniel, a former NFL quarterback and current Fox Sports analyst, Daboll demanded too much pre-snap movement, to Jones' detriment.
“It just seemed to confuse Daniel Jones,” Daniel told the Post. “He was overthinking the shifts and the movements. [identifying the Mike linebacker] “He forgot how to play. Sometimes you have to make it simple, but this time it was anything but simple.”
It's easy to point out all the failures. Figuring out why a once-functional quarterback has become such a mess for the Giants is a much tougher task.
Let's not forget, Jones has been hearing all summer that his team wants to acquire a high draft pick to replace him. Thank you, Hard Knocks. So, Jones knows he's on borrowed time with the franchise. This must be playing a game in his mind.
“Does he think the organization isn't really rooting for him?” Baldinger said. “It's one thing if the fans aren't rooting for him, and then you have to fight that. But can you fight a organization that's desperately trying to replace you? Maybe some guys can just say, 'Fuck it, I'm going to show everybody.'”
“I'd like to say Daniel is that kind of guy, but I don't know if he can do that, because most people can't.”
Whatever it is, unless Jones finds a solution, the Giants are in for a long season.
— Additional reporting by Ryan Dunleavy
