Daniel Jones will be able to watch Jared Goff during the Lions’ practice sessions on Monday and Tuesday and dream of the impossible.
Goff was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, but Rams head coach Sean McVay traded him away for Matthew Stafford in a blockbuster trade in 2021. While Stafford led the Rams to a Super Bowl 56 win over the Bengals, Motown was left with buyer’s remorse when Goff got off to a slow start in Detroit.
“He feels like he has to work harder than he’s ever done before,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said at the start of the 2021 season. “We need him to help us out.”
Then last season came around Ford Field, where Goff’s name was chanted after he led the Lions to their first playoff win in 32 years, beating the Rams, and reaching the NFC Championship Game. He was surprised to hear his name chanted at a Red Wings game. He threw 59 touchdowns and 19 interceptions over his final two seasons.
“It means a lot to the city,” Goff said.
Of course, for now, it’s just a pipe dream for Daniel Jones. It seems like an eternity since the time Jones stood there holding up his right thumb and taking a curtain call amid chants of “Daniel Jones, Daniel Jones” and “MVP, MVP” at the end of the 2022 Giants’ 38-10 victory over the Colts to clinch their first playoff berth since 2016.
“I told him I love him,” Saquon Barkley said after the game.
Barkley also calls him “the toughest quarterback in the league.”
A lot has changed since that day, when Jones demolished the Vikings on the road to give the Giants their first playoff win in 11 seasons.
Jones immediately paid his $40 million signing bonus and is still paying it.
He endured a nightmare 2023 season behind a nightmare offensive line that prevented him from starting more than six games due to neck and knee injuries.
He endured a nightmare draft season as general manager Joe Sean and head coach Brian Daboll tried to secure their quarterback of the future.
There was even speculation that Drew Lock might take his job.
Given Jones’ troublesome injury history, his unemotional play (two touchdowns, six interceptions) and his unpredictable recovery from a rigorous rehab for a torn ACL, it would have been organizational negligence for the Giants to not have a contingency plan in place.
“Hard Knocks” on HBO?
Tough test for Daniel Jones.
Jones has been extremely successful in his rehab, dispelling any notion that he won’t be Daboll’s starting quarterback at the start of training camp, let alone when the regular season begins.
Now, of course, the real rehabilitation for him must begin.
The expectations for him are the same as those for a franchise quarterback.
Stay healthy.
Throw a touchdown pass.
Win the game.
Or you might lose your dream job.
And the toughest challenge of all will be reminding franchise teams that they can make a Super Bowl.
John Mara believed Daniel Jones was the guy two years ago, and he’s eager to believe it again.
Jones has no excuses as he has no guaranteed income in 2025. Malik Neighbors is his first true No. 1 receiver. The offensive line has been strengthened. Daboll is now the play-caller.
He can no longer rely on Barkley, who went to Philadelphia. The game is in his hands. He has to give the ball away, make the right decisions and throw accurately. No fumbles or interceptions, which have been a plague on him.
“I believe in Daniel with all my heart,” Wan’Dale Robinson told the Post. “At the end of the day, it’s up to you to believe in him or not, but I have all the confidence in him and the way he’s done his job. I feel like he’s the best quarterback for us.”
He became Danny Dimes in 2022 after the Giants declined his fifth-year option.
He doesn’t have the elite offensive line that Goff had, he doesn’t have David Montgomery or Jameel Gibbs behind him, he needs Neighbors to be his Amon-Ra St. Brown, Robinson to be a young Sterling Shepard and Theo Johnson to be his Sam LaPorta.
So, yes, the odds are stacked against him. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look at Jared Goff and see a quarterback who got up off the mat and won over a skeptical team and a city.
