Can Daniel Jones succeed as Giants QB in now-or-never season?

By Ralph Vacchiano
FOX Sports NFC East Writer

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — When John Mara was overhauling his franchise this offseason, he interviewed nine prospective general managers and six potential head coaches, and he swore that “every single interview was positive” about Giants quarterback Daniel Jones.

It reinforced Mara’s belief that the organization had found its next franchise quarterback.

It also reinforced his belief that the 25-year-old Jones isn’t at fault for why things so far haven’t worked out.

“We’ve done everything possible to screw this kid up since he’s been here,” Mara famously said shortly after hiring new GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll. “We keep changing coaches, keep changing offensive coordinators, keep changing offensive line coaches. I take a lot of responsibility for that.

“But let’s bring in the right group of coaches now and give him some continuity and try to rebuild the offensive line and then be able to make an intelligent evaluation of whether he can be the franchise quarterback or not.”

Ready or not, the time for that intelligent evaluation begins now, as the Giants get ready to open the season on Sunday in Nashville against the Tennessee Titans. Jones may be on his third head coach and fourth offensive coordinator as he enters his fourth NFL season, but he has run out of both time and excuses. The Giants didn’t pick up the fifth-year option on his contract, meaning he’s playing out the final season of his rookie deal.

That means the Giants will face a big decision on Jones early in 2023. They need to decide whether he’s worth one more year on what could be a $32 million-plus franchise tag, whether he’s good enough to be rewarded with a longer, $100 million-plus deal or whether it’s time for them to look in another direction entirely.

In other words, this 17-game run is absolutely crucial for Jones’ future as an NFL starter — whether it’s here in New York, somewhere else or maybe even nowhere at all.

So far, at least, the Giants’ new leaders have been pleased with what they’ve seen from the former first-round pick (No. 6 overall in 2019). They like the way he works. They like the way he leads. And they’ve even liked what they’ve seen on the field during practice and during some very limited action in preseason games.

Of course, it’s early. Very, very early.

“I’m not going to get into expectations, but I’m happy where he is,” Schoen said. “I think Daniel’s in a good place. But again, we all know everybody’s got to go perform on Sundays, and that’s when the evaluations will really start.”

Jones’ performances on regular-season Sundays have definitely been the problem the past few years. He did get off to a promising start as a rookie, with 3,027 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 12 starts after replacing franchise icon in Eli Manning. But the Giants went 4-12 and head coach Pat Shurmur was fired. 

Then the offense basically collapsed the next two seasons under offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and head coach Joe Judge. Jones threw just 21 touchdown passes in 25 games in those two seasons — an absurdly low total — as the Giants went 10-23, including 9-16 with Jones at the helm. That run was capped off by a mysterious neck injury that forced him to miss the final six games last year.

That’s why, though Mara insisted it wasn’t all about his quarterback, his search for a new regime certainly seemed to center around what was best for Jones. He didn’t want a GM and coach who wanted to dump him. He wanted a duo that would find a way to bring out his best.

“That’s his job here,” Mara said of Daboll. “We have a quarterback that we have a lot of confidence in, who has had some issues here, mostly due to the way we’ve handled him. A big part of Brian’s job is going to be to try to get the most out of Daniel and put us in a position where we can make a fair evaluation of him.”

And what will the Giants be evaluating him on?

“Everything,” Daboll said. “Your performance. Your preparation. The job of a quarterback is to lead his team down and score points. Stats are great — percentage, completion percentage, all those type of things. But the biggest this is: Can you make the right decision under pressure?”

Jones hasn’t exactly been known for making great decisions. He had huge turnover problems his first two seasons, with 22 interceptions and 30 fumbles (17 lost) in his first 26 games. His numbers weren’t that much better last season in the 11 games before he got hurt (seven interceptions and seven fumbles, three lost, in 11 games).

He also certainly wasn’t good at leading his team down the field for points. The Giants were the 31st-ranked offense in the NFL each of the past two seasons, averaging an unfathomable 15.7 points per game and scoring 30 points or more only once in 33 games. In one of the most wide-open, high-scoring offensive eras in NFL history, those are inexcusable stats.

Of course, Jones shouldn’t get all the blame for that. His offensive line has been abysmal for most of his three seasons. Injuries have taken away most of his best weapons, including running back Saquon Barkley, who played just 15 games over the past two years (and rarely at full strength). Receiver Sterling Shepard missed 14 games. First-rounder Kadarius Toney played only 10 as a rookie last year. And No. 1 receiver Kenny Golladay caught only 37 passes for 521 yards in 14 games, making him a $72 million bust.

Add in Garrett’s antiquated offense and Judge’s desire to build his conservative attack on the running game, and Jones was really in a no-win situation. That’s a big reason why Mara turned to Schoen and particularly Daboll, who helped turn the Buffalo Bills‘ offense into a league powerhouse and their young quarterback, Josh Allen, into one of the best players in the game.

Can he do the same with Jones? There are plenty of doubters. Even Mara admitted that when he met with all those GM and coach candidates, and they all said nice things about Jones, “They [were] not willing not say that they think he’s going to be the next Patrick Mahomes.”

Then again, as Mara remembers, nobody looked at Eli Manning after his third season and thought that he’d soon be a two-time Super Bowl MVP.

Daniel Jones, Jalen Hurts & Tua are under most pressure

Marcellus Wiley and Emmanuel Acho rate each quarterback on a 1-10 pressure scale, with 10 at the highest.

What the Giants think they have in Jones is a capable NFL starter, if he’s surrounded by the right cast. That cast should be improved this season, especially up front, where they added veteran linemen Jon Feliciano and Mark Glowinski and used a first-round pick on tackle Evan Neal. Having a healthy Barkley back will certainly help. It would be really helpful if Jones’ receivers — Golladay, Toney and Shepard — could somehow stay healthy, too.

But even if they don’t, the facts of this season won’t change. One way or another, the Giants have to evaluate their quarterback. They will have no choice but to make a decision on his future by February, which is only five months from now. So there is a ton riding on Jones’ performance. Even the soft-spoken quarterback admitted, “There’s certainly a lot going on.”

Jones gets it. He’s just doing his best not to let it all get to him.

“My focus is on preparing myself,” Jones said earlier in the offseason. “I take full responsibility for how I’ve played. We haven’t won enough games. We haven’t scored enough points. We haven’t done things well enough. I take responsibility for that. As a quarterback, you play a big role in those things.

“So that’s what I’m focused on. I’m working on improving and making sure that myself, as well as the offense, as well as the team, is ready to go.”

It’s now or never.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and the Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that he spent 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. A Long Island, N.Y. native and graduate of Syracuse University, he can be found on Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.