Daniel Jones, welcome to New York: Now, can you win over the doubters?
Daniel Jones, recently drafted Giants quarterback, fields questions from the media during rookie minicamp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J. on Friday. Credit: James Escher
In another time and place, maybe Daniel Jones is welcomed to the Giants with the kind of hope and optimism befitting a self-made quarterback who was barely recruited out of high school, made it as a walk-on at Duke and earned a robust endorsement from one of the most widely respected quarterback whisperers in the land.
Maybe Jones’ rise from a high school star at Charlotte Latin School, where he got the team to two state championships, and leading ACC also-ran Duke to signature wins over Notre Dame and North Carolina and taking home 2018 Independence Bowl MVP honors with a six-touchdown performance against Temple would be viewed as the kind of underdog story New Yorkers so eagerly embrace.
That hasn’t been the case, of course, and Jones has been shunned by much of a skeptical Giants fan base that has seen the team get to the playoffs once since winning its last Super Bowl after the 2011 season. When Roger Goodell announced Jones as the sixth overall pick, there were gasps from the Nashville crowd of about 150,000 and far more strident expressions of disagreement from Giants fans watching elsewhere.
The groupthink favored a pass rusher at No. 6 — Kentucky’s Josh Allen was the best talent on the board — and then perhaps a quarterback at 17. Maybe if it had turned out that way and Dave Gettleman had taken care of his biggest defensive need before its biggest one on offense, Jones’ selection would have been received better.
But Gettleman didn’t want to fool around when it came to drafting his quarterback of choice, and the general manager was smitten with the 6-5, 220-pound Jones. This despite the fact that he put up mostly pedestrian numbers at Duke that belied the true talent and upside the Giants saw in him. Even though it appeared Gettleman might be able to get Allen and Jones by gambling that the quarterback would be there at 17, Gettleman believed there were at least two teams who would have taken him sooner.
And thus, the acerbic reaction from fans who thought Gettleman took Jones too soon. It was a moment that harked back to the introduction Phil Simms got when his name was announced by then-commissioner Pete Rozelle in the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria. A crowd of about 200 or so fans booed the pick — seventh overall — and Simms quickly learned he would have to earn the fans’ affection.
Simms was even more of an unknown than Jones; as a senior at Morehead State in Kentucky, Simms had five touchdown passes and 11 interceptions. That’s just an astoundingly mediocre stat-line, especially by today’s standards, but then-GM George Young saw enough to convince him that Simms should be his cornerstone pick in the team’s rebuilding. That conviction eventually was rewarded with the team’s first Super Bowl championship after the 1986 season, and Simms did most of the heavy lifting in the 1990 regular season on the way to another title run behind Jeff Hostetler, who replaced the injured Simms shortly before the playoffs.
Simms is firmly ensconced in Giants history; his name and No. 11 are in the team’s Ring of Honor and his legacy is secure. Eli Manning will be joining Simms in that exclusive circle, and the drafting of Jones ultimately may hasten Manning’s departure — unless the 38-year-old quarterback can summon the kind of play that made him a two-time champion and hold off Jones’ term as the Giants’ starter.
But it’s clearly just a matter of time before the former Duke quarterback takes over the offense. And until then, he will have to deal with the skeptics who believe he is unworthy.
He understands — and accepts — the misgivings.
“It would be hard to be completely unaware of a lot of that stuff and the way it works,” Jones said. “I don’t focus on it. There is a lot to focus on and a lot to learn right now. Being here, learning the offense and trying to pick up a bunch of stuff. I am not sure I can really afford to focus on a lot of that stuff.”
Jones can learn firsthand what it is to block out the noise. Manning has done an absolutely masterful job over the years of remaining calm no matter what goes on around him. Playing in the bubbling cauldron of the New York metropolitan area can be overwhelming for those who aren’t mentally prepared for it, but Manning has had this innate ability to remain unruffled regardless of the circumstances.
In his first Super Bowl season in 2007, for instance, Manning endured a disquieting midseason slump but acted as if nothing had happened and eventually put on one of the most magnificent playoff performances in franchise history. Four years later, the Giants squeaked into the playoffs at 9-7 and then ran the table to win another Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Jones understands the enormity of the shoes he soon must fill, but he possesses a similar mindset that will help him endure the inevitable ups-and-downs of what it is to be a quarterback for the Giants or Jets.
“I think it is largely a personality thing,” Jones said. “If you can be calm and steady in your demeanor, I think you can handle this.”
He has been described by former teammates and coaches at Duke as a calming influence, and he’ll need all of that and more to survive the scrutiny. He got a taste of that upon his introduction to the Giants, but it will only increase if he can’t live up to the expectations placed upon him with Gettleman’s decision to take him early in the draft.
“I think anyone that comes into New York, you can see that there is more attention than they have had previously,” Jones said. “It is all part of it. It is my job to make people believe in me, and I understand that.”
Giants coach Pat Shurmur is confident that Jones can weather the storm of playing in the country’s biggest market.
“When we went through the [draft] process … we were very certain that he can handle the scrutiny that comes with being the quarterback of the New York Football Giants,” Shurmur said. “It’s a lot of attention. There’s a lot of passion for what we do, and especially for the guy that plays that position, and we’re very certain that he can handle it.
“He’s very accomplished, he’s very smart, he gets it, and he understands what comes with being the quarterback here,” Shurmur said. “If you’re in this game long enough, you’re in the arena, you get cheered and you get booed, and he’s smart enough to know how to handle that type of stuff and do what he can to help us win football games. That’s part of it.”
Jones would do well to heed the advice of Peyton Manning when the two spoke about Jones’ decision to return in 2018 for his final season at Duke.
“His advice was that whatever decision you make or whatever you chose to do, people will criticize it,” Jones said. “It is your job to prove them right or prove them wrong.”
Words to live by for a young quarterback who now will get the chance to answer the boos of draft night with a career worth applauding.
Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”
