Daniel Jones' future with Giants remains uncertain despite 6-2 start
Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) reacts after a play during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle, Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022. Credit: AP/John Froschauer
Daniel Jones has done just about everything he possibly can to prove to his new coach and general manager that he is the quarterback around whom the Giants should build their future. He has led comebacks, he has played through injuries, he has reduced his turnovers and increased his accuracy, and he has done it all without anything close to a game-changing wide receiver at his disposal.
“Daniel has done a good job,” GM Joe Schoen said on Tuesday. “In those gotta-have-it moments, third downs, fourth quarters, when you gotta have it, I think he has answered the bell in a lot of those situations.”
He was even in the team’s cafeteria at 7:30 on Tuesday morning having breakfast the day after the players were dismissed for their bye week, sticking around the facility to keep up on things during his well-earned time off, an appearance that impressed but didn’t shock Schoen.
“That didn’t surprise me a bit,” he said. “He’s always around.”
Maybe not much longer, though.
Schoen kept going back to the same calculus when asked about Jones’ long-term place in the organization and his own task of deciding the fate of a player who is due to become a free agent at the end of this season.
“There are nine games left,” Schoen said several times. “It’s an ongoing evaluation for everyone on the roster.”
If Jones hasn’t done enough to convince the Giants brass he can be their guy, it’s hard to imagine he ever will. This season, which has always been framed as a make-or-break one for Jones, would seem to have a preordained outcome regarding his tenure with the team. If Jones leading this Giants roster to a 6-2 record in the first half of the year hasn’t swayed Schoen, perhaps nothing can.
It’s starting to feel as if they plan on having him for those nine more games and that’ll be that.
Personnel in the NFL is a never-say-never business. so it’s certainly possible that Jones improves on an already stellar campaign, the Giants keep winning with him, or other options the Giants are eying fall through, any or all of which could add up to his being back in blue for 2023 with either a new contract or a franchise tag. But at this point, Jones seems to have not yet earned that consideration. Schoen said he and the front office will have discussions this week to talk about the possibility of extending any soon-to-be unrestricted free agents. It did not sound as if Jones will be included in those strategy sessions.
“We’ve had Daniel for eight games,” Schoen said, downplaying Jones’ sample size.
But they have also had him for OTAs and training camp and breakfast on Tuesday morning. Will 17 games make that much of a difference?
The Giants have other players they need to think about signing to extensions now or at the end of this season besides Jones. Andrew Thomas and Dexter Lawrence are both under contract through 2023 but have both played to the point of earning such consideration. Julian Love is a free agent after this season who should be part of the team’s long-term plans. Saquon Barkley, like Jones, will be a big-name free agent after this season and he is playing at an MVP level. Ironically, Barkley may be performing too well for the Giants to afford to bring him back. Throwing money at a running back with a history of injuries, even if he’s healthy now, is bad NFL business.
Jones, though, is the biggest call for the Giants.
The long-term health of any franchise runs parallel to its quarterback. Determining if he wants Jones to be the player who serves as that barometer or not is what Schoen will spend the next nine games deciding.
Assuming, that is, he hasn’t already ruled it out.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
