Daniel Jones approaches one-year anniversary as Giants' starting quarterback

Happy anniversary, Daniel Jones!

It was a year ago Thursday that he was first named starting quarterback of the Giants, taking over for Eli Manning and ushering in a new era of football for the franchise.

What has he learned during these past 365 days?

"Certainly a lot," he said on Wednesday. "I’ve learned a lot on the field playing football, scheme and understanding the game. A lot in how to prepare and getting ready to play and everything in between. Constantly growing as a player, as a member of the team, I think that’s ultimately what is most important and I think I’ve certainly realized that in the last year."

He may also have noticed how quickly expectations of him have changed. Even though he has played less than a full season’s worth of games, there are some who are already weary of chalking up his mistakes to youth. They are ready for the next phase of his development, the one where his good plays far outshine the bad ones and begin leading to victories.

It was a nice year, but the honeymoon may be over.

Jones was under no delusion that his grace period would last longer than it has.

"I understand the expectation and responsibility of playing quarterback, representing the New York Giants," he said. "I take that very seriously. It’s something I think I’m constantly learning and constantly understanding how to best do that."

Monday’s game was a shining example of the gray area where Jones now stands between wobbly-legged foundling and franchise quarterback. He threw two touchdowns and was one bad pass away from a possible third that would have given the Giants the lead late in the third quarter of their eventual 26-16 loss to the Steelers. Instead that pass was picked off, one of two interceptions in the game.

Jones said the communication and the message regarding such mistakes was "certainly very clear" from the coaching staff as the game was reviewed on Wednesday morning.

"I know the guys understand the urgency with which it needs to be corrected," Jones said.

None more than Jones.

Joe Judge seemed somewhat sympathetic to the task Jones is faced with. Not only did he insist that playing quarterback in the NFL is "the toughest job in all of professional sports," he noted that many who succeed at it have certain benefits early in their careers.

"You look at the truly great ones that have come through our league and without naming names just think real carefully about how many of those guys were able to have high degrees of success before they had to truly carry a team," Judge said. "Think about those really great ones who are going to be wearing gold jackets and have played in this league for 15-20 years. How many of those guys had the benefit early in their careers of working with teams that were either carried more by defense or a run game or a great arsenal of guys to support them?"

Um… not Jones. Not yet, anyway.

That hasn’t foiled him from playing very well considering the circumstances of his first calendar year on the job.

Jones’s good moments have been close to great. He has thrown at least one touchdown in each of his 13 career starts, the fourth-longest streak among all quarterbacks since the NFL merger in 1970 (Kurt Warner holds the record with 23, in case that nugget comes back to relevance later this season). He’s thrown 26 touchdowns in those 13 games. Four of those games he has led the Giants in rushing.

He is the very model of a modern major quarterback, and Monday’s game showed some of that.

"I’ll tell you right now, you watch that tape from the other night, that dude stood in there like a man and delivered the ball down the field," Judge said. "That dude stood in there aggressively, he stood in there tough, he stood in there confidently and our team feeds off of that. We’re proud to have him on our team."

But he has just three career wins to show for it. And 14 interceptions coupled with 11 lost fumbles. Those numbers often overshadow his production, as the two picks did on Monday night.

Judge would obviously rather not have those turnovers, but he is hesitant to rein in Jones’s aggressive play.

"To me, you can be aggressive and at the same time make the right decisions," Judge said. "As a quarterback, you can’t be effective in this league if you are playing cautious. You can’t be effective in this league if you are playing scared. You have to be aggressive. As a coach, what you can never do is take away the teeth of your players by pumping the brakes on them a little bit… You can’t take away the aggressiveness on any player because ultimately that is going to weaken him and that’s not good coaching."

So the only thing left to do is wait it out. Wait for the growing pains to subside. Wait for the team around Jones to get better. Wait for the goods to far outweigh the bads and the wins to start sprouting.

Maybe some of that will even show up before Jones’ second anniversary on the job.

Notes & quotes: Bears LB Robert Quinn (ankle) was limited in practice after missing the Week 1 game, putting him on track to make his 2020 debut against the Giants. The 10-year veteran had 11.5 sacks for the Cowboys last season … LB Carter Coughlin (hamstring) was the only Giant who did not participate in Wednesday’s practice. WR Golden Tate (hamstring) was limited.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

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.