Are Giants sending mixed signals at QB?
Giants quarterbacks Drew Lock, left, and Daniel Jones. Credit: AP / Lindsey Wasson; Jim McIsaac
For a guy who has barely made a public peep since tearing an ACL in November, there sure is a lot of noise about Daniel Jones lately.
At the NFL Combine a couple of weeks ago, Giants general manager Joe Schoen said this: “I have faith in Daniel. I have faith in Daniel as our starting quarterback.”
Lately, it seems the Giants have had a funny way of showing it.
Drew Lock, the Giants’ newest quarterback, who most recently played for the Seahawks, answered questions about Jones and his status with conviction.
“Daniel Jones is the starter of this team,” Lock said. “Now I need to come in and push Daniel to be the best that he can be.”
But there are key realities when it comes to Jones that are inconvenient — namely his availability and his record.
Since being drafted sixth overall by the Giants in 2019, he has a record of 22-36-1. He’s missed 24 games because of injuries.
Jones is in the second year of his four-year, $160 million contract. But only $92 million is guaranteed, so if the Giants are planning to move on from him, you probably couldn’t blame them, given his injury history alone.
But it seems as if this situation has the potential to get messy.
In addressing Lock’s departure, Seahawks general manager John Schneider had this to say on a Seattle radio station: “[The Giants] basically sold him on the opportunity to compete to be the starter. And he felt like it was the right opportunity. He looked at Baker Mayfield’s opportunity last year [with Tampa Bay] and felt that this could be something similar.”
And it was interesting that word leaked that Russell Wilson met with the Giants last week before signing with the team he seemed destined to sign with, the Steelers.
All of that is a lot of smoke for a team that likes to believe it goes about business the right way. And if the Giants draft a quarterback in an early round of next month’s draft, this could have the makings of a reality TV show.
Free agency recap
The Giants did the right thing in devoting free-agency resources to fixing the offensive line. Now they hope it works. It’s been a long time coming. Perhaps the Giants are determined to get it right this time.
They signed veteran offensive tackle Jermaine Eluemunor from Las Vegas, who could replace Evan Neal should it come to that. Eluemunor can also play guard.
In Jon Runyan Jr., the Giants got a player from Green Bay who seems comfortable with the media — and in talking about his dad’s battles with Michael Strahan in years gone by — and, more importantly, logged 925 snaps at right guard last season and gave up two sacks. Runyan can play at either guard spot. He said he prefers the left side.
The Giants on Friday continued to add to their depth at positions of need.
They brought in Chris Manhertz, a nine-year veteran tight end who grew up in the Bronx, and also added guard Aaron Stinnie, who once started in a Super Bowl for the Buccaneers. Austin Schlottmann, a center with position versatility, also was signed.
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
