With turnover issues behind him, Daniel Jones' future on Giants looking brighter
Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) celebrates a touchdown by running back Saquon Barkley (26) during the first half of an NFL football game against the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022, in Landover, Md. Credit: AP/Patrick Semansky
In answering questions Tuesday about his starting quarterback, it wasn’t until his seventh sentence that Giants coach Brian Daboll got to the crux of the matter: “He’s taking care of the football.”
Yes, Daniel Jones appears to have cured his turnover demons, going from a total of 29 in his first three seasons to four this season.
Four.
If he hadn’t, the Giants almost certainly would not be in the position they are in: To make the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
Because he has, they are.
Since the win over Washington Sunday night, two Super Bowl champions have tweeted their support for Jones and his remaining a Giant.
“I’ve seen enough this year and Daniel Jones has exceeded expectations. (In my opinion) he will absolutely be the Giants QB next year,” wrote Phil Simms.
Wrote helmet-catch champion David Tyree: “Officially going on record. Daniel Jones is the QB for the Giants. I don’t need to see anymore.”
In recent weeks — and especially after Sunday’s win over Washington — there seems to be growing momentum from inside the Giants’ Quest Diagnostics Training Center that supports Jones. It seems as likely now as it ever has that he will continue to be the Giants quarterback beyond this season.
That’s an idea that made Saquon Barkley very happy Tuesday in the locker room.
“I’ve been open about how I feel about DJ,” Barkley told Newsday. “I think he’s done everything that is needed. He put us in position to play meaningful football in December and put us in position to make the playoffs. That’s what you want from your franchise quarterback.”
When Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen rescued the Giants in January — a fair description, even if it couldn’t be known then how it would go — they declined Jones’ fifth-year option, making 2022 a prove it year for Jones.
Team owner John Mara’s admission after last season that the Giants had done “everything possible to screw this kid up” once represented remarkable candor.
Today, it no longer applies.
“Well, give Daniel credit, first and foremost,” Daboll said Tuesday. “He’s an extremely hard worker. I think he understands what we’re trying to accomplish each week. Every week, it’s a little bit different. But he works extremely hard. He studies. He understands the teams that we’re playing, and he makes good decisions for what we ask him to do. He’s taking care of the football. He’s done a good job.”
Daboll also believes Shea Tierney, the 36-year-old quarterbacks coach who worked with Daboll in Buffalo and joined him at the Giants, has positively affected Jones.
“(Tierney) has done a really great job with him in the quarterback room,” Daboll said. “We try to do things that accentuate his strengths. I think he can throw it on all three levels, but there’s a way to play each game against each opponent based on what they have defensively, how their rush is, what their corners look like. He’s done a good job of operating and executing our offense.”
One aspect of Jones and his leadership struck Daboll soon after he took the Giants job.
Back then, “just talking to some of the skill guys and even the defensive guys, they’ve always had that respect for Daniel because of the way he approaches his job, he’s a true pro,” Daboll said. “And he’s a good leader. I know he’s kind of a quiet guy. But in the huddle, he’s a good leader with those guys. He knows everybody’s responsibilities. He can get things lined up; he can correct mistakes. He’s a problem solver. So, I think the guys have a lot of respect for him.”
That includes one of the newest Giants.
Isaiah Hodgins was claimed off waivers from Buffalo on Nov. 2. He’s received a crash course in everything-Giants since then, especially the offense. He practiced with the starters immediately and started for the Giants a little more than two weeks later.
Hodgins described Jones as someone who “knows what he’s expecting, he knows what he wants.
“His work ethic, I feel, stands out to everybody. He’s one of those quarterbacks who stays after practice, taking the initiative. You see him in the weight room all the time, working hard. That stuff is contagious. When you see your quarterback working that hard, everyone else wants to follow.”
But not everyone can do what Jones has. In 2019, he was tied for second in the league in turnovers. Now? He has the best interception rate in the league.
He has flipped the script. Not that he’d every suggest that. “The quarterback is responsible for decision-making,” Jones said at his locker. These days, the Giants wouldn't have it any other way.
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.
