Giants GM Joe Schoen reiterates Daniel Jones will be starting QB when healthy
INDIANAPOLIS — Giants general manager Joe Schoen has consistently said that Daniel Jones will be the Giants’ starting quarterback if he is healthy.
Schoen reiterated that this week at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis.
“I have faith in Daniel as our starting quarterback,” Schoen said on Tuesday, adding that Jones has been at the Giants’ facility every day.
“He’s been working hard, and he understands where we are.”
Which means Jones understands that the Giants are going to add a quarterback in free agency or in the draft, or possibly both.
The Giants own the sixth overall pick in the 2024 draft.
“It’s a good quarterback draft,” Schoen said. “It’s not just at the top. There are some guys that are mid-levels that I think will be good number twos. There are some guys that can be number threes in the draft. I think it’s a solid draft all over.”
It’s possible quarterbacks Caleb Williams of USC, Drake Maye of North Carolina and Jayden Daniels of LSU, the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner, could be the first three players selected in April’s draft.
Tommy DeVito remains in the Giants’ mix and Schoen said Tyrod Taylor could be brought back.
Jones is on the rebound after tearing his right ACL in Las Vegas last season. It was an injury-plagued year for Jones, who also sustained the second neck injury of his career. Only once in his five years, 2022, has Jones played every game. That year, the Giants won a playoff game for the first time since the 2012 Super Bowl.
Jones underwent knee surgery on Nov. 22.
Schoen said Jones has been at the Giants’ facility daily and has started throwing from a stationary position.
Jones has proved to be a diligent worker — and rehabber — in his time with the Giants. But, entering his sixth season, a fair question is this one: Can a quarterback who uses his legs as much as Jones does and whose pocket awareness seems to betray him too often ever be counted on to not miss time?
Jones will be 27 when the 2024 season begins. He most recently spoke to reporters in November, when he said: “In terms of my future, and what I’m thinking about it, it’s to attack this [rehab] and come back stronger, and a better football player in the future.”
Notes & quotes: With the messy departure of defensive coordinator Wink Martindale (now at the University of Michigan), Schoen said, “We’re probably not going to blitz as much.” Among the Giants’ seven new assistant coaches is former Titans defensive coordinator Shane Bowen, now in the same role with the Giants. In all, the Giants hired four coaches from a Titans staff that finished last in its division. From 2021 to 2023, the Titans surrendered the fewest rushing yards in the NFL, and in 2023, Bowen led the top-ranked defense in red zone scoring.
The Giants’ lone returning coordinator is Mike Kafka. There has been speculation that Daboll may assume play-calling duties this season. Kafka has been the play-caller the past two seasons. When they joined the Giants in 2022, Schoen said his preference was for Daboll not to call the plays. This week, Schoen said, “I’m never going to tell him what to do. I’m never going to tell him one way or the other what to do on the field. That’s his world.” Schoen said they have yet to have those discussions.
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.
