Daniel Jones will miss the rest of the season for Giants with torn ACL in right knee
Daniel Jones of the Giants reacts after falling down in the first quarter of a game against the Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday in Las Vegas. Credit: Getty Images/Ian Maule
Daniel Jones’ Giants career has been speckled with promise but inconsistency — hope, but also injury.
On Monday, the day after the Giants dropped to 2-7, the negative continued to win out, as Brian Daboll announced that his quarterback would undergo season-ending surgery on a torn ACL suffered in the first half of their 30-6 loss to the Raiders.
The injury all but sounds the death knell on this Giants season but also could potentially spell the end of Jones’ tenure in East Rutherford.
“The first emotion is devastation,” said wide receiver Darius Slayton, who was drafted by the Giants the same year as Jones. “We all work extremely hard to make the best out of the 17 opportunities we get every year to play the game we love and having that slip away is not easy for any of us to deal with. He’s a very resilient person — a very strong individual but he’s also not alone in this. We’ll have his back and support him and be with him through the process.”
Signed to a four-year, $160 million extension this offseason, Jones’ hefty injury history, coupled with the Giants likely getting a top-five pick in the draft, means that general manager Joe Schoen will be highly motivated to find a young franchise quarterback and mold him into someone who can carry the Giants into the future.
Jones' right knee buckled on the last play of the first quarter Sunday and he attempted to come back in before he crumpled to the ground, untouched by a defender, on the first play of the second quarter
Sunday also marked his return from a neck injury that cost him three weeks of the season, though he didn’t look particularly comfortable before hurting his neck, either (he’ll finish the year with a 70.5 quarterback rating, by far the lowest of his career). He completed 67.5% of his passes for 909 yards, with two touchdowns and six interceptions. He also rushed for 206 yards.
“Quite frankly, people have been trying to get myself and him and multiple others out of here since we’ve been here,” Slayton said of the speculation about the end of Jones' Giants tenure. “It hasn’t stopped us before, and it won’t stop us now. Like I said before, he’s a resilient human being. He’s a good football player and at the end of the day, he’ll be back healthy again and he’ll be back playing pro football somewhere. Hopefully here. And I look forward to that day.”
It remains unclear who will be the Giants' quarterback for the remainder of the season. Undrafted rookie Tommy DeVito took over duties Sunday, going 15-for-20 for 175 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. The team also has veteran Matt Barkley on the practice squad. Daboll didn’t have an update on Tyrod Taylor, who took over for Jones when he was sidelined by his neck injury but subsequently hurt his ribs and landed on injured reserve. Daboll could not say if Taylor, who isn’t eligible to come back for three more games, will be out for the season.
With the playoffs almost certainly out of the equation, the Giants must try to avoid a fate similar to 2021, when Jones’ neck injury caused a complete offensive breakdown.
Daboll said he didn’t fear losing the locker room, adding that he felt “comfortable with my relationship with the players and the communication that we have on a daily basis, the expectations, and we’ve just got to continue to work and get better.”
Justin Pugh on Sunday recalled his rookie season in 2013, when the Giants started 0-6 but won seven of their last 10.
"You find out what you are made of in these scenarios,” he said. “You are fighting to keep your job and your livelihood. That’s something I’ll reiterate in the locker room but I know the character of the men we have in this room. No one gave up on that field. Watch the film. Guys were fighting until the whistle blew. We just lost the damn game. So now we have to go pick ourselves up and fight again."
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
