Daniel Jones focused, prepared to lead Giants to playoff berth
Giants quarterback Daniel Jones calls a play at the line of scrimmage during the fourth quarter against the Eagles at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Dec. 11. Credit: Brad Penner
With the Giants on the cusp of a playoff berth, did you think Daniel Jones would throw a party at his locker?
Uh, no.
For one thing, any celebration is on hold until the playoff berth comes to fruition. For another, this isn’t baseball. There’s no Champagne.
But there will be joy. So much joy.
With a win at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon against the Colts, the Giants will officially find their way through this (seemingly endless) latest abyss, and with Jones captaining the ship.
His focus? “Making sure we’re preparing as well as we can so that we play our best on Sunday,” Jones said. “Playing at this level, there’s always pressure, there’s always expectations. Week to week, I think it’s about how you prepare and get yourself ready to play as well as you can. If you’re prepared and ready to go, you’re ready to put your best foot forward and put the team in a position to win. That’s what I’m focused on, just preparing every day as well as I can.”
The quarterback selected sixth overall in the 2019 draft, Jones is playing for his third head coach (we’re pretty sure this one will stick) and has had a dizzying assortment of quarterback coaches and offensive gurus who would make even a veteran quarterback’s head spin. As Giants co-owner John Mara said in January: “We’ve done everything possible to screw this kid up since he’s been here.” It has been quite a ride. But when the Giants hired Brian Daboll from Buffalo, where he was the offensive coordinator, a new day, in every way, was born in East Rutherford.
“I think we all felt good early on [in the Daboll tenure] and felt like it was a good situation for us,” Jones said at his locker Wednesday. “Whatever exactly that meant, or what that meant for our team, I think we were confident and excited to get to work with this group [of coaches].”
Of all the players who have been positively affected by the change — most on the roster would quality — none has benefited more than Jones.
Jones has made great strides under Daboll, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney.
In six of his 15 games, Jones has had a completion percentage over 70.
He’s completing 66.5% of his passes on the season, a career best.
Those 16 lost fumbles as a rookie have been pared down dramatically (as they had to be), to four this season.
He’s thrown 13 touchdowns and five interceptions.
And he is universally liked and respected by his locker-room peers. (If you don’t think that can matter at the quarterback position, take a gander around the league. It often does.)
For Jones, who has had to prove himself to Daboll and new GM Joe Schoen — and every indication is that he has — these are good days and good times. Solely because his team is winning.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us,” Jones said. “It’s a good opponent coming in and we’ve got a chance to play our best game and do what we’ve got to do. We’re excited for it, an opportunity to get in front of the home fans and another opportunity to go play a good game.”
A game that would send the Giants to postseason for the first time since 2016.
“Yeah, I think we’re all excited, we all know what’s at stake,” Jones said. “But, at the same time, I don’t think we are looking too far ahead. We understand it’s about handling business this week, focusing on what we have to do to win this game and keeping our focus what we’re doing day to day — making sure we’re preparing as well as we can so that we play our best on Sunday.”
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.
