Daniel Jones Finally Has The Right Tools

As a former sixth overall pick, Daniel Jones‘ career has not been as he envisioned. However, now he finally has an offense built for him. Jones is entering his sixth NFL season and has never passed for more than 3,300 yards or passed for more than 25 touchdowns in his career. Many football fans, especially New York Giants fans, have thrown out the word bust. Jones was critiqued more this past season after signing a four-year, $160 million dollar contract extension.

Jones has definitely been underwhelming and should be playing a lot better due to both his draft position and his contract extension. However, not all of the blame should be put on him. The Giants have never given him a real chance to succeed due to the talent they put around him.

2019: Daniel Jones Rookie Year

In his rookie season, the Giants went an abysmal 4-12. Jones passed for 3,027 yards, 24 touchdowns (career high), 12 interceptions (career high), and 18 fumbles (career and league high). Out of the 18 fumbles, 11 were lost.

With the exception of Saquon Barkley who rushed for over 1,000 yards, nobody on the offense really stood out. Fellow rookie Darius Slayton who was selected in the fifth round, had a decent season with 740 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.

The Giants offensive line that year was not great by any means as they were 13th in the league in most sacks allowed with 43. At least half of Jones’ fumbles and times sacked were due to not having enough time to get the ball out and tackled from behind.

2020: Year 2

In 2020, the Giants went 6-10 under new head coach Joe Judge. As it will be mentioned later in the article, Judge’s tenure in New York was miserable. Also, in the 2020 season, Jones did not play well as his passing yards (2,943) and touchdowns went down (11). He once again, had double digit interceptions with ten.

Their offense was abysmal to watch as Barkley got hurt and missed the rest of the season after only playing two games and their pass catchers combined for an abysmal seven receiving touchdowns. Sterling Shepard, the team’s #1 wide receiver only had 656 receiving yards which is unacceptable.

Once again, the Giants offensive line was practically nonexistent as Jones was sacked 50 times which was second most in the league.

2021: Third Year Jump?

Many expected the Giants and Jones to be much more successful in the 2021 season. They have a healthy Barkley returning to the lineup and brought Jones a true #1 wide receiver in Kenny Golladay in free agency and drafted Kadarius Toney in the first round. However, Jones passed for a mere 2,428 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions in just 11 games. Barkley and Golladay each had awful seasons as Barkley had just 593 rushing yards and two touchdowns and Golladay had 521 yards and no touchdowns. Toney constantly dealt with injuries and attitude issues his whole time as a Giant and had a total of 420 receiving yards and zero touchdowns in two seasons.

The team went just 4-13 and that was the last year of Judge as head coach. PFF even mentioned, Judge was the sixth worst head coaching hire of all time.

2022: Daniel Jones Proves It In Contract Year

Year four, is a big year for Jones as his rookie contract is up and due for an extension. However, new coach Brian Daboll needs to see a lot from Jones to both extend him and keep him as the starter. Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka was also brought on staff to help Jones breakout.

Jones has the breakout season he has so desperately wanted as he threw for a career high 3,205 passing yards, 15 touchdowns and a career low five interceptions. He also added 708 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns as he slowly became a duel-threat quarterback.

Barkley returned to his superstar form and had 1,312 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns. Slayton once again led the team in receiving with just 724 yards and two touchdowns. Rookie Daniel Bellinger had an okay season with 268 yards and two touchdowns. The Giants offensive line continued to fail to protect their quarterback as he was sacked 49 times which was fifth most in the league.

However, Jones was able to deliver the Giants to a 9-7-1 record which was good enough to take them to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Jones looked phenomenal in the playoff win over the Minnesota Vikings as Jones threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns and had 78 yards on the ground.

The successful season caused him to get his lucrative extension. Giants fans thought Daboll and Kafka fixed Jones and he could be the guy.

2023: Back To Square One

However, after taking one step forward, Jones and the Giants take two steps back. This was by far Jones worst season of his career as he threw for two touchdowns and six interceptions before tearing his ACL. He played in just six games and had triple the amount of interceptions to touchdowns.

The Giants went 6-11 and missed the playoffs once again. Barkley once again rushed for under 1,000 yards. Slayton once again led the team in receiving yards with 770.

Wan’Dale Robinson and Jalin Hyatt were both not used both the right way and as much as they should have. Robinson had 525 yards and a touchdown and Hyatt had just 323 yards and zero touchdowns.

One of the Giants big offseason additions was trading for elite tight end Darren Waller. However, Waller’s tenure with the Giants was far from elite. He had just 552 receiving yards and a touchdown. Those are the only stats he will ever has as a Giant as he announced his retirement in June.

The Giants offensive line was the worst it has ever been this past season. All-pro left tackle Andrew Thomas dealt with injuries and played in just 10 games. The Giants allowed 85 sacks this past season which is the second most all-time.

Summary:

In summary, as bad as Jones has been, he has never had offensive talent around him or even an offensive line to protect him. He has constantly been sacked and has had to run for his life. His leading receiver has been a fifth round pick who has never had at least 800 receiving yards. The three times they tried to give him a true #1 target, they have failed both times and were gone with the team shortly after.

In addition to a poor offensive line and weapons, he has constantly had new coaches and would have to learn a new system year in and year out. Jones has had three head coaches and four offensive coordinators in the NFL. No quarterback with the lack of talent around him and constant turnover in the coaching staff will ever succeed.

There are plenty of examples of quarterbacks who once they finally got an elite weapon to throw to have blossomed as quarterbacks. The most prominent examples are Josh Allen and Tua Tagovailoa. The first two years of Allen’s career were very mediocre. However, once the Buffalo Bills acquired Stefon Diggs, Allen’s career blossomed into becoming one of the league’s quarterbacks. The same goes for Tagovailoa as his first two seasons in the league were serviceable. However, once he got Tyreek Hill, he became an arguable top-ten quarterback in the league.

For Jones to succeed as an NFL quarterback, he needs to be protected and he needs solid weapons to throw to. So far, the Giants have not done that.

2024 Could Finally Go Daniel Jones’ Way

This past offseason, the Giants finally built an offense to allow Jones to succeed. They revamped the offensive line by signing Jon Runyan and Jermaine Eluemunor. Runyan had a pass block win rate of 92.4 last season which was ninth best in the league amongst guards. Eluemunor is a solid right tackle who reunites with his offensive line coach once again. He is a slightly better run blocker, but can also hold his own as a pass blocker.

After losing Barkley to the division rival Philadelphia Eagles, they retooled the running back room signing Devin Singletary. Singletary has very similar numbers in some aspects to Barkley, however Singletary does not possess the elite speed, but brings more physicality. They also drafted running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. who has impressed so far throughout OTA’s and minicamp and could even be featured in the passing game.

The Giants finally brought a true wide receiver one when they drafted Malik Nabers in the first round. So far, Nabers has been everything the Giants have hoped for and then some. Many have stated he is already a star and continues to show out early with plays like this.

Another solid offensive draft pick the Giants made was selecting tight end Theo Johnson. Johnson is freakishly athletic and pairing him next to Bellinger in a 12 personnel could be scary for opposing defenses. RAS otherwise known as relative athletic score, is ranked for each player between 0 and 10 with 10 meaning perfectly athletic. Bellinger was scored as a 9.69 and Johnson was scored as a 9.99. This could be the best tight end room the Giants have had in awhile and both are athletic who can both catch and block.

No Excuses

After much needed upgrades all around the offense, it is go time for Jones. With a revamped offense, Jones needs to perform otherwise his days in New York will be coming to an end. With tons of playmakers and a much improved offensive line with the same coaching staff, he has no excuses.