For Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, this version is the real deal
Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) looks to pass during the first half of an NFL game against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday in Seattle. Credit: AP/Lindsey Wasson
SEATTLE
Dexter Lawrence has been with Daniel Jones for every step of the quarterback’s uneven Giants career. They came in together as first-round picks in 2019, were roomies in rookie minicamp, were big parts of the playoff run in 2022 and have heard the loud groans of displeasure and impatience that have mostly served as the soundtrack to their time with the team. And because they play on opposite sides of the ball, Lawrence has witnessed all of those ups and downs that the quarterback has traversed.
Basically, if anyone can comment on Jones’ career, it’s Lawrence.
So what he said about Jones after Sunday’s 29-20 win over the Seahawks at Lumen Field was not some throwaway compliment or smoky sidetalk.
“I think he’s flowing right now,” Lawrence said. “He’s playing his best ball that he’s played as a Giant.”
Darius Slayton, also a 2019 draft pick and one of the three longest-tenured players on the team along with Jones and Lawrence, agreed.
“He’s shown that the last couple of weeks,” he said, “and I have no reason to believe he won’t continue that way.”
This was the Daniel Jones the Giants have always envisioned but not always gotten, the one who plays like the most collected and confident guy on the field, the one who makes all the right decisions, takes care of the football and, when he does risk it, lives to enjoy the payoffs.
He’s the fun Jones.
The swaggy Jones.
And, really for the first time in almost two years, he was the playoff-caliber Jones, rekindling memories of that late-season run and postseason victory that were quickly fading from memory.
Even Jones himself seemed impressed by what he was able to do. Maybe a little relieved, too.
“I don’t know if I compare my performance to anything in the past,” he said when asked about being that “2022 version” of himself this Giants organization has been pining for.
But then he did.
“I feel like I’m a better player than I was then,” he said. “I’m a better player every week. That’s what you are always striving for. Comparing to ’22 or years past, I don’t know how productive that really is. I’m just focused on being better now and being the best I can be week to week.”
He completed 23 of 34 passes for 257 yards and two touchdowns and ran the ball 11 times for 38 yards in a game in which the Giants did not have their top receiver (Malik Nabers) or top running back (Devin Singletary).
Even his incompletions felt as if they were controlled.
“I have a lot of confidence putting the ball in his hands, and that’s what we did early in the game,” coach Brian Daboll said.
That the performance came against a Seahawks team that early last season made him look foolish and bewildered with the worst playing performance of a season that eventually would be defined by neck and knee injuries only made this sweeter.
It also lifted the entire team.
In a game that was bookended by momentum-changing turnovers for touchdowns, it was Jones who defined the rest of the contest.
“I told him ‘Frat Boy Daniel’ was out today and he was like ‘Bad Dog Daniel’ was out,” Lawrence said. “He controlled the game. That’s what he has to do as a quarterback . . . When he was in his groove, I was telling the defense we gotta feed off this energy. That’s what we did and we came out with the win.”
Slayton said the only thing that was “cringy” on Sunday was Jones’ insistence on lowering his shoulder into some of his runs.
“I’m like, ‘Hey, look, Mr. Tough Guy, get the yards and get down,’ ” Slayton said.
Jones, of course, has been roughed up more in the media than he was on the field Sunday, sometimes deservedly so.
He’s been booed lustily at the two home losses (in which the Giants have yet to score a touchdown) and was jeered loudly on his way out of MetLife Stadium after the opener. There was even the very public wooing of rookie quarterbacks as potential replacements for him in the offseason.
Yet he’s persevered.
The key to remaining steady through the turbulence, Jones said, is ignoring the noise. Not always easy, particularly in this town.
“There will always be a story of the week or an idea that is out there and it’s our job to know what’s real and know what is going on and fix the problems that are real and ignore the things that aren’t,” Jones said. “You get better at it the more times you do it.”
This week, for instance, the narrative was that Jones had lost his touch on the deep passes. He delivered throws of 41 and 30 yards to Slayton on the same drive.
There is a tantalizing aspect to games such as this one, though. Where is it all the other times the Giants need it from him? Where was it against the Cowboys and the Vikings? Will it be there next week against the Bengals? The team certainly hopes it won’t have to go searching for it too often from now on.
“It’s never been easy for him,” Daboll said. “But everything we’ve asked him to do, he does it the very best he can do it. And he’s played some good football here. We’re going to need him to continue to do that.”
There’s still a long way to go, but if he can keep it up, perhaps this 2024 version of Jones will truly start to eclipse that 2022 model . . . and bring the Giants along with him.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.