Giants need to move on from Daniel Jones and find a veteran quarterback who can lead the way in 2025
Giants quarterback Daniel Jone runs for a touchdown against the Carolina Panthers during the second half of an NFL game Sunday in Munich, Germany. Credit: AP/Matthias Schrader
If Joe Schoen truly believes the unfounded optimism he served up on Tuesday, this idea that the last-place two-win Giants are “close” to being sustained contenders in the NFL and their young nucleus of players will bring them to that level with just a little more experience and seasoning, the last thing he should be thinking about is drafting a rookie quarterback this offseason.
The time for that was last April, not this coming one. That’s when there were several really good choices available and the Giants were in a position to either move up (at a cost of future picks) and select one of the top ones or choose the best of the rest where they stood. They did neither, which has left them ill-prepared for the near certain eventuality of the post-Daniel Jones phase that is coming in 2025 . . . and may actually begin as soon as next week.
Bringing a rookie quarterback onto a team next season would only delay the progress Schoen is counting on. It would extend the gap between themselves and respectability, not reduce it. Occasionally a player can step in and make such a huge positive impact — C.J. Stroud did it in Houston last year, as Schoen noted, and Jayden Daniels has done it in Washington this season, which Schoen curiously did not mention — but the general idea is that starting a rookie signals starting over and that is not what Schoen wants to be doing in Year Four of his tenure with the team.
There are obviously other ways to address the most important position on any football roster, and those are the ones that Schoen will be wise to explore over the coming months.
The Giants shouldn’t be looking for their next Eli Manning. They need to find their next Kerry Collins.
They need a proven, experienced, ready-to-plug-in starter who can walk into the building and make the Giants better on Day One. That’s what Collins did when he arrived as a free agent in 1999, eventually took over the starting job held for way too long by Kent Graham, then led the Giants to a Super Bowl appearance the following year. He brought them to the playoffs again in 2002 before his tenure ended with the drafting of Manning.
That strategy of recycling another team’s refuse is not the outlier it once was. It’s actually become a proven course of action. Of the 14 teams that would make the playoffs if the NFL season ended now, four are led by quarterbacks added from other organizations: Detroit, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Minnesota. Another four — Tampa Bay, Indianapolis, Seattle and the Los Angeles Rams — are vying for postseason spots.
Adding Sam Darnold or Justin Fields or some other free agent or trade acquisition could be just the move to put the Giants on that list at this time next year. Maybe even add a young developmental quarterback behind him to watch and learn a bit or, if perhaps he shows improvement in what will almost surely be an upcoming opportunity at some point this season, stick with Tommy DeVito as the backup.
The bitter irony of this is the Giants had such a player in their building last year. Russell Wilson, who has gone 3-0 as the Steelers’ starter, visited East Rutherford before leaving and signing in Pittsburgh. Schoen made it sound as if not coming to an agreement with Wilson was just as much on the player as the organization, which may be true in that Wilson walked away. But at the time the Giants were still steadfast in their belief in Jones as their starter and were offering Wilson a definite backup job. Naturally he went where he would at least have a chance to start.
Schoen said on Tuesday there are decisions and evaluations he made early in his tenure with the Giants that he regrets and that he is still paying for. He would not say it directly, but his misevaluation of Jones must be among them. He and others in the organization thought what they saw from Jones in the playoff run of 2022 was just the start of his ascension. It turned out to be his apex . . . and with a steep downhill slope on the other side of the pinnacle. Since that playoff exit Jones has won three of his 16 starts, missed half a season with neck and knee injuries, and done little to justify the $160 million contract he was given.
The one good thing Schoen managed to secure with the Jones deal, though, was the escape hatch to move on after two seasons, which they now seem poised to use. Jones’ contract, however, has up to $23 million in injury guarantees for 2025 should he get seriously hurt this season, which is why both Schoen and coach Brian Daboll have been reluctant to frame their current evaluation of the quarterback position for the next two months as a step toward helping this current team win. Schoen on Tuesday said it would be a “football decision,” a vague term he seems to have made up to encompass all kinds of factors.
However he spins it — to ownership, to the public, to the locker room — it’s clearly time for Schoen to say goodbye to the quarterback around whom he once decisively thought he could build his vision of a franchise. And if the organization is where he thinks they are otherwise, it’ll soon be time to say hello to a new quarterback with whom the 2025 Giants can begin to show the fruits of the progress Schoen insists are in place.
Going back to Square One with a rookie? That’s almost as unappetizing an option as sticking with Jones would be.
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.