Rock: Giants' Daniel Jones gives uneven performance in return
New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) rolls out of the pocket before throwing a pass in the first half of a preseason NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Credit: Eric Gay
Daniel Jones’ uneven return to football game action ranged from the grotesque to glimpses of real promise on Saturday.
Among his first six passes, he threw two interceptions — the Texans dropped what should have been a third — and had a temporary 2.8 rating. He then bounced back (once Houston’s second-team defense came onto the field) and led a pair of competent scoring drives.
Much like Jones’ entire career, it was impossible to come away with a definitive take on him off this first outing since he tore an ACL in November. The extremes of his play — good and bad — always get in the way of a concise evaluation.
But there was one clear takeaway from what we saw out of this Giants offense on Saturday in what turned out to be a 28-10 loss with three weeks left until the start of the regular season:
Whatever Jones winds up being this season — and at this point that could be anything from a star to serviceable to a complete shambles — it will be entirely on him. The unlucky scenarios and poor situations that have been used over the years to defend Jones’ flaws no longer are going to be part of his equation.
This is shaping up to finally be the year we see the real, true Daniel Jones . . . whatever that winds up being.
After he underperformed behind one of the worst offensive lines in recent NFL history early last year, that group seems to have been fixed with an influx of veteran free agents who, throughout this summer and on Saturday in particular, seemed up to the task of protecting him at least adequately. The Giants allowed one pressure on 19 dropbacks with their “starting” offensive line in the first half.
After having to throw passes to a cast of receivers that never terrified opposing defenses, he now has flashy rookie Malik Nabers, an emerging Jalin Hyatt, Wan’Dale Robinson back in the slot showcasing the shiftiness he lacked after a knee injury ended his first season, and old reliable Darius Slayton out there making plays for him.
Even new running back Devin Singletary — who made his Giants preseason debut against his former team — demonstrated that he might not bring everything Saquon Barkley delivered for the Giants but is capable of making plays. Singletary scored the Giants’ only touchdown on a 1-yard leap into the end zone.
After this generally positive first-team performance, which likely will serve as their only true tuneup for the regular season, the one thing missing for the Giants to make some big strides this year might be a reliable quarterback to pull it all together.
Whether they have that in Jones still is frustratingly unclear, even after five seasons on film, and especially after one half of this preseason game. But at least this year they’ll finally get a clean look at him. The excuses upon which his defenders have always relied to support him appear to have been fixed.
Brian Daboll, who bemoaned the Giants’ five total turnovers, with three coming from the backups in the second half, said the first of Jones’ interceptions came on a “poor” decision.
“We’ll evaluate it,” he said.
You bet they will.
The Giants can’t go into another offseason half-looking for a franchise quarterback the way they did the first half of this calendar year, even finding some candidates for the job before being unable to maneuver the draft to acquire them. If this franchise is going to start making the kind of progress that Daboll and Joe Schoen promised when they were hired three years ago, they need to end their wishy-washiness about Jones and know for absolute certain if they have their quarterback. Or maybe more importantly, if they don’t.
Those first few gaffes by Jones may have been a result of rust, as he was seeing his first action in about nine months. The pick-6 he threw out of his own end zone came as he and his surgically repaired knee were being tackled for the first time. There may have been other things on his mind beyond trying to throw the football away, as he should have. The second interception, on a deep pass for Hyatt, lacked touch.
“Obviously, the first quarter didn’t go how we wanted it,” Jones said. “A bad decision and a bad throw; I’d like to have that back. But I think we overall got some things going in the second quarter and executed and moved the ball.”
A deep pass to Slayton down the left sideline for 44 yards in the second quarter seemed to give Jones some confidence back (or did it return the Giants’ confidence in him?) and set up Singletary’s scoring run.
On the final drive, Jones learned that putting the ball anywhere near Nabers can lead to positive plays — his high pass for the rookie was hauled in for an acrobatic 14-yard catch along the sideline — and he nearly found Hyatt for a pretty one-handed completion deep in the red zone before a quick replay showed the receiver couldn’t get both feet inbounds.
“It felt good to execute in that two-minute drive,” Jones said of his final possession of the day. “Guys made some big-time plays out there, Darius, Malik.”
Jones, who didn’t play after halftime, completed 11 of 18 passes for 138 yards, a stat line that would be OK if not for the two interceptions that dropped his rating to 45.4.
Perhaps most importantly, he displayed no frailties from his injury. He said he was grateful to have returned and thanked the doctors and trainers who helped him get to this point.
“Knee felt good,” he said. “It felt really good.”
If those first few throws on it were just jitters, just throat-clearing, just finding his footing, then Jones and the Giants should be fine.
If they are a sign of things to come, it’s going to be a bumpy next few months for him and the team.
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.
