Daniel Jones is Giants' starter 'going forward,' but that doesn't mean he can't get benched again
Daniel Jones of the New York Giants throws a pass against the Philadelphia Eagles in the first quarter at MetLife Stadium on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Credit: Mike Stobe
John Mara said on Wednesday that general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll’s jobs are safe for now, giving the Giants some much-needed stability at two of the three most important positions in any football organization.
As for that third critical spot, Daniel Jones is still trying to make his case. And he’s running out of time.
Daboll says he is sticking with Jones as his starting quarterback for Monday night's game in Pittsburgh and even apparently told the team Jones will have the job “going forward” in his postgame address following Sunday’s 28-3 loss to the Eagles. But having already shown a willingness to bench Jones when he wasn’t producing, as he did for the majority of the fourth quarter in that most recent game, inserting backup Drew Lock not merely for mop-up duty but in search of “a spark,” it could easily happen again at any point now. Perhaps even permanently.
The Giants have a palatable financial out in the four-year contract they gave Jones in the fateful 2022 offseason, which gives Jones about half a season left to prove he should stick around with the coach and GM. In a practical matter, though, it is probably less than that. His deal has a $23 million injury guarantee for 2024, $12 million of which becomes fully guaranteed if he is unable to pass a physical next March. In other words, if he gets hurt between now and the end of this season, parting ways with him could be more expensive or even undoable.
At some point the Giants may need to make a business decision on whether to keep playing him.
While Jones has shown glimpses of the quarterback who the Giants thought they were signing to that $160 million contract, they have been rare and the Giants’ entire offense has been a disappointment this year. They are tied with the Patriots for 30th in points per game (14.1) and rank 28th in yards per game (290.7). Through the first seven weeks of the season there have been 12 NFL games in which a team was limited to single-digit scoring; three of them have been by the Giants, including their last two (which barely reached double digits when combined with 7 and 3). Since their victory in Seatle on Oct. 6 they have not had a single offensive play go for more than 15 yards.
Mara, who has defended Jones in the past, declined to address Jones’ future with the team on Wednesday but said there are “a lot of reasons” why the Giants’ offense is struggling. The Giants have played multiple games without their top receiver Malik Nabers, top running back Devin Singletary, and will be without their top lineman, Andrew Thomas, for the rest of the season.
Jones seemed to at least understand why he was benched for most of the fourth quarter in Sunday’s loss to the Eagles, even if he still doesn’t agree with it.
“We went over the game, watched the film and spoke about the game,” the Giants quarterback said on Thursday of his conversations with Daboll since then. “I'll leave a lot of that private. But I'm getting ready to play Pittsburgh.”
Jones said he did go back and try to analyze what went wrong from his personal standpoint in that particular game.
“I think you're always trying to learn, you're always trying to grow, you're always thinking about your approach and how it can improve week to week,” he said. “So, yeah, I think there's some things you take from it that you're trying to learn from. But does it change or is it completely different because he pulled me from the game? No, it’s not. We’ve all got to play better, I’ve got to play better, and that's what I'm focusing on.”
He’ll have to do it while looking over his shoulder for the next hook.
Daboll gave no public assurances that he won’t pull Jones again if the quarterback continues to struggle. Nor apparently has he given Jones any such private promises.
“After the game he said to the team that I was the starter going forward,” Jones said. “So, I'm going through the week preparing to play and play well. But in terms of his plans, it's a better question for him.”
Following that Seahawks win when Jones threw for 257 yards and two touchdowns and the Giants improved to a promising 2-3, Daboll praised Jones’s play but said: “We’re going to need him to continue to do that.”
Jones obviously has not. So now we wait to see how much longer he continues to do anything.
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.
