Giants GM Joe Schoen not happy with results, but feels team is better than last season

Giants general manager Joe Schoen was non-committal on whether Daniel Jones would be the team’s quarterback going forward, but insisted their 2-8 record is not the fault of “one individual,” including coach Brian Daboll, whose work he commended.

“We’re going to start looking for solutions – we do it every week,” Schoen said at the team’s training center Tuesday. “We’ve been competitive in the games. We’ve got to find ways to finish games and that’s what we’ll do the rest of the week…We’re going to look under every rock to try to figure out solutions.”

He repeatedly expressed unhappiness at the team’s record, adding that they’re “not good enough.” Still, despite being in the third year of a rebuild, Schoen said he still had confidence in the process they put in place and believed that, in some ways, the current Giants were better than the team that finished 6-11 last season (that team also started 2-8).

“The goal all along was to build something sustainable and to do that, it takes time,” he said. “It’s painful going through it but I think where we are right now and where we’re heading [is the right direction]."

Schoen pointed to the fact that they have the youngest defense in the league but have mostly avoided getting blown out this year. They also have the NFL’s worst red-zone offense. After this bye week, they have a date with the Baker Mayfield-led Buccaneers at home on Nov. 24.

“The results have not been what we wanted them to be,” he said. “But I do see progress and we’re better in different areas…We’re better in a lot of areas but we’ve just got to figure out how to finish games. Again, we’re in the games. We’re not getting blown out in those games. We’re 1-5 in close games [and] we have to develop the mentality that we’re going to win and close out those games.”

He insisted that their poor execution wasn’t an indictment of the personnel – either the players’ talent level or Daboll’s coaching. Schoen said he and Daboll have been communicating regularly with team president John Mara, and the general manager expressed confidence that he’d be retained for next season – presumably with Daboll in tow.

“He’s coming in every day,” Schoen said of Daboll. “He’s working hard. The team is staying together. We had a really good practice today on a bye week, which is the first time we’ve done that in his three years here. Again, he’s done a really good job. The guys are competing, keeping the locker room together. We’re in these games. We’ve just got to find a way to finish it…It’s not players. It’s not one individual. That would be an easy fix if we could say, hey, it’s this. Everybody’s got their hand in this.”

As for Jones, playing him will be a “football decision” based on what will give the Giants the best chance to win, Schoen said - even if he is a $47.86 million cap hit this year. Monday, Daboll said he was going “to spend a lot of time here watching our tape and evaluating things” before making a decision on Jones.

“In general, Daniel has played some good games,” Schoen said. “There’s some games where maybe he’d like to have some throws back or do things differently. But, in general, it’s not one individual or one situation that keeps occurring, unfortunately. So, whether it’s defense on the field at the end of the game, we’ve got a chance to close it out. Or offense has the ball in a couple different games and we could go down and score and close the game out. We’re going to look at solutions and we’re going to evaluate everything.”

Though the team practiced Tuesday, Schoen said there were no “first-team reps” – meaning no indication whether the team is leaning toward Jones, Drew Lock or Tommy DeVito at quarterback. Jones’ future with the team becomes even more nebulous if they continue to lose – improving their draft position and their chance of picking up a new signal caller like the University of Miami’s Cam Ward. Jones has two more years on his $160 million contract after this season.

“We’ll get into 2025 when we get there,” Schoen said. “I don’t know what that looks like right now. Again, we’re focused on these last seven games. But I do like where we are from a continuity standpoint [with 19 of their 21 starters under contract next year]. And I think that’s important. Year over year, having a core nucleus of players that can lead and teach and help implement the coach’s message, the scheme, whatever it may be [is important]. Constant turnover and new players every year, that’s tough.”

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.