Daniel Jones injures knee in Giants' loss to Raiders
Giants quarterback Daniel Jones is sacked by Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby and defensive tackle Adam Butler during the second quarter of an NFL game on Sunday in Las Vegas. Credit: Rick Scuteri
LAS VEGAS — The Giants lost to the Raiders, 30-6, on Sunday. As one might suspect, it wasn’t close. It wasn’t a contest.
That, however, isn’t the whole story. Far from it.
On the first snap of the second quarter, Daniel Jones appeared to suffer a significant knee injury. His right knee appeared to simply give out. He was not touched by a defender.
On the previous play, the final play of the first quarter, the knee had seemed to buckle.
The Giants’ medical staff attended to Jones on the field and then in the medical tent. Upon exiting the tent, he was accompanied to the visiting locker room by Giants medical staff members.
“I’ll pray for him,” Saquon Barkley said. “And he knows no matter what, we got his back. He’s a tough guy, tough player. He tried to gut it out for us, wasn’t able to.”
He added: “I know the type of player he is and the work he puts in. And outside of football as a friend, seeing him go down definitely [stinks]. It’s tough.
“If that is the reality, we’re 2-7, we still got a job to do, still got to come to work, still going to compete. That’s the mindset. Until we’re mathematically out of it, that’s the mindset.”
After relieving Jones, rookie Tommy DeVito completed 15 of 20 passes for 175 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Most of his success occurred with the Raiders comfortably ahead.
“He’s a natural-born leader, he’s a true competitor,’’ Barkley said of DeVito. “I have a lot of respect for him.”
The Giants signed quarterback Matt Barkley to the practice squad this past week, and he could be a candidate to be in uniform next week, presumably along with DeVito.
While coach Brian Daboll said Jones had only X-rays in the stadium, tests on what is feared to be an ACL tear will be done on Monday.
Judging from the looks on the faces of those in the locker room, players appeared to be bracing for the worst. While the Giants’ chances of reaching the postseason already are slim to none, teammates felt for their quarterback.
“It’s tough to see a guy like Daniel go down,’’ guard Justin Pugh said. “You just hope he’s OK. [Being non-contact] is not a good sign, but you never want to put the cart before the horse. Let’s get MRIs, let’s get pictures of it. I was in his shoes a year ago as far as hoping that everything is all right and it’s not something so severe . . . Let’s just put out the good juju that that’s not the case.
“For him to come back, just coming back from the neck, to have this injury today, I just couldn’t think of a worse-case scenario for a guy. It’s just devastating. I hurt for him. I never want to see anybody get injured, especially a guy you know and a guy you respect and who you know puts everything into the game. It just hurts.’’
Tackle Evan Neal, who injured his right ankle during the game after returning from a left ankle injury, probably spoke for many of his teammates when he said: “It’s horrible. It’s tough. We just get him back and we lose him again. It’s tough. But that’s the nature of this business. You just have to roll with the punches and move forward. You hope for the best for Daniel, but it’s tough to be in that situation. Tough.”
The Giants seem to have had at least their fair share of injuries this season.
“Yeah, man, it’s horrible,” Neal said. “Especially how well we were doing the previous year and where we are now, it’s definitely not ideal. But sometimes it’s like that. All we can do is move forward. Move on to the next week. Go to work and make do with what we have.”
Said Wan’Dale Robinson, who caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from DeVito to make the score 27-6 and who suffered an ACL injury in 2022: “Obviously, I have a pretty good idea what it is. It [stinks]. That’s one person who definitely doesn’t deserve that and to be away from this game. He works so hard and he puts everything he has into it. That’s DJ, he does everything right, and I just feel super-bad for him. We all saw it. We all felt it.”
Wide receiver Darius Slayton added, “It’s the last thing you want to see for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, he’s my dog and I hate to see him go down. I know he wants to be out here with the team. It’s not a pleasant sight to see.’’
And Jalin Hyatt: “Man, it just [stinks]. That’s all I have to say. Seeing him go down when he just got back and healthy. I know he’s feeling it. I know he’s hurting. It hurts us as well. I just hope he’s all right and we’ll be praying for him.’’
Giants players had talked about being optimistic that they could turn their season around.
“To say that we’re going to [start] scoring however many points, four touchdowns in a half, I can’t sit here and guarantee that,” Barkley said this past week, “but it’ll definitely give us a better opportunity to win football games when your best players are out there on the field.”
And now, what? The Giants seem heartbroken.
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
