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When New York Giants third-year quarterback Daniel Jones’ name gets mentioned, many football ‘purists’ scoff. Many feel he was way overdrafted back in 2019 when the Giants selected him sixth overall.
Jones’ uneven play — specifically his turnovers and lack of production at times — have led many to write off his prospects of becoming a franchise quarterback.
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The Giants are seeing through that and proceeding with their plans. This offseason, they’ve built up quite an offensive arsenal around Jones with the expectation that he will take the next step and become an NFL star.
Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus believes this could happen now that much of the pressure is off Jones. His expectations across the league are much lower, to the point where he’s actually ‘underrated’ at this point of his career.
While many point to Jones’ low touchdown output in 2020, Monson tells us that statistics don’t always tell the whole story.
Jones played in 14 games and dropped back to pass over 500 times yet finished the season with just 11 passing touchdowns. Even if we credit him with his rushing score as well, he finished with the same number of total scores as Dak Prescott, who played in four and a half games before his season ended due to injury.
There’s no way to make that number look good, but it doesn’t necessarily paint an accurate picture of Jones’ play in his second season. Jones saw his overall PFF grade jump to 78.4 and added almost 500 yards on the ground, including an 80-yard run that is notable for two remarkable things: one, it ended with Jones falling face-first into the turf having tripped himself up rather than scoring; and two, he recorded a faster top speed than any single run by Lamar Jackson all year according to NextGen stats.
For Jones to put up those grades despite fumbling as often as he did (16 times between runs and pass plays) suggests he was playing some very good football — the team simply didn’t wind up in the end zone.
Let’s not discount the absence last year of the Giants’ best offensive player (Saquon Barkley) teamed with poor play by the makeshift offensive line, dropped passes and an wholly unimaginative game plan.
Jones still has to play better in 2021 for the Giants to finally turn their fortunes around. If he doesn’t, jobs will be lost and Big Blue could be looking to go in yet another direction in 2022.
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