Most current and former members of the New York Giants are outwardly excited about the potential of quarterback Daniel Jones. Some have even gone on record claiming he could become the next big thing (we’re looking at you, Saquon).
Retired Giants wide receiver Amani Toomer is not one of those people.
A rare outlier, Toomer told Radio.com’s “Home & Home” on Thursday that he simply doesn’t know what the Giants have in Jones.
“I just don’t know what we have in him,” Toomer said. “He had a couple good games early, but most quarterbacks when they get their first start they’re going to succeed because nobody has the book on them. They don’t know what they’re gonna do, don’t know what they like, what they don’t like; basically they’re playing honest.
“But more film, more defenses are allowed to cheat and take away tendencies, and that’s when usually quarterbacks will have four good games and all of a sudden go in the tank.”
Jones had the typical ups and downs of a rookie quarterback, pulling off a remarkable comeback in his first game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers only to suffer a much uglier fate in several mid-season games. Turnovers became the big story, but Toomer believes his injury (sprained ankle) may be a larger red flag.
“I think he had some resurgence toward the end of the season, the injury situation he got with his ankle, you just don’t know,” Toomer said. “Giants quarterbacks aren’t used to being hurt. We had Kerry Collins and Eli Manning. None of those guys were hurt for that long and none of them missed that many snaps. Over the last 20 years there hasn’t been a lot of [Giants] quarterbacks missing snaps because injuries.”
Jones likely could have returned early from his injury, but the Giants seemed determined to give Eli Manning a final home goodbye. That proved to be the correct decision because Manning helped lead the Giants to victory in that game and later admitted it helped his decision to retire, which avoided a potentially ugly separation.
As far as Jones, he finished the season with more touchdown passes than any other rookie quarterback, which was an overlooked statistic because of the turnovers. Still, that was not enough to sell Toomer. At least not yet.
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