One of the main questions surrounding the firing of New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur was how it would impact the growth and learning cycle of the team’s second-year franchise quarterback Daniel Jones.
Not to worry, says Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. If the Giants decide to bring in former Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy, who they interviewed on Friday and is now slated to meet with the Dallas Cowboys, Jones will be in very capable hands.
“I think he’ll do a great job,” Favre said of McCarthy Friday on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “I had him in 1999, and that was basically the middle of my career, and after that year he was gone, but then he came back obviously as the head coach. And really a bright mind. Good for a quarterback. I think any young quarterback would like him.
“And he’s very understandable, much like Brian Daboll at Buffalo and Darrell Bevell [Lions], guys who are coaching right now, relate to the guys very well. And I think that’s important, on top of his X’s-and-O’s mentality. Obviously he’s had Aaron Rodgers, and that certainly helps. But I do think he brings a level of toughness but also a confidence that as a player, as a quarterback for him, you feel confident in the plays that he calls, that he’s going to call plays that cater more to your ability rather than maybe a previous guy he had. So I think he’s a simple but yet confidence-building and technique-driven coach. He’ll be a good fit for any of those teams.”
Jones may be just 22 but he is mature beyond his years. He understands the business of football and when a team isn’t successful, jobs are lost.
“It’s tough,” said Jones earlier this week after the tam announced they had fired Shurmur. “Obviously, that’s I guess part of the business and part of being at this level. But it’s tough on me, tough on all of us.”
Jones said he was ‘disappointed’ that he won’t get to work with the man who has meant so much to him so far in his young career.
“Coach obviously believed in me, Coach believed in all of us, and it’s disappointing,” said Jones. “I’m grateful to him for the opportunity. I think he’s an excellent football coach and I really appreciate what he’s done for us.”
Jones also said the the team, himself included, feel as if they let Shurmur down.
“It’s a tough deal, but everyone is responsible,” he said. “The players are very, very largely responsible for how this season has gone. I certainly feel responsible, and I think that’s the tough part. That’s the way we should feel and that’s the way it is. Everyone on this team feels that way. We have to use that to motivate us going into the offseason and make sure that we’re not in this position next year.”
As for who he would like to see occupy Shurmur’s office this season, Jones was smart enough to dodge that salvo.
“That’s not necessarily up to me and well above my pay grade. My job is to work as hard as I can to improve, to learn the system and work with the next coach,” he said.
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