Former New York Giants great Phil Simms was taken right away with the play of his old team’s rookie quarterback last season. Daniel Jones burst onto the scene with several eye-popping performances last fall quelling the angst over the team using the sixth overall selection in 2019 NFL Draft on him.
“He has definitely lived up to the sixth pick of the draft,” Simms said in a phone interview with ESPN last November. “I think everyone agrees with that. I don’t hear any dissension from all the people that I’m around in business, work with, behind the scenes. In fact, I hear the opposite. ‘Wow, OK, he looks like the really stable, productive quarterback that is going to stand the test of time too.’ I surely don’t look at him and go, ‘He’s having a good streak here.’ I see him as very capable.”
Jones would go on to turn in several more solid performances as the year went on, but his overall play was marred by the high amount of turnovers (12 INT, 11 lost fumbles) he committed, many of them costly.
Simms’ son, Chris, a former NFL quarterback himself who is now a co-host on NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk Live, is also a fan of Jones’ play. In a recent interview with Zack Rosenblatt of NJ Advanced Media, Simms said he thought Jones was “phenomenal” in his first year.
“I was blown away by Daniel Jones,” Simms continued. “It was good to see (coach) Joe Judge start talking about him (earlier this offseason) and saying ‘everybody’s gotta compete for a job’. But, no, no: Daniel Jones doesn’t have to compete against anyone on that team or on that roster. Anyone who is on that roster, I can just tell you: He’s better than them. Daniel Jones, he was the MVP of the Giants last year, to me. It’s not even close.”
Jones was up against it in 2019 as well. Not only was he facing the daunting task of replacing Eli Manning, the Giants’ all-time leading passer and franchise icon, he was doing it without the full strength of the Giants’ offensive arsenal, which was undergoing a rash of injuries and other factors that Simms outlined.
“It’s a bunch of receivers that were really good, not great,” Simms said. “I would say Darius Slayton is probably the most dangerous one of the group. Saquon Barkley wasn’t 100%. The offensive line was solid, not great. We know the defense was nothing special, either. I mean, Daniel Jones was asked a lot on a weekly basis.
“For a rookie quarterback with not a lot of talent around him, they were basically asking him: ‘Hey, Daniel, we need you to throw the ball 40 times, you’re probably going to have to throw four touchdowns and no more than one interception if we want to win a football game.’ That’s basically what it came down to.”
This year, the Giants went out and got Jones some assistance. They added four new offensive linemen in the draft and free agency, as well as several blocking tight ends and a change-up running back in Dion Lewis.
Throw in the fact that former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett — a highly accomplished offensive mind — will be calling the plays this season, Jones will have an excellent chance to take the step in his career.
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