For years, Eli Manning limited the New York Giants as he lacked any sort of mobility. And the later it got into Manning’s career, the more the NFL saw an increase of mobile quarterbacks entering the league.
Ironically enough, when the Giants made the switch to rookie Daniel Jones, they immediately managed to upset the Tampa Bay Buccaneers due to Jones’ mobility. Jones had his signature moment scoring the go-ahead touchdown on a 7-yard rushing touchdown on a 4th-and-5 play.
Interestingly enough, with the poor performance by the Giants’ offensive line this season, it seemed as though Jones had a tough time extending plays.
During newly hired head coach Joe Judge’s press conference last week, he mentioned that he was going to find out how to get the most out of his players.
“I’ve got to know what everybody does so I can put those ingredients together and get the most out of it,” Judge said. “So, what I’ve prepared myself for was leading into every draft I studied every player in the draft as a player and an athlete. I didn’t look at them as a receiver, I didn’t look at them as a tight end, I didn’t look at them as a linebacker. I want to know how they moved — are they stiff in the hips, are they a straight-line speed guy, do they use their hands, what kind of short area quickness do they have, what kind of top end speed do they have, do they turn down contact.
“So, I’m used to looking at things from a big picture perspective on players in terms of what they bring to the team as a whole. You can turn around and say, ‘How good is this guy as a running back?’ Well, there’s different kinds of running backs. I want to know what kind of athlete this man is and how we can use his toolset to our advantage.”
If Judge sticks to his word we should be seeing a lot of Saquon Barkley both on the ground and through the air as he is clearly the Giants’ best player.
However, we could also see more play-action and QB-roll outs if the Giants want to use Jones’ feet to their advantage.
Of course, the No. 1 priority for Jones will be fixing his fumbling issues. However, with the way the Judge stressed fundamentals in his press conference, certainly ball security will be near the top of the coach’s priority list.
When the Giants announced they were hiring Judge, many fans likely struggled to know what the what the new head coach was going to bring to the table. However, one thing Judge made clear was that he plans to get the most out of each player’s skill set. And with Jones, that means using his legs to provide the offense a distinct advantage.
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