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When Jason Garrett initially returned to the New York Giants, he didn’t speak as glowingly about quarterback Daniel Jones as others in the building did.
Even deep into his first year as Giants’ offensive coordinator, Garrett was careful with his words when it came to Jones. He was far more critical than others for a prolonged period of time but then something changed.
In the blink of an eye, Garrett went from giving Jones somewhat of a cold shoulder publicly to completely embracing the 24-year-old. Now the tides have turned and when it comes time to talk about Jones, Garrett finds himself grinning from ear-to-ear.
The duo also frequently gather after practice for a little ongoing competition.
“You’re trying to build relationships with your players,” Garrett told reporters on Thursday. “Certainly, you build them in the meeting rooms, but outside the meeting rooms with all your guys, you’re trying to develop those relationships because what I would argue is that that’s what allows you to coach them hard and coach them to a high standard, them knowing that you care about them and you want what’s good for them individually and what’s good for us as a team. So, I think Daniel understands that.
“We do like spending extra time having our competitions afterwards — accuracy competitions and ballistics throwing competitions and just how you can perform in nut-cutting time competitions. So, it’s something we’ve done with quarterbacks for a long time. I’m on a little bit of a streak here the last few days, so we’ll see how it goes.”
The 55-year-old Garrett is beating Jones? Should that concern Giants fans?
“No, he could destroy me,” Garrett said.
Jones admits the competition is a lot more than a “B.S. session” to discuss the gameplan.
“I mean it’s kind of a game we play, an ongoing competition. There’s score kept and we’re competing. It’s not a B.S. situation,” Jones said with a laugh. “He throws it pretty well and he’ll let you hear about it, too.”
Fair or unfair, Jones and Garrett are uniquely tied together. Jones’ success on the field will directly correlate to Garrett’s future job status and visa versa. And you may as well toss general manager Dave Gettleman into that pack, too, although he’s not out there tossing the pigskin around during those competitions.
Perhaps all of this extra bonding time will lead to more trust on the field and some play calls that more properly fit Jones’ skill set.