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There’s no denying that the past two seasons of Daniel Jones’ career have not gone according to plan.
The New York Giants quarterback has missed a multitude of games due to injury, while his supporting cast — especially the offensive line — have dragged the team to the depths like a rusty anchor. And that doesn’t even touch on the revolving door of head coaches, offensive coordinators and assistants.
In the words of co-owner John Mara, the Giants have done everything in their power to screw Jones up.
“We’ve done everything possible to screw this kid up since he’s been here,” Mara said in January. “We keep changing coaches, keep changing offensive coordinators, keep changing offensive line coaches. I take a lot of responsibility for that. Let’s bring in the right group of coaches now, give him some continuity, try to rebuild the offensive line and try to make an intelligent evaluation of whether he can be the franchise quarterback or not.”
Those over at Sports Illustrated aren’t interested in variables, however. And in their recent rankings of all NFL quarterbacks, they listed Jones among the very worst — No. 32 overall in the “veteran insurance” category.
32. Daniel Jones: The one quarterback on this list who enters the offseason as the starter.
Alongside Jones in this category are Nick Foles, Andy Dalton, Marcus Mariots, Tyrod Taylor and Gardner Minshew, who SI views as having more upside than Jones.
The perception of Jones differs significantly inside the East Rutherford facilities and outside of them, and the SI rankings are proof positive of that. While writers and armchair general managers continue to insist there’s no meat on the bone with Jones, NFL GMs and head coaches continue to disagree.
Dave Gettleman was in Jones’ corner and now Joe Schoen is, too. Ditto Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge, Brian Daboll, Jason Garrett, Mike Kafka, Jerry Schuplinski and Shea Tierney. And ditto nearly every single GM candidate and coach who interviewed with the Giants this offseason.
The disconnect is very real but only one side can be correct on Jones — the fans and writers or the NFL executives, coaches and scouts. Which will it be?
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