Former Duke quarterback Daniel Jones attends spring practice on Tuesday

New York Giants quarterback and former first-round pick Daniel Jones returned to Durham to watch the 2024 team get some work in on Tuesday.

Duke football spring practice is underway in Durham, and there was a familiar face along the sidelines on Tuesday.

Daniel Jones, the New York Giants quarterback and sixth-overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft, came back to campus to watch his former team get some work in ahead of the 2024 season.

Jones started for the Blue Devils for three seasons, throwing for 8,201 yards, 52 touchdowns, and 29 interceptions across 36 games. He added 1,323 yards and 17 touchdowns with his legs.

As the Giants quarterback, Jones only played in six games last season as he battled multiple injuries, and his season ended after he tore his ACL in November. He did lead the Giants to the playoffs in 2022, winning a Wild Card Round game over the Vikings for the team’s first playoff win in 11 years.

Former Blue Devils receiver Jake Bobo, now a member of the Seattle Seahawks, joined Jones on the sidelines. Bobo played for the Blue Devils for four seasons before transferring to UCLA for his senior campaign. He caught 19 passes for 196 yards and two touchdowns with Seattle as a rookie.

Jones got a close look at former Texas quarterback Maalik Murphy, who committed to the Blue Devils back in December. A former four-star recruit, Murphy is the highest-rated quarterback prospect to ever suit up for Duke.

Giants are ‘still progressing’ as Joe Schoen enters third season as GM

Entering Year 3 as GM, Joe Schoen says the New York Giants are “still progressing.”

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen is entering his third season at the helm of one the NFL’s most prestigious franchises and perhaps his most pivotal one.

His tenure began in 2021 with a successful 9-8 season that saw the Giants qualify for the postseason for the first time since 2016. His second season, however, did not go as well.

The Giants suffered several major injuries and the team took a nosedive under a more challenging schedule. They finished 6-11 and Schoen is drafting in the top ten again in this year’s NFL draft.

“I think we’re still progressing,” Schoen told reporters at the NFL owners meeting in Orlando on Monday. “I just looked at this the other day, the 2021 roster when I got here. I went back and looked at that. We’re always evaluating ourselves.”

 “The first offseason, what could you do to really improve the roster? We didn’t have any money (available under the salary cap), so it was (quarterback) Tyrod (Taylor), (center) Jon Feliciano, and (guard Mark) Glowinski. As I started going through the decisions we made and where we are salary cap-wise and trying to make sure we’re in good health from a salary cap standpoint building a young foundation.”

 But the NFL, even though it is designed to help struggling tams get better quickly, is still not an exact science. Schoen is learning that as he continues to tweak his roster.

“It takes time, as much as you want instant gratification, and nobody wants that more than me,” Schoen said. “I think you have to believe in the principles and in terms of how to build the team, and we’re going on our third draft. It takes time.

“When I look back at the 2021 roster and where we are now, I just think we’re heading in the right direction, and we’ll continue to head in the right direction in terms of bringing in our type of players and what we’re looking for schematically, what Dabs (coach Brian Daboll) is looking at for his offense, and we’ll keep making progress.”

The Giants have used free agency to bolster their sagging offensive line and hold the sixth overall selection in the upcoming draft. There is much debate on what, or who, they should use that pick on. Many fans want a new quarterback.

Schoen still has a good chunk of his salary cap space dedicated to the quarterback room. Daniel Jones is only in his second season of a four-year, $150 million deal and Schoen inked Drew Lock to a one-year, $5 million flyer earlier this month.

Jones is still recovering from a torn ACL that ended his season after eight games last year. He is progressing and is expected to be under center when the season begins.

“I got an update on Friday,” Schoen said. “He is running on land now. So, he’s off the Ultra-G (anti-gravity treadmill), and he is throwing. Yeah, knock on wood, no setbacks, but he is in there attacking it every day and doing a good job.”

“Every patient is different, and you can’t really predict if swelling is going to occur or if there’s a setback. He’s on the right track right now. Again, we just have to – it’s day-by-day and week-by-week. You just don’t know how he’s going to react as we ramp it up and he starts to do more. Hopefully, there’s no setbacks.”

If there are, Lock will be there to step in. Or maybe, Schoen will surprise everyone with a newer, younger alternative next month at the draft in Detroit.

Ex-Giant Kyle Rudolph: Giants should stick with Daniel Jones, draft WR

Kyle Rudolph believes the Giants should focus on drafting a WR for Daniel Jones.

While the debate continues on whether the New York Giants should draft a quarterback and move on from Daniel Jones, on Monday, Giants’ owner John Mara said he would support the decision to draft a quarterback.

Ex-Giants tight end Kyle Rudolph was a guest on “Up and Adams” on Monday and just as he has done in the past, Rudolph praised Daniel Jones comparing him to one of the league’s best quarterbacks:

“I love DJ. I think he’s super talented. He has the ability to be a Josh Allen-type quarterback. He has the athletic ability to run the football, he can make every throw. He doesn’t have that quite of a strong arm, but he has an adequately strong arm to make every throw. Can we get the guy a number one wide receiver, please? Like let’s quit messing around.

“I give the Giants credit, they’ve tried to bolster the offensive line; they’ve invested first round picks, they’ve brought free agents in, they’ve tried to address the offensive line. It hasn’t worked as well as they’d hoped but they put the effort there. Can we get the guy a number one wide receiver, please? How can you judge someone who has played in the NFL for now five years, and he’s never had a number one wide receiver. Like, what quarterback goes five years and without being given a number one wide receiver.”

“One hundred percent” Rudolph emphatically responded when asked if he would run it back with Daniel Jones and use the Giants first-round pick on one of the top receivers.

As Rudolph said, the Giants have used resources to address the offensive line. However, it’s not as if the Giants haven’t tried to find Jones a top pass catcher. Between the signing of Kenny Golladay, the draft selection of Kadarius Toney and the acquisition of Darren Waller, none of those pass catchers panned out the way the Giants have hoped.

The Giants have been connected to wide receivers in plenty of mock drafts recently with the draft right around the corner. As it currently stands today, it certainly seems like one of the top wide outs will be available for the Giants at No. 6 overall.

Report: Giants ‘contemplating moving on’ from Daniel Jones

The Giants are reportedly “contemplating moving on” from QB Daniel Jones.

Are the New York Giants contemplating moving on from quarterback Daniel Jones? Anything is possible as the 2024 NFL draft nears.

The Giants hold the sixth overall selection in this year’s draft and could be in prime position to nab one of the top signal-callers if things fall their way.

General manager Joe Schoen has made it clear through his words and actions this offseason that the future of the quarterback position is very much fluid.

The Giants have been pounding the pavement scouting this year’s draft class, as well as exploring signing a veteran option such as Russell Wilson.

Schoen decided to ink Drew Lock to compete with/back up Jones after passing on Wilson and getting priced out on Tyrod Taylor.

The real solution will likely come in the draft, where Schoen and his team are concentrating their efforts.

From ESPN’s Jordan Raanan:

The Giants met with the consensus top six quarterbacks at the NFL scouting combine, according to sources. That includes likely No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams.

Schoen and director of player personnel Tim McDonnell were even at USC’s Pro Day on Wednesday to watch Williams throw. The Giants also already had UNC’s Drake Maye and Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy in for visits and are expected to have private workouts with most of the top quarterbacks in the coming weeks.

Schoen also admitted he may not take a quarterback with his first-round pick. The Giants have a total of six selections in the draft.

“It’s a good quarterback draft. It’s not just at the top,” Schoen said at the NFL Combine last month in Indianapolis.

The concern is not only with Jones’ inconsistent play on the field, his injury history is also troublesome. And, per Raanan, the latter issue has the Giants thinking about moving on from the Duke product.

Multiple sources have told ESPN that Jones’ injury history is what has the team contemplating moving on. The evaluation of the player hasn’t changed all that much in the four games that Jones played from start to finish since signing that lucrative deal.

Jones is entering his sixth season and has only played 16 or more games in a season once, which came in 2022, the only season he did not suffer an injury and the only winning season the Giants have had since they selected him sixth overall in 2019.

Jones was limited to six games last season after suffering a neck injury and then a torn ACL. The Giants turned to Taylor and Tommy DeVito to handle the quarterbacking duties in the second half of the season.

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QB Daniel Jones will be ‘the guy’ for the Giants when he returns

Not that there has been much doubt, but Brian Daboll told NFL Network that Daniel Jones will be ‘the guy’ at quarterback when he returns.

There really hasn’t been much doubt as to whether Daniel Jones is going to begin the season as the New York Giants starting quarterback. However, if there were any lingering questions, Brian Daboll threw some cold water on them.

In an interview with NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Daboll reaffirmed that Jones was “the guy.”

“We’re excited to have Drew (Lock), and he knows what his role is going to be,” Daboll said. “He’s going to get a lot of reps this spring, he needs to learn our system, but again, excited to get Daniel back. When he gets back he’ll be the guy.”

With how the offseason has played out for the Giants, this isn’t exactly news. It’s already been reported that when the team met with Russell Wilson, they made it known that he wasn’t going to be handed the starting job. Lock has also said since joining the team that it’s clearly been conveyed to him that Jones is the starter.

Prior to Jones’ ACL injury last season, he was having a rough go of it, as was the Giants’ offense as a whole. Although Jones was completing 67.5 percent of his throws, he was averaging just 5.7 yards per pass attempt and threw only two touchdowns to six interceptions.

It was just last offseason that the Giants and Jones agreed to a new four-year deal worth $160 million, including $82 million paid out over the first two seasons.

This was on the heels of a 2022 season where Jones completed 67 percent of his passes, throwing for 3,642 yards with 17 touchdowns to six interceptions. He also rushed for 805 yards and seven scores.

With Pelissero, Daboll added that they do not yet know if Jones will be available for Week 1, and because of that, emphasized the importance of Lock picking up the offense quickly.

Although the starting job belongs to Jones once he is healthy, the Giants need him to perform better upon his return than what he did last season.

However, just because he’s beginning the season as the starter doesn’t mean he’s going to finish the year in that capacity – -especially with Daboll in a bit of a prove-it year. He has to win games now.

To a degree, there is some uncertainty around Jones and what to expect when he’s back on the field. It’s for this reason that the Giants very well could be in the quarterback market in the draft. The question is: to what degree?

As I wrote about recently, I don’t expect the Giants to trade up to the No. 4 pick to take one of the top quarterbacks. Of course, if Drake Maye or J.J. McCarthy — both of whom have visited the Giants as part of the pre-draft process — were to fall to No. 6, that’s a completely different story and would take away the certainty of the starting quarterback job belonging to Jones.

With that said, the safe bet is that the top four quarterbacks will be off the board by the time the Giants are on the clock, and New York will be able to address their need at receiver.

Perhaps then they use a Day 2 or early Day 3 pick on the quarterback position, with Tulane’s Michael Pratt and South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler being two developmental options.

While Jones’ new contract didn’t go into force all that long ago, the Giants are able to get out of it after this season. Doing so would require them to take on a dead-cap hit of $22.2 million for the 2025 season, but it would also create $19.3 million in cap space.

This is just another reason why quarterback isn’t out of the question for the Giants in this year’s draft, even with the continued firm commitment to Jones.

Jason McCourty ‘would be shocked’ if Giants draft a QB in Round 1

Jason McCourty “would be shocked” if the New York Giants selected a quarterback at No. 6 overall given their other glaring roster needs.

There have been plenty of rumors connecting the New York Giants to quarterbacks at the top of the 2024 NFL draft.

As that April date inches closer, the Giants-quarterback narrative has gained steam with every report of general manager Joe Schoen attending a Pro Day.

NFL Network’s Good Morning Football analyst and former defensive back, Jason McCourty, sees the Giants’ potential draft plans very differently from his point of view.

“I would be shocked if the Giants go quarterback at (No. 6) because . . . they have holes they need to fill. You talk about the offensive line and having a quarterback there that doesn’t have to run around for his life and feel like he has to make plays,” he said. “So, I look at it for the Giants, go that direction. You’ve committed to Daniel Jones, you’ve brought in Drew Lock, you’ve brought in Russell Wilson to have conversations with him. So we’ve seen them kind of flirt with it, they’ve gone through and evaluated these quarterbacks but you have another season in Daniel Jones.

“You believe in him in that first year under (Brian) Daboll and Joe Schoen and you saw some growth for him so move forward with this. I think build a team in place and a year from now, two years from now, if you’re in a position to go get a quarterback through free agency or the draft, you’ve now built a team around him to take over, similarly to what we’ll probably see from Caleb Williams at that number one pick for the Bears,

“For the New York Giants, continue to build those pieces around whoever the future quarterback’s going to be. . . . You have two guys in that room who can lead the team. So I think, for that reason, you go and you get another position that you think is a surefire to be a part of the franchise.”

The Giants’ roster is largely devoid of talent and they have several pressing personnel needs.

It does seem increasingly likely that the Giants would have to move up to get one of the top four quarterbacks and in terms of competition, they may not have the assets necessary to do that.

The most likely of non-quarterback scenarios does seem to be the Giants taking one of the top wide receivers but it easily could be an offensive lineman at six as well.

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Carl Banks believes Giants QB Daniel Jones may have been ‘shell-shocked’ in 2023

New York Giants legend Carl Banks thinks QB Daniel Jones may have been “shell-shocked” in 2023 due to the team’s porous OL.

New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones has been the subject of scrutiny since he was drafted in 2019. He’s gone through three coaching changes and an entire front office change in five years, but NFL metrics don’t really care about your circumstances.

Last season was Jones’ worst to date, even before he was injured.

But there may have been a specific reason for Jones’ regression in 2023. Giants legend Carl Banks feels he may have been “shellshocked” as the result of the beating taken behind one of the worst offensive lines in NFL history.

“And the other thing . . . is his mental state, right? He’s been beat up and I don’t have any doubt that he’ll go out and he’ll compete,” Banks said on the Bleav in Giants podcast. “But when the lights come on and the bullets start to fly, is he PTSD? Is he traumatized? Is he having flashbacks? Right? Is he shell-shocked because he took a lot of punishment and it impacted his judgment in the game?

“And that’s not an excuse. It’s fair and it’s not a lie. You know, when people say, well, you know, Daniel just can’t do this and you blame everything on the offensive line. Well, that’s how it works in the NFL. Quarterback to have time, (they) make good judgments. Quarterbacks get hit a lot, they make bad judgments.”

Banks said several things in that statement that everyone needs to see: PTSD, traumatized, and flashbacks. If you’ve ever been traumatized or had PTSD related to trauma, you know that when the trigger shows up, your body and brain slip into survival mode.

When that happens, a person has limited control over how their body responds. This means that a person could freeze up (a real problem for a QB) or run straight into danger to go through it (likely causing injury).

No one wants to say this can be his excuse but if Jones is having a trauma response because his line previously failed him resulting in hits he shouldn’t have had to take, that is absolutely not his fault. It’s an organizational failure and one that will negatively impact Jones for, potentially, the rest of his career.

Was Jones ‘shellshocked’ as Banks suspects? It’s hard to say. But it would certainly explain some of his reactions last year.

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Report: Giants still view Daniel Jones as franchise QB, but one thing has shaken their faith

The New York Giants reportedly remain committed to Daniel Jones and view him as their franchise quarterback, but they do have one concern.

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen has repeatedly expressed his faith in quarterback Daniel Jones and insists he’ll be the starter in Week 1 provided he’s healthy.

Despite those words, a subsection of the Giants fan base insists it can’t be true and Schoen is merely being kind to Jones in public.

If you’re one of those fans, you may want to avert your eyes.

Ralph Vacchiano of Fox Sports reports that high-ranking members (plural) of the Giants organization still very much believe in Jones as their franchise quarterback despite his regression in 2023.

As bad as Jones was in the first five games of last season, there are a lot of people very high up in the Giants organization who still believe in his ability — which is what FOX Sports reported back in November. They were not shaken by five bad games, most of which were played without Saquon Barkley, without left tackle Andrew Thomas, and behind a truly disastrous offensive line.

The anti-Jones group can now return their attention to this article.

Although the Giants remain firm in their commitment to Jones, there is a but. And it’s a rather big but at that.

IT’S BRACKET MADNESS: Enter USA TODAY’s NCAA tournament bracket contest for a chance at $1 million prize.

Vacchiano adds that while Jones’ poor play last season hasn’t shaken anyone’s faith, his injury history has. More specifically, the Giants are concerned about Jones’ neck injuries and what they could mean for his future.

What has shaken their faith, one team source said, is his injury history. That seems to be more the history of neck injuries than his recovery from a torn ACL, which the Giants say has gone well. But the neck injuries — disc issues that neither the Giants nor Jones have ever fully explained — are worrisome. As Jones’ former trainer told FOX Sports in November, “The likelihood of reinjury, once it gets injured the first time, it’s definitely more susceptible moving forward.”

So yes, the Giants seem to believe in Jones’ ability to be their next Eli Manning as much as they did on March 7, 2023, when they gave him that blockbuster contract. But because he is an injury risk, they feel like they at least have to explore all their options — which is exactly what they are doing. Jones’ health does seem to be a big enough issue for the organization that it’s impossible to say they still believe he’s their long-term answer at quarterback.

The Giants met with veteran quarterback Russell Wilson ahead of free agency and later signed Drew Lock. However, neither was considered an option to replace Jones.

Vacchiano confirms that both Wilson and Lock were told that Jones would remain the team’s starter in 2023 and they would serve as his backup.

The 35-year-old Wilson was looking for a starting job, though, and the Giants were “absolutely not” willing to offer him one, a team source said. If Wilson was interested in being a backup, the Giants might have been interested since he cost the Steelers only $1.21 million (the Broncos are also paying him $39 million not to play for them). Although even then, they understood it could have been messy to have a high-profile backup who clearly wanted to play sitting behind Jones all year.

Lock signed on the dotted line while Wilson chased a chance to start with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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John Schneider says the Seahawks wanted to re-sign Drew Lock

Apparently the Giants sold Drew Lock on competing for the starting job with Daniel Jones.

The Seahawks made a significant change at quarterback last week, pulling off a surprise trade for Sam Howell of the Commanders. The teams swapped picks as part of the deal. According to one trade value chart, Seattle gave up a seventh-round draft pick. Another says that they gave up a third-rounder, but we’re going to go with the former for mental health’s sake.

Seattle had an opening beneath Geno Smith on their depth chart at quarterback after watching backup Drew Lock sign a one-year deal with the Giants, worth $5 million. Last week when Schneider spoke with ESPN radio, he said the team wanted to bring Lock back, but apparently the Giants sold him on competing for the starting job with Daniel Jones, per Brady Henderson.

You can’t always trust what NFL GMs tell you, but in this case we believe Schneider, at least about wanting to keep Lock around. If it’s true that the Giants did sell Lock on competing with Jones then there’s a real chance he might beat him out for the job.

However, if the original plan was to keep Lock as Geno’s top understudy then Seattle got an upgrade in Howell. While he has much the same skillset, Howell is four years younger than Lock and is now under contract for the next two seasons for a little over $2 million, according to Over the Cap. That’s significantly less than what Lock’s getting just this year alone.

It’s also clear that John Schneider definitely has a type at quarterback. That will be something to watch going forward.

In a vacuum we like the Howell trade but if it prevents the team from using one of their picks in the upcoming 2024 NFL draft on a quarterback prospect then it’s a bust.

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Antonio Brown takes repeated aim at Giants’ Daniel Jones

Former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown, known for his erratic behavior, has chosen New York Giants QB Daniel Jones as next target.

Ex-NFL All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown, who has been known for his erratic behavior both on and off the field, has strangely chosen New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones as his latest subject to lampoon.

The 35-year-old Brown, who last played in the NFL for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021, has lobbed several posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, blasting the Giants for sticking with Jones, whom he apparently has little respect for as a player or person.

As far as we know, Jones and Brown do not have a personal relationship and Jones has never commented about Brown — at least publicly.

It is a curious avenue for Brown, who has a long litany of bizarre behavior to his credit, to go down. Jones has been nothing but respectful and professional since joining the Giants back in 2019.

At some point, we’ll get Jones’ side to this, but then again, knowing him, he’ll just shrug it off.

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