For New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, the time for excuses has passed. It no longer matters what deficiencies surround him, he needs to raise his level of play to match his $160 million contract.
At least that’s how Giants great Osi Umenyiora sees things.
“You are the guy, and you have to find a way to deliver because that’s how you’re getting paid, right?” Umenyiora told Giants Country. “You see what all these other quarterbacks do. You see Patrick Mahomes — a lot of times, maybe his receivers are dropping the ball, and people are giving him a pass. But in the media world, I say, ‘No, he’s getting paid $50 million a year to make everybody else right.’
“So if you’re getting paid at the higher echelon of, of the quarterbacks — $40 million a year is a lot of money, (Jones) has to perform better than he performed last year, and he has to play the way he played in 2022.”
While Umenyiora, like many others, grew frustrated with Jones before his 2023 season ended due to injury, the retired defensive end stopped well short of saying DJ doesn’t have it.
In fact, Umenyiora said, it’s evident by his play in 2022 that Jones can be a solid and productive long-term quarterback. But those six games this past season are concerning.
“You can’t say how he played, especially towards the second half of 2022, and say, ‘Okay, this guy isn’t a good quarterback, and we’re not gonna pay him any money.’ It doesn’t make any sense, right?” Umenyiora said.
“If you’re watching, you’re like, ‘Okay, this guy can play, you know, he is good with his feet, you know, accurate passer who can do a lot of things.’ But then you look at what happened last year, and, you know, once you get paid that amount of money as a quarterback or as a player, you can’t blame things on everybody else.”
There’s no denying that Jones regressed in 2023 but he never once blamed anyone else for those failures. The excuse-making has come from the outside and can largely be viewed as justified for a variety of reasons.
But that doesn’t mean Umenyiora is wrong. At some point or another, DJ has to take complete control and make things happen on the field despite what’s around him. If he doesn’t, he’s likely run out of his nine lives.
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