New York Giants 2022 Training Camp Roster Preview: QB Daniel Jones

The Giants need Daniel Jones to take that next big step toward being a game-winner. Can he do it?

So far, the New York Giants' handling of quarterback Daniel Jones's career has left much to be desired, and it didn't take for co-owner John Mara to admit the obvious earlier this year when the topic came up.

When they bring in a new quarterback to be their franchise guy, most teams have a decent offensive line in place and a stable system with the playmakers to go along with it.

Jones, however, hasn't had that. The coach that drafted him, Pat Shurmur, was fired after Jones's rookie season. The general manager who believed so strongly in him, Dave Gettleman, retired. And the quarterback has had to go through three different systems since turning pro, most of them behind a shaky offensive line.

That said, Jones never complained, made a stink, and kept doing his best to make the most of an unstable situation. While not all of his struggles are due to the Giants' failures to support him the way he should have been, the Giants are the reason why they still don't know if Jones is a legitimate franchise quarterback.

But they're going to find out in the final year of Jones's rookie campaign. If he succeeds under this, his third coaching staff in the last four seasons, it will cost the Giants big money to retain him.

And if he doesn't, well, the Giants have no one to blame but themselves for having wasted Jones's rookie campaign when they could have been bringing him along better and building up the franchise.

• Check out our 90-man roster player profiles ahead of training camp.

What He Brings

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There is much to like about Jones's game if you take away the ball security issues.

By his second season, Jones showed the ability to consistently use his eyes to hold the middle-of-the-field closed player in place to effectively target an advantageous one-on-one matchup to the opposite side of the field. If his receivers do their part and get open, the odds of the pass being completed are usually pretty good.

We mentioned the ball security issue, which Jones has improved. Another area where ideally, he needs to become more consistent is anticipating when his receivers break so that when they do, he can time the pass to be at a spot where the receiver is going to be. Jones showed flashes of being able to do this in the past but needs to show it more consistently, as there have been more times than not when he's simply held the ball too long.

Jones's mobility is another feather in his cap, as his mobility allows another dimension to be added to the offense. That said, all of his injuries have occurred with him functioning as a runner, so it will be interesting to see if the Giants curtail some of those designed runs this season and instead look to the skill position players to do most of that work.

Where Jones can still show improvement is in his post-snap reads (hopefully, the incorporation of pre-snap motion will help him with this). Some of his earlier mistakes (interceptions) resulted from him misreading or not trusting what he was seeing.

His Contract

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Jones is in the final year of his rookie contract and will count for $8,365,836 against the cap, or four percent of the total cap. He is not in danger of being cut.

The Giants famously declined the option year on Jones's contract, which would have cost them $22.384 million for 2023. If Jones has the kind of year they believe he can have, he would likely be franchise tagged at an estimated amount of $31.497 million while his agents and the Giants hammer out a new multi-year deal that is expected to have the tiered guarantee money structure similar to what Josh Allen received in his deal from the Bills.

Roster Prediction/Expectations

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This is Jones's job to lose, and so far, he's done everything the right way to ensure his success, from being the first one in the building, the last one to leave, and one of the hardest workers on the team.

"Yeah, he’s made progress. That's what we've asked him to do, along with all the players, but he's done a good job," head coach Brian Daboll said earlier this month about Jones. "He's really studied. He's opened up, I would say, a good amount here. When you're installing a new system, usually players, particularly quarterbacks, will do whatever you ask them to do."

But would the Giants give him the hook if he doesn't show progress? Probably not, as they're going to give him every opportunity to play out the season and make a case to continue as the starting quarterback.

As for what Jones needs to show to convince the Giants of his worthiness, coming up with specific stats is difficult. Instead, the Giants just need Jones to stay healthy and morph from being a game manager into someone who can load the team on his shoulders and carry them across the finish line when the chips are down.

There is optimism that Jones will finally become the quarterback the organization thinks he can be, just as there was last year. Only time will tell if Jones is truly salvageable or if he's been ruined.

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