Giants Country

Assessing Giants QB Daniel Jones's Week 1 Performance

There was a mix of good and bad in Giants quarterback Daniel Jones's first full game in the new Giants offense. Brandon Olsen breaks it all down.
Brandon Olsen|
Assessing Giants QB Daniel Jones's Week 1 Performance
Assessing Giants QB Daniel Jones's Week 1 Performance

In this story:

New York Giants

The New York Giants played their first game of the season vs. the Tennessee Titans this past weekend and walked away with one of the more surprising wins from Week 1.

And with a lot of eyes firmly on quarterback Daniel Jones, who is in a make-or-break season in which he will be trying to convince the Giants' brass that they don't need a quarterback in next year's draft, Jones looked improved for the most part. However, he still showed shades of “old Daniel Jones” -- the version who makes far too many mental errors that a starting quarterback should not be making at this juncture.

Head coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka game-planned around what they have available at quarterback to make things easier, limiting the play calls to perhaps a couple dozen to not overload anyone's circuits.

But it’s clear, based on this week's showing, that the Giants passing attack won’t be sustainable throughout the remainder of the season. Jones's mistakes aside, there was a matter of the pass blocking--per NextGen Stats, Jones completed 81 percent of his passes despite being under pressure on 69 percent of his dropbacks.

Today, we’ll be looking at some good and bad from Jones, but I’m a “rip the band-aid off” guy, so we’ll start with the worst play from this bunch.

First Play: What Was He Thinking?

With under nine minutes left in the fourth quarter, down 20-13, the Giants came out for a 3rd-and-7 from the 9-yard line. With three receivers to Jones’ right, a tight end on the left, and Saquon Barkley to the right in the backfield with Jones, Barkley went in motion to Jones’ left side before the snap.

When Barkley went in motion, Titans safety Amani Hooker mirrored that movement. That movement would signal that the Titans were in some kind of man coverage, specifically involving Hooker in coverage on Barkley.

After the snap, Jones took his drop and looked at Barkley, who was running up the sideline to the end zone. Jones would continue to look at Barkley, clearly intent on getting the ball to him regardless of what was happening around him or in the defense.

Not only was the decision to make the throw a bad one, but the ball was delivered in a poor spot without enough zip.

Jones was staring down Barkley, even with Hooker well within range to make a play on the ball the entire time. 

Had Jones looked to the right side of the field where the Giants ran a "China" concept (three receivers on the same side of the field with the innermost receiver running a corner route while the other two receivers run dig routes), that saw better targets in Sterling Shepard and Kenny Golladay underneath over the middle of the field, perhaps the outcome would have been different. 

To further prove the point, the corner receiver was Richie James, while Sterling Shepard and Kenny Golladay ran dig routes. All three might have been better options. And given that this was likely four-down territory as well, Jones had room to run through the right side of the pocket had he looked in that direction.

It appeared on the sideline after the play that Jones intended to throw a back shoulder pass to Barkley here, but the ball was way too inside for that to happen and lacked any velocity.

Had this gone where Jones intended for it to go, the ball likely would have just been deflected or thrown out of reach out of bounds. Ultimately the Giants still won the game, but Jones almost gave it away here.

Second Play: A Gorgeous Strike to Sterling Shepard

The Giants' game plan was relatively conservative regarding throwing the ball. Jones attempted one deep pass beyond 20 yards, and it just so happened to be the 65-yard beauty he threw to receiver Sterling Shepard that tied the game 13-13. 

The Giants came out with two receivers on the right, a receiver and tight end on the left, and Barkley in the backfield on the right.

Tight end Daniel Bellinger and receiver Kenny Golladay ran hitches with Richie James coming from the right side of the field to the wide left side of the field. Saquon Barkley ran a swing into the flat on the right, where nobody was even close to him.

The Titans appeared to be in Cover-3, which would explain the real estate around Barkley, but the Giants had one receiver running deep (Shepard) on a streak. Amani Hooker had responsibility over the deep middle of the field but crashed down on Bellinger, leaving Kristian Fulton on an island with Shepard.

While that’s no excuse for Fulton to lose track of the only man on that side of the field with him, it partially explains why Fulton had his eyes in the backfield while thinking he had help over the middle of the field.

Mentally and physically, this play was about as good as it gets, and it’s exactly what Giants fans wanted to see from Jones going into the season. Remaining calm in the pocket while Jeffery Simmons was pushing Joshua Ezeudu back into his lap, Jones worked through progressions and took the receiver, creating space downfield instead of the check-down.

Shepard did have to slow down a little to catch the ball, but with Ezeudu and Simmons on the ground in front of him, Jones had no room to step up in the pocket and get more power on the throw.

Third Play: The Turnover Bug Makes a Cameo

The third and final play of our breakdown is a ball that never even got thrown. This play is about Jones's pre- and post-snap decision-making, both of which have been issues throughout his NFL career so far.

The Giants were in 11 personnel, as they often were against the Titans and often will be this season. The Titans lined up with four players on the line of scrimmage, with two players on each side of the center. Before the snap, an additional defender came up from the nickel spot and showed that they were going to blitz that left side, and Jones made no adjustments.

Perhaps the reason for not adjusting was because Jones intended to get rid of the ball early, regardless. The Titans ended up not blitzing, with that nickel defender dropping back into coverage.

There was a stunt by the Titans' front four, which threw the Giants offensive line for a loop (yet it wasn’t even the stunt man that got the strip sack).

Jones took the snap and immediately looked at tight end Daniel Bellinger, who was wide open in the flat on the right side of the field with the nearest defender 10 yards away. Jones gave a slight pump fake towards Bellinger before deciding to throw to Bellinger.

Unfortunately for Jones, by the time he decided to throw it, Titans defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons had rookie guard Joshua Ezeudu in his dust for the strip sack.

Yes, the pressure got in quickly, but Jones made no adjustments pre-snap, stared at a wide-open receiver before deciding not to throw it, and had a lot of space to run if he wanted to, instead, opting not to. The result? He was sacked and stripped of the ball, conjuring up bad memories of his days as a turnover machine.

Unofficially, Jones was sacked here in just under 2.5 seconds. In 2021, his average time to throw was 2.58 seconds, and his average time in the pocket was 2.71 seconds. This play was a fraction of a second quicker than his average play time from 2021 and was easily avoidable.

This is one of those plays where the little things like making checks at the line, taking the check down, and running when the space is there could have helped avoid this outcome. This could be nitpicky, but every little thing counts when it’s a contract year for a player that hasn’t shown improvement in these areas. 

Join the Giants Country Community

Published
Brandon Olsen
BRANDON OLSEN

Brandon Olsen is the founder of Whole Nine Sports, specializing in NFL Draft coverage, and is the host of the Locked On Gators Podcast. 

Share on XFollow WNS_Brandon
Home/Big Blue+