New York Giants Still Believe in Daniel Jones
When it comes to quarterback Daniel Jones, New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen continues to emphasize the organization's faith in the signal caller.
"I have faith in Daniel as our starting quarterback," Schoen told reporters Tuesday morning at the combine.
Schoen didn't elaborate about why he continues to have faith in Jones, whom he signed to a four-year, $160 million contract last season but who struggled in six games played, never looking comfortable under center.
The general manager's words could have merely been a case of saying the right things to avoid sparking headlines. Or a more likely scenario is that Schoen knows that last year's disappointing season was the result of a perfect storm that saw several key players on the offensive side of the ball--Jones, running back Saquon Barkley, left tackle Andrew Thomas, and tight end Darren Waller--miss parts of the season.
Jones's injury history is also a concern. In addition to having suffered his second neck injury in the last three years, Jones is currently rehabbing a torn ACL, the progress of which Schoen said has the organization very encouraged to where Jones, who started throwing stationary a couple of weeks ago, could be able to do individual and 7-on-7 work, and who could be ready for the start of training camp in late July.
But Schoen's "faith" in Jones doesn't mean the organization has closed the door on adding a quarterback.
"We've had good conversations, and he understands where we are," Schoen said of Jones. "He understands that we're going to need to add a quarterback. He's coming off an injury. (Quarterback) Tommy DeVito is under contract and Daniel, so we'll bring in either a veteran quarterback through free agency—(quarterback) Tyrod (Taylor) is in the mix there, too."
Nor does that mean that drafting a quarterback is off the table.
"Where we are at six, we're going to look at everything," Schoen said. "We're going to look at all positions. You hope you're not up there again; you don't want to be picking in the top 10, but it's a good draft. It’s a solid draft across the board, and we're going to have an opportunity to get a good player, and we're going to evaluate all the positions and take the best player we can."
That includes quarterback, a class Schoen described as "a good quarterback draft," adding, "It’s not just at the top--there are some guys that are mid-levels that I think will be good number twos. There are some guys that can be number threes in the draft. So yeah, I think it's a solid draft all over."
Jones's contract is set to count for just over $47 million against this year's cap. Still, the team could get out of the deal after this year in which they'd recognize a $19.395 million savings with a $22.210 million dead money hit assuming they don't make any further restructures to his deal this year and if such a transition after the season is considered a pre-June 1 move (a post-June 1 move would increase the savings to $30.5 million with dead money hits of $11.105 million in each of 2025's and 2026's caps.)
Ideally, the Giants would want Jones to lead the team to the Super Bowl, but because the team's roster is currently in need of a lot of work, Schoen didn't want to set any goals for Jones.
"That's the ultimate goal for everybody, to win a Super Bowl," he said. "It's not one position; you’ve got to build a good team. You’ve got to have surrounding parts. There are a lot of good quarterbacks that haven’t won Super Bowls. So, you’ve got to have a good team."
To get the team closer to contending, Schoen said the plan is to continue doing what they've done for each of the last two years: build up the roster.
"(Quarterback) is an important position, but I think you’ve got to build the pieces around him on both sides of the ball and in all three phases," he said.
