Joe Judge Insists Daniel Jones Came Through Sunday Fine
A day after Giants quarterback Daniel Jones returned from a hamstring strain, Giants head coach Joe Judge continued to stand behind the decision to play his starting quarterback, even though Jones’s mobility was reduced to the point where he couldn’t do much running against the Arizona Cardinals.
For Judge, the objective with Jones all along was that the quarterback be able to protect himself out there, and Judge reiterated Jones could do just that.
“He was able to protect himself yesterday and no, there are no regrets,” Judge said. “There's no second-guessing. He didn't do anything that aggravated that leg injury. Obviously, there was probably a little bit of wear and tear as the game went on—he took some hits in the pocket. I think that's just natural. Any quarterback getting ups, going to have a little bit of wear and tear on him.”
Although Jones gutted out his return, it wasn’t pretty. He absorbed six sacks and was hit 11 times. Judge allowed that some of those sacks might have been avoided if he was at full strength.
“I think he took some hits in the pocket where there's sometimes that maybe he could have left the pocket and extended plays,’ Judge said. “Were there other times that had nothing to do with that? Yeah.”
Jones was tight-lipped Sunday after the game regarding his injury, which appeared to worsen as the game wore on. The usually prompt Jones ended up being 20 minutes late for his postgame video conference with reporters so he could undergo treatment—a first for Jones this year.
But Judge said it was all a matter of bumps and bruises that come with playing the game.
“Look, in every game this year, guys come out with some kind of bump and bruise, whether he didn't get touched at all or not. You played through a professional game, so everyone's coming out the next day sore, tired, worn down.”
Still, Jones was unable to finish the game, as after getting hit late in the fourth quarter, he limped off and visited with McCoy, who then began to get loose on the sideline. After the Cardinals capped their final scoring with a 30-yard field goal to make it 26-7 with 2:41 left in the game, McCoy was sent into the game to finish it out.
“I just made the decision at that point to go with Colt,” Judge aid, insisting that the timing had nothing to do with how Jones was feeling physically. “At that point I was going to get Colt a few reps… that had nothing to do with something happened on that drive.”
Despite all the encouraging news about Jones being no worse for the wear given his bumps and bruises, Judge couldn’t commit to whether Jones would practice Wednesday.
“I have to talk to talk to (Vice President of Medical Affairs) Ronnie (Barnes),” he said. “In talking to Daniel this morning, that conversation is more about the hamstring, how his leg felt, how he was through the flow of the game,” Judge said.
“He assured us that the hamstring was really the same as what he went in, (and he) felt good throughout the flow of the game.”
Judge did say that if Jones looked the same way in practice as he did last week, he wouldn’t think twice about letting the quarterback take the field this weekend against the Cleveland Browns.
“If Daniel's healthy to play and he looked the way he did in practice last week, I'd have no hesitation playing Daniel at all,” Judge said.
“We have a lot of confidence in (backup quarterback) Colt (McCoy), but there's also a commitment we've made to Daniel. We have confidence all of our players, but if he's healthy enough to go out there and protect himself and we don't feel he's putting himself in a greater danger to be injured worse, and he's going to give the team at a competitive advantage of going out there, then we're going to play him.”
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