Why Daniel Jones Will Be Able to Overcome the Changes to the Offensive Personnel
The Giants' cast of offensive skill position players was supposed to be the one thing that made life easy on quarterback Daniel Jones.
But as he and the Giants have quickly learned, nothing comes easy in the NFL.
Jones already has to deal with the pressure of adjusting to his second NFL playbook in as many seasons and playing behind a work-in-progress offensive line.
But after finally getting a taste of what it was like to have all five of his primary offensive skill players—running back Saquon Barkley, tight end Evan Engram, and receivers Golden Tate, Sterling Shepard, and Darius Slayton—available at the same time, Jones is back to having to carry on without Barkley and, potentially, Shepard.
While that might be cause for alarm for a young quarterback, quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski said that because Jones hasn’t been able to work much with anyone skill position player outside of Slayton, adjusting might not be as challenging as it looks.
"It may impact the older veteran quarterbacks a little more because they get a little more accustomed and more used to it and really get familiar with a lot of guys," Schuplinski said Tuesday during a video conference call with reporters.
"Certainly Daniel has familiarity with [Barkley and Shepard] and he's been working with them through training camp and all that. But he's done a nice job of just going, 'Hey this is what the play is, this is where I'm going with the ball and this is who's going to get it.’
"He hasn't overly concerned himself with [the injuries] and I think he's just continuing to understand what the play is called, why it's called, where we want the ball to go, where we hope it would go and if they don't present that then get it to someone safer and we can get the ball moving.”
With Barkley gone for the season with a torn ACL and Shepard potentially looking at missing multiple weeks with a reported case of turf toe, the show must go on, and it now falls upon Jones’ shoulders to help the offense and the team pick up the pieces.
But even that shouldn’t be anything new for the former Duke star, who has had to carry the offense on his right arm thanks to the running game's struggles.
In two games and 126 offensive plays, Jones is 51 of 81 for 520 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions. He’s also been sacked seven times and has one lost fumble to his name this year.
Although the Giants are planning to bring in Devonta Freeman to team with Dion Lewis and Wayne Gallman at running back, expect the passing game to gear up with Slayton, Tate, and Engram the likely benefactors of the anticipated increased snaps.
Of course, with a potential increase in pass attempts comes a potential increase in mistakes, which Jones hasn’t completely eradicated from his game.
Many of those mistakes are simply a matter of Jones being aggressive in his approach to moving the chains. Still, Schuplinski believes that there is a way to balance being assertive and taking what the defense allows.
"The way we're trying to attack defenses and things we're trying to do in terms of anticipation," Schuplinski said. "What their coverage is, what they play, what it might be, where we might have to go with the read, what gives us a better option on a certain play, we're just trying to stress those things."
Schuplinski has seen the work ethic and focus it takes for a quarterback to adjust to a game plan despite the circumstances and excel.
He was previously around future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady when the two were with the Patriots. In Jones, Schuplinski sees a characteristic that reminds him very much of the legendary signal-caller.
"[Jones] is a tireless worker," Schuplinski said. "He works as hard if not harder than any young quarterback I've been around for sure and mostly any quarterback I've been around."
