Why New York Giants Are Still Bullish on Daniel Jones
The Giants' loyalty to Daniel Jones is the stuff that every man and woman in a relationship dream of having.
Despite a high number of veteran quarterbacks around the league who have been on the move, Jones continues to have the strong endorsements of general manager Dave Gettleman and head coach Joe Judge even if Jones doesn't have much from a production perspective to warrant it.
"We have confidence in Daniel, he’s a player that we want to work with going forward with this team," Judge said when asked if there was any temptation to explore other options in the veteran market.
"He’s shown us a lot of improvement. I can go on and on about how we respect him and like him and how the locker room responds to him, but the simple answer to that is no."
Judge, his assistants, and even general manager Dave Gettleman all speak of improvement made by Jones. Still, the bottom line is that the numbers aren't there to support whatever they consider an improvement.
To be fair to Jones, he played last season in a brand new system, his third in three years. He also lost star running back Saquon Barkley early in the campaign, played behind a young and developing offensive line, and was let down by the inconsistencies that were his receivers.
Still, when there were plays to be made, such as in the closing minutes of the games against the Bears and the Rams, Jones came up woefully short in showing the grit the Giants needed to push themselves across the finish line.
Gettleman, who also reaffirmed his endorsement of Jones, insisted that it takes time.
"We've had Daniel for two years," he said. "We've done the evaluation on him, and we believe he's the guy, so there's no reason to go look.
"What we're doing isn't fantasy football. We're not playing, we're not doing that. You know, we've, we've got a conviction on him. He's everything we want. He's got all the physical skills."
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Gettleman then went on to argue that Jones just finished his second year of playing in the NFL. "How many of us, after two years at our new job, were great? "We all start at Point A, and we hopefully get to Point Z. But the one common denominator is it takes time."
But for the Giants, time is running out on Jones, who can seek a new contract after this season.
To be fair, the Giants haven't surrounded him with the kind of talent that allowed Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs, Josh Allen of the Bills, and Lamar Jackson of the Ravens to all take quantum leaps forward in their second seasons.
But that doesn't mean that the Giants, who have openly committed to improving the talent around Jones, are ready to stand pat with where Jones is after two years either.
"We all have things we have to improve on and take strides forward in this year," Judge said.
"We communicate directly with all of our players in things that we have to improve on both short-term and then long-term throughout their career, and then we put together a system and plan for them to attack that and go forward."
For Gettleman's thoughts on the offensive line, check out the video above.
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