A Look at the Lessons Daniel Jones Might Have Learned from Watching Eli Manning

With Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones missing his second straight game last week with a high ankle sprain, future Hall of Fame quarterback Eli Manning stepped in and led the team to a 36-20 win over Miami, its first win since September 27.

But once Jones is healthy, head coach Pat Shurmur has said that the rookie will regain control of the offense, as the experience certainly won’t hurt Jones.

The rookie has had a promising first season, tossing 18 touchdowns to 11 interceptions while racking up 2,374 yards and completing 61.6% of his pass attempts. However, under his leadership, the offense has struggled to find its rhythm averaging only 19.9 points per game since the Jones era began in Week 3.

Part of this has been due to a slew of injuries affecting running Saquon Barkley (ankle), receiver Sterling Shepard (concussion), and tight end Evan Engram (foot), and the four-game suspension of receiver Golden Tate.

The offensive line has also struggled this year in both run and pass blocking, allowing 33 sacks and 55 hits with Jones behind center, though some of those hits and sacks are a result of Jones holding the ball too long.

According to Pro Football Focus, Jones is third among rookie quarterbacks in deep passing attempts of 20 or more yards, completing nine of 38 attempts for 317 yards, six touchdowns, and three interceptions.

If there has been a criticism of Jones’ game, besides the ball security issues, it’s been his tendency to gamble.

While Jones has put to rest any questions about his ability to throw the ball down the field, perhaps after watching Manning do a better job of taking what the defense gives him, the rookie will learn to dial it back a bit to slow the game down.

In his starts, Jones has not been known to check down, which, when nothing is there deep down the field, can be just as effective in picking up beneficial yardage to move the chains, especially when throwing to Barkley out of the backfield.

In four starts this year, Manning targeted Barkley 22 times (5.5 targets per game) as opposed to Jones, who has thrown to him 43 times in 10 starts (4.3 per game).

Barkley has also only been targeted more than five times in three of Jones’s starts. To open up the downfield passing game, Jones must utilize short-yardage completions more often.

The Giants have certainly looked more competitive in the last two games with Manning at the helm, even though they squandered an opportunity against the Eagles in overtime and ran away with a win against a downtrodden Dolphins team.

Head coach Pat Shurmur went to play action on first down with Manning more often as opposed to Jones, who he usually has drop straight back on the first play of downs. This can be another contributing factor to the offensive woes because it prevents the establishment of a flow.

Although it can be argued that Shurmur went to Jones too early this year after watching Manning and the team fail to win, the point of this season was to develop Jones and have him go through first year growing pains after selecting him with the sixth overall pick in the draft.

This theory speaks even higher given the fact that Dave Gettleman chose Jones over the second-best edge rusher in the draft in Josh Allen.

Even Sam Darnold of the Jets struggled (11 touchdowns to 14 interceptions) in his first ten starts last year. Darnold sat out of three games with a foot injury and, like Daniel Jones, watched veteran Josh McCown start in his absence.

When Darnold returned, he showed significant improvement in his final four games of the season, throwing six touchdowns to one interception, including a game-winning touchdown pass to defeat the Buffalo Bills.

He also put on display impressive performances in losses to the Texans (24-of-38 253 yards, two touchdowns) and Packers (24-of-35 341 yards, three touchdowns).

As for the Giants, maybe they could have won a few more games this year had they stuck with Manning longer, but again, the development of Jones was the most crucial part of 2019.

Hopefully, whenever he does return from his injury, Jones has learned from watching Manning, just as Darnold did last season when he watched McCown.