Daniel Jones eyes additional improvement in upcoming starting assignment

The next time anyone thinks that Giants quarterback Daniel Jones is some passive personality who’s just happy to be in the NFL and who lacks a competitive streak, think again.

While it’s true that Jones has an Eli Manning-esque coolness about him, the rookie has already given onlookers a glimpse of his fiery side.

A few weeks ago, it was Jones throwing a mini temper tantrum when during practice, he threw an interception on a red zone play.

More recently, it was a large grass stain on his practice knickers, the result of Jones chasing down cornerback Ronald Zamort, who picked off the rookie’s pass over the middle in the face of a pass rush.

Instead of standing around and throwing his hands up in frustration, Jones immediately took off after Zamort, sliding by him and slapping the ball from the cornerback’s grip.

“That’s the reaction of a good football player,” head coach Pat Shurmur said after practice.

Jones, who will get his first start Thursday night in the preseason finale against New England, admitted that the whole sequence wasn’t exactly the smartest thing to do.

“Just trying to finish the play,” he said. “You hopefully don’t have to be in that situation to begin with, but probably not smart.”

What has been smart of the rookie is to block out the outside noise coming from those who at first chastised the Giants for drafting him sixth overall only to change their tune in wanting to see Jones supplant incumbent Eli Manning as the team’s regular-season starter.

“I haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to it. I’m not necessarily focused on that a whole lot,” Jones said.

“I certainly appreciate the support, but I’m focused on what we’re doing here, and I’m focused on helping this team move forward.”

Jones has bought into the coaches’ plan to bring his development along in a more controlled environment as opposed to simply tossing him into the deep end of the pool before he proves he can swim with the sharks.

Thus far, the plan appears to have worked.

“I think I’ve done some good things, and I’ve done some bad things,” Jones said.

“More than anything, I have made progress, I feel like, and that’s encouraging to me. When I look to where I was at rookie minicamp and OTAs, I think I’ve improved a good bit since then. I am encouraged, but I realize there is still a lot of work to be done.”

One of his biggest steps forward has been in facing the different looks on defense in the controlled practice environments where the Giants defense, in their quest to perfect confusing opposing quarterbacks, has thrown some complex looks at the rookie which at times have made him hesitate with where he goes with the ball.

“I remember throwing a certain (pass) and making a mistake twice—throwing the ball where I shouldn’t have and seeing part of the field without seeing the whole thing,” he said.

“So, I think things like that. A big part of it (is) learning the defense and learning how that corresponds with our reads and where the ball needs to go.”

The next step in Jones’ development is the starting assignment in a preseason game in which neither team is expected to play its starters. But even though it’s a glorified scrimmage game, the hope is that Jones uses the experience as another step forward.

"I think it’s important that he goes in and executes well," Shurmur said. "There’s a lot to be learned going through how we do the cadence and whatnot. But just steady progress like he’s really been doing here for all of camp.

“I think just making sure that I’m not making mistakes that I’ve made before, correcting things, and I think just being able to kind of measure improvement from the first, second, to third, to now the fourth game is the biggest thing for me," Jones added.

"So, moving the ball and scoring points is always the goal, but I want to make sure I’m moving forward.”

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