Revealing Where Daniel Jones Ranked on NFL.com's Year-end Starting Quarterback List

Giants quarterback Daniel Jones didn't quite take the leap forward that everyone thought he might last year, but considering he was stuck in a bad situation, he wasn't so horrible to earn a ridiculously low ranking in NFL.com's Greg Rosenthal review of the league's starting quarterbacks.

Jones finished 25th in Rosenthal's list , Rosenthal's justification of the ranking being:

Nothing validated my take that Jones was playing better than his numbers showed quite like watching the Giants try to play without him. It's impossible to overstate how poor his protection and coaching have been, and he's shown enough flashes for me to believe he could be an average starter. Whether he can be better than that is the question the Giants need to answer.

For comparison purposes, Baker Mayfield of the Browns, who in 2020 had his team two playoff wins away from becoming a Super Bowl participant, ranked one spot below Jones.

Washington's Taylor Heinicke finished 27th, Chicago's Justin Fields ranked 28th, and now retired Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger 29th and Saints starter Taysom Hill 30th. (The rest of the list consisted of quarterbacks who got a start here and there due to injury or performance issues with their respective team's starter.)

Rosenthal's ranking of Jones is consistent with what the Giants team officials have said about him, that they haven't done the 24-year-old any favors by constantly changing out the coaching system and not putting a functional offensive line in front of him.

Jones, meanwhile, hasn't helped his cause with his at-times reckless play--he allegedly suffered his season-ending neck injury on the second play of the Giants Week 12 home game against the Eagles when he dove headfirst on a scramble, taking a shot to the head/neck area.

But the hope moving forward is that new head coach Brian Daboll and new offensive coordinator Mike Kafka can develop a system that not only optimizes what Jones does well--throwing the deep ball is among his strengths--but also minimizes putting him at risk with these running plays.

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