With preseason over, what's next in Daniel Jones' development?

Daniel Jones might be holding the clipboard on Sundays, but that doesn't mean that his development is over until next year. Here's a look at how head coach Pat Shurmur likely plans to continue getting Jones ready for his first regular-season action.

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Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones has come such a long way in his development since being drafted sixth overall this spring.

But is the rookie ready to go for Week 1?

“He’s getting there,” head coach Pat Shurmur said after the Giants finished the preseason against the Patriots. 

“I think he’s done everything we have asked to this point, in terms of how he prepares and gets himself ready and this was another opportunity to grow. And I think he did that.

The question now becomes how Shurmur plans to get Jones, who should be the official backup to starter Eli Manning, ready for live game action without the benefit of live game reps.

“I think that you continue to work, and this isn’t unique to the quarterback position,” Shurmur said Friday during a conference call with reporters.

“I think that the backup player--the primary backup in this case--is a guy that gets the mental reps. He gets the physical reps before and after practice, and during special teams periods, he’ll go and execute all the plays that we would execute in the game.”

Shurmur wouldn’t go into more detail and team practices are closed to the media during the regular season. 

However, Mark Schofield, a quarterback guru for Inside the Pylon and the LockedOn NFL network, thinks that in the beginning, at least, Jones’ work will mostly be the mental stuff with a healthy dose of practice reps with the first-team offense sprinkled in.

“He’ll need the live reps eventually,” Schofield said. “Until then, the focus can be on everything else that goes into doing the job--learning how to prepare the game plan, how to go through weekly install, how to truly watch the film and marry that to the game plan for the week and the upcoming opponent.”

Schofield noted that while some of that takes place int eh preseason, the game planning isn’t as intricate then as it is in the regular season. But as Jones shows improvement and proficiency in those areas, the live reps in practice will make things more natural for him.

In fact, Schofield noted that the one main difference with getting Jones ready versus Kyle Lauletta last year Is driven by each player’s draft status.

“I think that the difference will be in the timeline,” Schofield said. “It will be sped up for (Jones). With other quarterbacks in the past, there hasn’t been more of a pressing need like there is with a sixth overall pick to get him ready.”

Jones, for his part, sounded pleased with how his week of preparation went in preparing to start against another team, even if there wasn’t as much detail as there normally would be during a regular-season game.

“I think it is different knowing you are going out there to take the first snap but a lot of the preparation and attention to what you are doing and thinking about going into the game was pretty similar, and I tried to make sure I was in the position to move the ball and know what we were doing” he said after Thursday night’s game.

Jones said some of the things he hoped to accomplish in the preseason included gaining a better understanding of the offense and facing different looks on defense.

“I think that is a general way of saying making the right decisions and being consistent with that,” he said. “Always taking care of the ball and moving around the pocket. Little things like that I have focused on also.”

And how did he think the process went?

“I think it has been good. My goal is to be able to see improvement and measure improvement from each preseason game to the next and from practice to practice. 

"I have done that to some extent and will continue to work on a lot of things. As far as improving goes I think I have been able to do that.”