Why New York Giants MUST Draft a Quarterback

Daniel Jones's injury history is a big concern moving forward. Here's why.

When we last left the New York Giants, they still fully intended to have Daniel Jones as their starting quarterback so long as the incumbent was deemed fully recovered from the season-ending ACL injury he suffered last year.

Thus far, that hasn't changed, and yes, it does make sense, even if the Giants were to draft a quarterback in the upcoming draft, as the plan would be for Jones and backup Drew Lock to handle the quarterbacking duties this year while a prospect sat and acclimated to life as a franchise quarterback.

However, there is another reason Jones's days as a starter might end sooner rather than later: his injury history.

As is well known at this point, Jones has a lengthy injury history. In addition to the torn ACL he's currently rehabbing, he has two neck ailments suffered over a three-year span.

While the Giants won't come right out and admit to having concerns about playing the quarterback as long as he receives the green light from the team's medical staff, one has to wonder just how much Jones's injury history might factor into the coaches' thinking about the offense.

For example, would head coach Brian Daboll, who could end up taking over the play-calling duties this year from offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, have any shreds of reluctance in having Jones execute a vast number of designed runs when it's been clear now for years that Jones just doesn't play those runs smart, that he always looks to gain as much yardage as he can, even if it means taking a brutal hit?

That's a dilemma Daboll went through with Josh Allen, the Bills quarterback he groomed into an upper-echelon signal caller. To his credit, Allen finally understood that it's more important to live to see another down than to get that extra yard or two.

Jones has not demonstrated, at least so far, that he's learned that lesson, even though he's acknowledged in the past that he needs to be smarter about the risks.

So that leads us to the question, as we like to phrase it, "QB or not QB?" There are those who still believe that with a better offensive line, better receivers, and a running game, Jones can be the quarterback he was in 2022 when he led the team to the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and to its first postseason win since 2011.

But of all the quarterbacks who led their respective teams to the 2022 postseason, Jones's 15 touchdowns were the lowest total thrown over the course of a full season, not counting the 13 thrown by Brock Purdy of the 49ers, who accomplished that in nine games with five starts.

Those 15 touchdowns were well below the 26.8 scores thrown by Jones's playoff contemporaries.
So why did the Giants reward Jones with the contract he received? Largely, the playoffs knocked them so far down the draft order that there was virtually no way they were going to get near a potential franchise quarterback unless they sold the farm.

The fact that the Giants put an escape hatch in Jones's contract midway through the deal speaks volumes about their concern and their hopes that Jones might have fully blossomed under Daboll's watchful eye. From the Giants' perspective, they figured that if Jones got hurt again (which he did) and needed to exit the deal, they could do so without taking too much of a cap hit.

But if he stayed healthy and excelled, which he unfortunately did not, the hope was that his APY would look like a bargain by the time the contract ended.

We all know how this has turned out: Jones not only regressed last year in terms of not taking deep shots that were there to be had and continuing to struggle with post-snap reads, but he was also unable to remain healthy as he had the year before.

And if nothing else, as each injury continues to pile up, there has to be a high level of concern regarding Jones and whether he can ever truly be the guy to run the kind of offense the coaches want on an unconditional basis, which his injury history would suggest is probably not the case.

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