New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones was recently dealt a blow to his productivity on the field.
The 2024 NFL season is right around the corner. With that has come a wave of season projections, as is expected every year. Austin Givan of Athlon Sports took it upon himself to rank the starting quarterbacks in the NFC East and was not too kind to the Giants’ playmaker. In fact, Givan was a hop, skip, and a jump away from placing Jones at the bottom of the pile, but kept himself from doing so for one justifiable reason.
Giants’ Daniel Jones named third-best starting quarterback in the NFC East
Givan ranked the Duke University product No. 3 in the division behind Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott (No. 1) and Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts (No. 2). Jones came in just ahead of Washington Commanders rookie QB Jayden Daniels for this reason, as Givan laid out:
“Daniel Jones is facing a MetLife Stadium-sized pile of challenges,” Givan began. There is the rehab back from the ACL tear that limited him to six games in 2023. There is the mediocre preseason showing. There is the skepticism and the cynicism and the pressure of being in New York. We don’t see how Jones rises on these rankings. In fact …
Jayden Daniels, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, is the one who threatens to rise. The rookie is still unproven at the pro level, obviously. But the Commanders are firmly behind him and the idea that he’s a superstar in waiting,” Givan wrote.
Jones must prove that he can return to his 2022 form after poor preseason showing
The 27-year-old did have an underwhelming preseason showing this summer. Jones’s rust showed after coming off of rehabbing his torn ACL sustained in Week 9 of the 2023 NFL season. The former No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft completed 11 of his 18 passes (61.1 percent) for 138 passing yards and a 0-2 TD-INT ratio.
Yes, it was just preseason, but he did not instill a great amount of confidence in the New York fanbase or media, and what matters most is, the coaching staff, who has been on the fence about him being their franchise guy moving forward, was not given clear indication that he’ll be ready to hit the ground running in Week 1 the way he did in the 2022 campaign.
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Commanders QB Jayden Daniels looks NFL ready after stellar preseason
Breathing down his neck will be the reigning Heisman Trophy winner Daniels. The LSU product is also a dual-threat QB like Jones. The distinguishing factor is that Daniels showed that his otherworldly play in college can and likely will translate to the NFL level in his first taste of pro action.
The Commanders’ QB of the future completed 12 of his 15 pass attempts (80 percent) for 123 passing yards in the preseason and reached the end zone on a three-yard rushing touchdown during his preseason debut against the New York Jets. His performance against the Dolphins in his second outing of the summer, where he went 10-12 for 78 passing yards, showed his chops as an operator in and around the pocket.
Can Jones catch the elite QBs spearheading the elite teams in the division in 2024?
Jones surely has not done enough to rank above Hurts. The Eagles leader has led Philadelphia to a Super Bowl and two Wild Card games in three of his four seasons in the league. Further, he notched 38 total touchdowns and flirted with 4,000 yards in 2023 with 3,858 passing yards and is in line to do so again in 2024 with the elite weapons at his disposal in the receiving and running games.
Prescott, who took the top spot in these rankings, has long been lauded for his talent in slinging the football. Albeit, the highly scrutinized QB has not translated that to a level of winning that’s been expected of him, failing to reach an NFC championship game or better in his eight-year tenure in Dallas.
Nevertheless, he brought his completion percentage to a career-high 69.5 percent in 2023 and led the league in completions (410) and passing TDs (36). For his sheer volume and efficiency, coupled with the fact that the Cowboys will most likely win more games than the Giants in 2024, Jones can’t get the benefit of the doubt over him either.
No matter, once the Giants kick-off the upcoming campaign on Sept. 8 against the Minnesota Vikings at MetLife Stadium, Jones will be in control of how well he plays and correspondingly, how much respect he will garner among his peers in the division. If he looks different from what he did in his down 2023 outing — confident and assertive when scrambling out of the pocket — he’ll have a good chance of putting together a respectable campaign and fending off Daniels as a better QB in the NFL’s court of public opinion.
