The New York Giants have kept Daniel Jones out of the preseason up to this point, but the coaching staff is changing tunes going into the final game. The decision is now that Jones will start, as part of an underlying shift for the third game to focus on regular season preparation instead of just evaluation.
“This week we’ll treat more as a dress rehearsal for the regular season. My expectation at this point would be for Daniel to play at least the first half and we’ll decide on what we’re going to do in terms of coming out of halftime later in the week,” Joe Judge told reporters as part of a lengthy answer about Jones and the distribution of playing time at QB.
According to Judge, injury risk had nothing to do with keeping Jones out in the first two games. Instead, the Giants kept Jones out to give a chance for backup Mike Glennon to start. As Glennon is a new addition to the Giants from this offseason, these preseason games will be the only film the Giants get on the player working in their system for a while.
What does this mean for the Giants?
The Giants haven’t been a high scoring preseason team so far, but they haven’t been trying for the most part. The focus has been on individual performances rather than winning, which may change with the third game being treated more like a regular season rehearsal.
Jones will still be without some weapons such as Saquon Barkley, Kadarius Toney, and Kenny Golladay, which might be a cause for concern as we have little idea how these players will mesh on the field together come the regular season. But despite that, this will be our first chance to see something resembling the team’s regular season offense before week 1.
After two games of poor showings due to playing backups, the expectations will be a bit higher in this final game but the Giants should in theory be equipped to handle it better. At least, they should be for the first half where Daniel Jones is set to make his mark.