The New York Giants‘ passing attack needs a major upgrade in 2022. Daniel Jones is entering a contract year after three inconsistent seasons to begin his career. The 2019 sixth overall draft pick has yet to prove himself to be a franchise quarterback. If Jones were ever to prove himself it would be under the Giants’ new coaching staff featuring Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka. However, Daniel Jones will not have the breakout season he desires if he is not a more aggressive quarterback in 2022.
The Giants need Daniel Jones to be more aggressive in 2022. Brian Daboll and Mike Kafka have previously coached two of the NFL’s most aggressive quarterbacks: Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. Undoubtedly, the Giants’ new offensive scheme is going to require Jones to trust his arm and sling the ball downfield. This is something Daniel Jones has not been asked to do yet during his NFL career.
Daniel Jones has not thrown the ball 20+ yards downfield 50 times in a season since 2019. Jones’s total deep passing attempts have gone down every year. When evaluating the play of Allen and Mahomes, it is clear that Daniel Jones is not nearly as aggressive as those two quarterbacks and he will need to improve in this department for the Giants’ offense to find success.
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The Giants need Daniel Jones to be more aggressive in 2022
Josh Allen attempted 87 passes 20+ yards downfield in 2021 (5.11 per game), the second-most in the NFL. Patrick Mahomes threw 76 deep passes in 2021 (4.47 per game), the seventh-most in the NFL. Daniel Jones lags far behind these two, throwing 24 passes 20+ yards downfield (2.18 per game), 31st in the NFL.
Daniel Jones’s deep passes per game have gone down every season of his career.
- 2019 – 4.15 deep passes per game
- 2020 – 3.07
- 2021 – 2.18
The puzzling part of this lack of deep attempts is the efficiency that Jones displays when passing downfield. Throwing downfield is not something that Danny Dimes should avoid because it is something he is surprisingly good at. Jones has a career TD-INT Ratio of 19 TDs to 6 INTs when throwing passes 20+ yards downfield.
Jones attempted just 24 deep passes on the year, but he didn’t record a single turnover-worthy play. It wasn’t all roses, though — he completed less than a third of his deep passes. – PFF on Daniel Jones’s deep-passing performance in 2021
Daniel Jones is great at avoiding turnovers when throwing the football deep. However, it is so rare to see Jones throw downfield and the Giants’ offense has suffered due to this tendency. 19 of Daniel Jones’s 45 career touchdown passes have come on 20+ yard passes (42%). The New York Giants need Daniel Jones to be more aggressive in 2022 if they want to score touchdowns and win football games.