The first preseason game is past for the New York Giants and fans of the team were able to get a look at the number six overall pick in action – the decision to draft Jones was controversial but it looks like the Duke rookie may have won some people over with the performance that he put on against the New York Jets in the first week of the preseason.
However, despite the good performance, the Giants didn’t show Jones very much at all in the debut. The second series of the game was the only one that Jones played in, before being replaced by third stringer Alex Tanney, which seems a bit strange – why not let Jones get some more time in the game after throwing for a great corner touchdown at the end of his first preseason drive?
One possible answer is that the team is limited the amount of snaps Jones is getting, at least for now, to avoid stoking the fires of competition should Jones continue to play well – which isn’t completely certain, with only five passes to judge the player on a this point.
Shurmur: "We're not gonna play the 'what-ifs.' … I expect Daniel to play well. I expect him to go out and improve, and for the people that don't know him, impress them.
Our expectations for him have not changed … our situation has not changed."
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) August 9, 2019
The Giants are committed to Eli Manning as the starter this season and they’ve reaffirmed that both before the season and after this very preseason game which greatly increased the amount of hype around Daniel Jones as a contender in the quarterback competition.
But the team’s coaching staff isn’t going to go down the road of taking unnecessary risks and throwing Jones into the competition based on just the preseason, so one possible explanation for Jones not getting much game time is that the team doesn’t want to raise fan expectations too much if Jones does put up a legitimate challenge for the starting job.
Of course, it’s only the first preseason game – there is the chance that the team simply didn’t believe Jones has enough experience to play extended time, even in the preseason. Only those within the organization can say with complete certainty.