With news breaking late Friday afternoon that New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones has officially had his concussion injury designation removed from the team’s official report, most sources close to the team believe that means the third-year signal-caller is a lock to suit up on Sunday against the Rams.
I’m here to tell you, however, that much like the New York Giants’ approach in just about every other respect over the past few years, that would be incredibly short-sighted.
According to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post, Daniel Jones suiting up for the New York Giants is exactly what is going to take place this weekend.
While many diehard New York Giants fans will be quick to fire back at the prudent approach that entails letting Jones sit out for this important matchup, the Big Blue brass has never once seriously considered the fans’ wishes anyway; this would be a poor time to start doing so.
The basis of my take on this specific matter relies upon the premise that the NFL’s concussion protocol is still very much subjective. Concussions themselves, to a greater point, are subjective in nature.
It is true that there are three different grades for concussions, yet in my mind, even a ‘Grade 1’ concussion needs to taken very seriously, especially for a young quarterback. Let alone for a young QB that was visibly shaken and stumbling off of the field in Dallas just five days ago.
With the long-term empirical data still very much lacking in regards to the injury as a whole, the New York Giants would be foolish to go ahead and trot out their most prized asset so soon after what looked like a traumatic injury.
And yes, as is almost always the case: context matters here.
The New York Giants are a mediocre – at best – football team right now with a 1-4 record, heading into this matchup against one of the NFL’s best teams as greater than a touchdown underdog. If you don’t believe those things should factor into trying to determine whether or not your (lone) shining star should get back out onto the field on the early side of their injury timeline, you are kidding yourself.
So while, in general, I firmly believe that an organization ought to do whatever it possibly can to win games while the team is still mathematically alive in the playoff hunt, that does not mean I am down with putting just about the only truly positive thing going for this franchise in harm’s way behind a shaky offensive line against a fearsome defensive unit.
Those two ideas are not mutually exclusive.