Last season, the New York Giants had a clear plan at the quarterback position – phase out an aging Eli Manning and replace him with Daniel Jones, the rookie from Duke who came in a couple of weeks into the season with a massive task in front of him. Jones, however, had both ups and downs during his rookie season and while he’s definitely the top quarterback on the depth chart following last season and the retirement of Manning, it remains to be seen just how committed the Giants are.
Some have made out head coach Joe Judge’s refusal to talk about specific players before getting a chance to coach them as a lack of commitment to keeping Jones around as the starter, but the New York Post has contradicted that by claiming that the Giants are still fully committed to Jones at this point.
The Giants privately remain fully committed to Jones despite the way Judge and Dave Gettleman dodged questions. The belief is his fumbling problem is easily correctable and the quiet way he handled adversity — a nine-game losing streak, turnovers, the awkward dynamic with Eli Manning — was perfect for a pressure cooker.
This news comes amid the dying down of the speculation that the Giants could go for the merchandising-savvy move of signing Tom Brady as an unrestricted free agent for a couple of years before handing the reins over to Jones fully.
It also puts to bed the chance of the Giants taking a quarterback in the first round – though such a thing wasn’t considered a possible outcome by most, and was simply speculated on by some due to the Giants refusing to talk about Jones as the starter.
Jones is coming off of a season where he had some of the best performances as a rookie but also had some of the highest turnover numbers for an offensive player. Whether or not Jones corrects that will have a big impact on the success of the Giants in the coming season, but either way, Jones will be the player that’s starting – for better or worse.