New York Giants Sticking With Daniel Jones Over Manning, For Better Or Worse

New York Giants, Daniel Jones
Sep 15, 2019; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) watches from the sideline during the fourth quarter against the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Daniel Jones is the man for the New York Giants. That’s for better or worse, and after multiple turnovers and a number of sacks taken in the last game, against the Arizona Cardinals, it’s looking more and more like that’s for worse. Jones impressed in his debut, obviously, but the Giants have looked less and less threatening as other teams study up on Jones and get better at attacking him – of course, there’s a number of other factors at play also such as key injuries and, in the case of the Cardinals game, an offensive line that couldn’t protect the quarterback.

But regardless of the recent struggles, Jones is the team’s starter. Head coach Pat Shurmur said as much after the game, saying that benching Jones to bring back Eli Manning isn’t in the team’s plans.

“No. I think Daniel’s going to learn from everything that’s going on,” answered Shurmur when asked if the team was thinking about making a change at quarterback.

“Just like all the other rookies that are playing are going to learn from the things that happen. But you have to learn and you have to win games. I’m well aware of that. Totally well aware of that,” Shurmur continued.

The decision to bench Manning happened only a couple of weeks into the season, but despite coming into the season as the starter, it’s hard to make an argument that Manning’s career with the Giants isn’t done. The benching didn’t just serve a practical purpose, but was a symbolic move showing that the Giants are moving on to the next generation.

Now that the Giants have made that jump, it’s hard to take it back and make the switch to Manning after replacing him with Jones. Even when the decision to start Jones this early is starting to come into question thanks to the rookie’s early struggles.

Then again, the Giants were also adamant that Jones wasn’t going to be the starter going into the season, or after the team’s first loss. Until he suddenly was, after the team sustained a second loss in week two. Could something similar happen, with the team quickly changing its mind, if Jones doesn’t pick up his performances?

Only time can tell as the next weeks pass and the Giants continue to try to claw back to a winning record – something that looks more and more unlikely with each game as the performances fail to improve and the team slides further back from the .500 mark.