Despite only having a cameo of an appearance where he threw four passes for three completions and 17 yards, Daniel Jones will be a subject of conversation going forward for the New York Giants. The rookie quarterback’s preseason performance was enough to put pressure on Eli Manning – at least in the eyes of the fans and the media. The team has been dead set on Manning being the starter, but after a blowout loss in week one, it’s hard to say that anything is certain.
Is Daniel Jones in a better position after week one?
The answer is maybe – on one hand, fan pressure in support of Jones will only increase if Eli Manning isn’t able to do more for the offense. Of course, Manning didn’t have a bad game himself, and much of the blame can go to other areas such as the playcalling. Manning threw for 306 yards and one touchdown while completing 68% of his 44 total passes.
At the end of the day, though, the Giants getting greatly outscored is going to be the most memorable thing for the fanbase. Even if Manning didn’t have a bad game, he didn’t put the team in a position to win it, either – whether that’s the fault of Manning or not. This would help Daniel Jones, at least on some level.
On another level, though, the pressure to appear in regular season games might not be the best thing for Jones in the long run. The Giants had many similar demands last year to see Kyle Lauletta in regular season action, and the result of Lauletta finally getting game time was a terrible game with no completions and one turnover.
Basically, it’s important that the Giants don’t make the mistake that plenty of other teams have made and ruined a young quarterback by throwing him into games too soon, which could even to an extent be considered Kyle Lauletta’s fate – ever since that terrible debut, Lauletta’s career never recovered. And that was without Lauletta starting. If the team benched Eli Manning for Daniel Jones, there would be infinitely more pressure on the rookie whose only experience so far is one offseason and preseason, and a few passes in the season opener.
Things may be better for Jones in the short term with increased pressure to make a quarterback change – the Giants are set in their plans and week one’s results may help to force the team to reconsider, especially if they can’t beat Buffalo this Sunday. In the long term, though, its’s important to remember that Jones is a rookie -Â a rookie that shouldn’t get thrown into a starting spot after one game,
Will we see Daniel Jones more in the regular season this year? Maybe. But one could say, for a number of reasons, that Jones just isn’t ready for the starting job. While it may be tempting to put Jones into the game, at the end of the day, long term development matters more than getting the fans what they want to see, the number six overall draft pick playing in the regular season this year. Ultimately, some time on the bench might not be a bad thing for Jones.