Proof Giants’ quarterback Daniel Jones has seen massive growth the last 3 weeks

When seeing New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones’ production over the first eight games of the 2020 season, he’s almost a different quarterback compared to the last three games he has participated in.

Diving into Giants’ QB Daniel Jones:

Over the first eight games of the season, Jones earned a combined 74 passer rating with nine interceptions and two fumbles lost. In the last three games, Jones has a combined 93.1 passer rating with zero interceptions and zero fumbles lost. This is a very good indication of his progression this season.

Jones hasn’t turned the ball over in three consecutive games, despite pulling up with a hamstring injury last week against the Cincinnati Bengals. Jones reached 200 yards passing in each of those contests, finding ways to drive his team down the field and set up easy rushing touchdowns for Wayne Gallman.

Gallman has six touchdowns in five games, with ‘all’ of them coming inside the opponent’s 5-yard line. This indicates that Jones did the heavy lifting but simply gave away the touchdowns to his running back, which is preferable for the Giants’ game, as they prefer running the football and playing hard-nosed.

Nonetheless, Jones has seen drastic improvements in multiple categories, including passing and running the football. He’s also protected the ball extremely well and maneuvered in the pocket sufficiently.

Take a look at the clip below, which shows Jones under pressure from the left side, as tackle Andrew Thomas was beaten. DJ feels the pressure and steps up into the pocket and slides to his left, throwing a perfect pass for a first-down to Golden Tate on the sideline.

This clip might not seem dazzling, but it shows a vast improvement in pocket awareness for the second-year quarterback. In addition, against Cincinnati, despite playing in only 63% of offensive snaps, he wasn’t sacked once, the first time this entire season the offensive line didn’t give up a sack.

We are seeing Jones develop properly with better protection, which is relative and makes complete sense.

The next clip shows a week one interception against the Pittsburgh Steelers, as Jones rolls out to his left and holds onto the ball far too long.

Compared to the clip above, the sequence feels like a distant memory that won’t be replicated in the future. Jones learned from this unfortunate play and now understands that getting the ball out of his hands quicker is the recipe for success.

One of the odd subconscious things Jones did the first eight weeks was roll out to his right despite the pocket in front of him. He would always drift to the right side of the field and make poor throws, which resulted in turnovers.

As stated above, Jones hasn’t made any risky throws the past three weeks, considering he hasn’t turned the ball over.

To add to his improvements, Jones has been insanely effective when throwing to the middle of the field and a deep right portion. When he’s throwing to the intermediate, middle portion of the field, he is 23/32 for 388 yards and a 112.5 NFL passer rating (PFF).

When targeting the deep outside right corner on spray fade routes and wheels, he is 8/10 for 301 yards, one touchdown, and a 152.1 NFL passer rating.

Ultimately, Jones has experienced significant growth the past few weeks, thanks to better protection from the line and fantastic coaching. His hamstring injury will stunt his development for the short term, but the signs are trending upward, and we should be excited about his future potential as he continues to grow.