The New York Giants’ season is in the gutter. At 2-7 and with their starting quarterback having suffered a torn ACL, Big Blue is going nowhere fast — except maybe the quarterback market.
The Giants currently hold the fourth-overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and, considering how bad this team is, they are in danger of not winning another game on the schedule this season. This would place them in a prime position to draft a quarterback with a top-three pick in the offseason.
Despite signing Daniel Jones to a four-year, $160 million extension this past summer, the Giants should be in the market for a rookie quarterback this offseason.
Brian Daboll can’t afford to keep losing
After winning 2022 AP Coach of the Year, Brian Daboll backed up his impressive first season as the Giants’ head coach with an utter trainwreck in 2023. The 2-7 Giants are as bad as they’ve ever been, ranking dead last in nearly every major offensive statistic, and now with their franchise quarterback likely out for the season.
In 2024, Daboll can’t afford another season like this one. Ownership has struggled to find their man for the job ever since letting Tom Coughlin go back in 2015. Ben McAdoo lasted only two seasons, Pat Shurmur lasted only two seasons, Joe Judge lasted only two seasons, and now Daboll is 2-7 in his second season.
Daboll’s Coach of the Year award should buy him some extra time. It seems unlikely that he or general manager Joe Schoen would be fired in the offseason. Additionally, because Schoen will still be around, he can likely protect Daboll from the scrutiny of ownership as the two have worked closely together since their days with the Buffalo Bills and seem to be somewhat of a package deal at this point.
But just because Daboll will likely still be the head coach in 2024 doesn’t mean he has any guarantees for his status in 2025. Daboll cannot afford another season like the one he’s having right now, so he needs to coach a good football team and win games next season. That will be tough to do with the team’s starting quarterback likely sidelined at the beginning of the season.
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The Giants need a Week 1 starting quarterback
If Daniel Jones did in fact tear his ACL as the team fears, he might not be recovered in time for Week 1. This could motivate Daboll to find himself a new rookie quarterback in the offseason that he feels can help the team win games immediately while being built around for the future.
For comparison, Arizona Cardinals QB Kyler Murray suffered a torn ACL in Week 14 last season (December 12). While that is five weeks later than Jones’ injury, it is Week 9 and Murray is still not back on the field. His return seems imminent, but Murray has missed the entire first half of the 2023 season. If Jones’ recovery timeline is any bit similar to Murray’s he will not be ready for Week 1.
However, everyone heals differently. Take Giants WR Wan’Dale Robinson for example. He tore his ACL in Week 11 last season (November 20) and was activated to the 53-man roster prior to Week 1 this season. Albeit, he didn’t take the field until Week 3, but he was still healthy enough to be on the active roster at the start of the regular season.
If Jones is not expected to be ready for the start of the next regular season, the Giants’ options at quarterback are slim and the team will need to find a Week 1 starter. If they happen to land one of the two quarterbacks being touted as “generational” prospects in the upcoming draft, Daboll would be eager to place the rookie in the Week 1 starting lineup and see if the new signal-caller can show promise, win games, and help keep his head coach’s seat from heating up.
Maybe it’s best to start over
The Giants were never able to put a competent team around Daniel Jones with a solid supporting cast of playmakers and good offensive linemen. It may just be time to hit the redo button and start over with a new man under center.
The 2024 draft could give Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll a rare opportunity to start over with their own quarterback. The team inherited Jones from the previous regime and, although they paid him and made him their franchise quarterback, maybe they would be attracted to the idea of finding their own quarterback and building a team around him.
New York will likely have a top-five pick in the draft, putting them within striking distance for the class’s top quarterback prospects. Additionally, the extra second-round pick acquired through the Leonard Williams trade gives Joe Schoen some extra capital to move up a couple of picks and get the quarterback he and his staff most desire.
If the Giants do draft a quarterback, they will have a chance to build around young talent, learn from their past mistakes, and do it the right way this time. While it would be indisputably disappointing to see the Daniel Jones Era end this way, it might just be time to start over and begin writing the first chapter of a new novel.
