Daniel Jones

The New York Giants hosted their first mandatory practice of the summer on Tuesday afternoon, and what a scorching hot day it was. With 95+ degree weather, managing the heat was a difficult task for a team that hasn’t been on the football field for more than a few weeks. In fact, a good chunk of the players didn’t attend voluntary camp, so this is the first time they were at the team facilities for a traditional practice.

Mostly, everything ran smoothly, aside from a few minor situations that aren’t considered to be anything serious.

Three main takeaways from New York Giants’ first mandatory training session:

1.) A scary scene for RB coach Burton Burns

One of the scarier situations from practice was running backs coach Burton Burns being carted off the field due to heat exhaustion. Burns likely was given an IV to replace his lost electrolytes and nutrients, but he’s expected to be just fine after treatment.

Burns is one of the best running back coaches in the NFL, having helped Derrick Henry and Mark Ingram win Heisman Trophies in college at Alabama. He was a catalyst behind Wayne Gallman having a surprisingly positive season in 2020, where he rushed for 682 yards and six touchdowns.

2.) Kadarius Toney gimpy after slipping and sliding

There seems to be some sort of bad omen surrounding Kadarius Toney and his footwear. Several weeks ago during rookie camp, Toney had significant issues getting the right cleats, and once again, on Tuesday, he was slipping all over the place, getting up a bit gimpy after one scenario.

Whatever is going on between Toney and the equipment manager must be solved immediately, otherwise, an injury could occur. Whether he needs custom cleats or something is vastly different with the brand he’s using, the Giants need to sort this out as soon as possible.

3.) The Daniel Jones and Kenny Golladay connection

One of the more exciting connections to keep an eye on is Daniel Jones and Kenny Golladay, who were tossing the ball back-and-forth and working on their fundamental skills on Tuesday. For an offense that ranked 31st in points per game in 2020, the addition of Golladay should be a significant factor in their future success. Jones has never enjoyed the luxury of having a number one receiver, and Golladay offers just that after posting more than 1,100 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2019.

Both Jones and Golladay have been spending time together, enough for the star receiver to say “he is my boy.” The acquisition of the 6’4″ wide-out should suggest a more downfield oriented offense this upcoming campaign, and what a joy it would be to see Jason Garrett break his mold from last year and push the ball downfield, sufficiently capitalizing on Daniel Jones’s vertical accuracy.

One cannot consider a monolith statistic to devise an entire opinion of New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, despite turning the ball over 39 times over the course of his career. That number alone seems scary, but context provides clues and reason for his deficiencies.

It is justified to be objective when it comes to Jones, who does have issues with pocket awareness and protecting the football, but a young quarterback shouldn’t have been put in a position with minimal offensive weapons and an offensive line that ranked near dead last in pass blocking last season.

The Giants spent heavily in free agency in 2020 to bolster their defense and waited until this past off-season to help the offense improve. What does that mean? It means that the Giants had undrafted free agents starting by the midway point in both of Jones’s first two seasons in the NFL (Jon Hilliman/Austin Mack), which is simply unacceptable for a team that is expecting him to make the leap to franchise quarterback.

Aside from having one of the worst protection schemes in the league, turning over offensive line coaches faster than Eli Apple has changed teams over the last three years, you can start to see the demise in this process. Some analysts have a very narrow view of Jones and his production thus far, making blatant claims that live in ignorance.

Pro Football Network had rash things to say about Daniel Jones and his potential — clearly, this analyst has done very little research extrapolating his thought process, offering stats without context over reason:

21) New York Giants

The Giants are another roster dragged down by their quarterback. If Jameis Winston is a Ferrari 488 that continues to blow a head gasket for some silly reason, Daniel Jones is the Ford Mustang version of that. His 39 turnovers lead the league since entering the NFL in 2019. I should say that he’s more like a Mustang with a massive supercharger on it because his athleticism is greater than Winston’s.

The Giants are in an odd situation because their roster outside of the interior offensive line is solid. I’m not sure they’ll be bad enough to secure their next quarterback in the 2022 NFL Draft, even if Jones doesn’t progress this season.

Why New York Giants’ QB Daniel Jones is better than analysts are giving him credit for:

Sure, Jones has turned the ball over a tremendous amount over the past two seasons, but let’s look at some of the positives he produced in that timeframe. Jones has not only proven to be one of the best downfield passers in the NFL but also has tangible traits that not many quarterbacks contain. Jones ran faster than any Lamar Jackson run in his career and was only 0.06 MPH slower than Tyreek Hill’s fastest scamper. Not many other QBs are capable of such physical prowess.

For a passer that loves throwing the ball deep with accuracy, Jason Garrett devised plays that saw the ball travel 20+ yards on less than 10% of his throws. However, according to PFF, when throwing 20+ yards downfield in 2020, Jones recorded a 143.1 passer rating, ranking first in the NFL with five touchdowns and zero interceptions. Again, the statistic is slightly skewed based on the sample size being so minimal, but he was extremely efficient in that category, and Jason Garrett failed to capitalize. But why did Garrett force him to throw short and take the deep all out of his equation?

After you put sufficient blame on the offensive scheme and route concepts, you have to look at the offensive line, which barely gave Jones any time in the pocket to operate and progress through his reads. One of the major knocks on Jones is his inability to find his second and third receivers, but he simply doesn’t have the time to get there, focusing on hot routes instead. Why do you think Evan Engram was targeted 43 times in the middle of the field 0-10 yards out?

With more weapons in the offensive system this upcoming season, opposing defenses won’t be able to play cover 1/0 and overwhelm the OL with blitzers. They will have to play two deep safeties, taking a player out of the box, which will help the running game, and Jones’s time in the pocket. He will have a big body possession receiver in Kenny Golladay, a quick slot option in Kadarius Toney, and speed guys on the outside with John Ross and Darius Slayton.

Every move the Giants made this free agency and draft had a specific purpose, and they should benefit Jones tremendously, who was tortured by a terrible front five in 2020 and a lack of wide receiver separation. Consider this statistic, the league average in yards of separation for a receiver was 3.0, and the only Giants receiver to reach that number was Sterling Shepard, who arrived at the average exactly. That should give you an idea of just how poor the Giants were in creating space between themselves and defenders. How on earth are we supposed to blame Daniel Jones for progressing through his reads when his receivers were completely locked down?

Some might look at his TD numbers to justify his lack of talent — but they will conveniently overlook a key contextual clue. Giants running backs accounted for at least 7 TDs from 5-yards of the goal-line. Why is that important? Daniel Jones helped the offense get into scoring position, he just simply didn’t throw the ball in as the Giants relied on their running game in the red zone primarily last year, due to a lack of WIDE RECEIVER SEPARATION!

As we progress through these factors and reasons for Jones’s struggles this past year, it is clear that the majority of the blame should not be placed on his shoulders. With fantastic running ability, downfield accuracy, and his ability to shift arm angles, it is clear that some analysts are doing the bare minimum in their research. Hopefully, you’ve learned a thing or two from this article and why there’s still hope for Jones.

The New York Giants waited two years to give quarterback Daniel Jones the necessary weapons on offense to maximize his potential. In 2019, Jones entered the NFL as a ripe quarterback looking to take several developmental steps forward, and while he did show promise, he suffered significantly in the awareness and fumble category. While in the pocket, Jones often times found himself turning the ball over or running for his life due to a lack of protection from his front five.

Jones finished his rookie season with 3,027 yards, 24 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 18 fumbles, and was sacked 38 times. Last year, he tallied 2,943 yards, 11 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, and fumbled 11 times. From a purely statistical standpoint, Jones took a significant step backward, but if you watch the film and analyze the tape, you will see that his pocket awareness improved gradually over the course of the season, and it was clear he understood defensive alignments more adequately. The problem, his offensive line ranked 31st in pass blocking, and his weapons lacked separation in the receiving game.

Of course, he lost stand-out running back Saquon Barkley in week two with a torn ACL, MCL, and partially torn meniscus. Barkley is still working his way back, but Jones hasn’t even been able to experience him at his peak, which undoubtedly will take a bit of stress off the young passer.

Let’s take a look at the weapons Daniel Jones had at his disposal over the past two seasons. Disclaimer, they’re not pretty.

New York Giants’ offense in Jones’s rookie and sophomore season:

Year 1:

RB: Saquon Barkley (injured)

RB: Jon Hilliman

RB: Wayne Gallman

 

WR: Darius Slayton

WR: Sterling Shepard

WR: Golden Tate

 

OL: Nate Solder

OL: Will Hernandez

OL: Jon Halapio

OL: Kevin Zeitler

OL: Mike Remmers

Year 2:

RB: Saquon Barkley (injured)

RB: Alfred Morris

RB: Wayne Gallman

 

WR: Darius Slayton

WR: Sterling Shepard

WR: Golden Tate

 

OL: Andrew Thomas

OL: Will Hernandez

OL: Nick Gates

OL: Kevin Zeitler

OL: Cam Fleming

After scanning through this list of players, the only thing that saw a principal change was the offensive line, as the Giants turned over LT, C, and RT. Nonetheless, they are still working through speed bumps with young tackle Andrew Thomas and expect Matt Peart to take a step forward at right tackle in 2021.

As for running back and receiver, the New York Giants simply swapped reserve backs, keeping relatively the same WR core. They invested a fifth-round pick in Darius Slayton, retained sterling Shepherd, and brought in veteran Golden Tate to help ease Jones’s transition into the NFL. Obviously, that ended up being an egregious idea and tremendously stunted his growth.

Nonetheless, the Giants noticed their mistake and decided to spend this off-season to acquire more options for Jones in all phases of the game. They added Kenny Golladay, a big man-coverage beater on the outside at 6’4″, Kadarius Toney in the slot, who is capable of creating space in the short areas of the field against slot corners, and John Ross, who can push the field vertically to take defensive backs out of the intermediate range.

All of their signings had a purpose, and not it comes to applying their talents to the field with better schematics and play-calling. Three quality playmakers and the return of Barkley should be enough to help Jones realize his potential, but he also must alleviate some of his previous concerns in the pocket and fumbling the football.

The New York Giants’ offense heavily relies on Daniel Jones taking a significant step forward and 2021, and even though they signed and drafted multiple players to help provide more weapons in the passing game, Jones has a few kinks in his armor he needs to fix.

Ranging from pocket awareness to decision-making, Jones has shown flashes of excellence in short bursts, but injuries have derailed his momentum, and a lack of playmakers/protection in the pocket has also contributed heavily toward his demise.

There is no question that Jones has the athletic abilities to be a fantastic quarterback at the NFL level, including quality arm talent, solid mental processing, and mobility. The problem is, Jones developed something similar to Eli Manning in the past, happy feet. With constant pressure, Jones never felt comfortable in the pocket, and his awareness/timing was thrown off consistently. He has been working this off-season tirelessly to improve his mobility in the pocket and protecting the football with both hands close to his chest.

However, Jones showed us that he brings a unique element to the Giants’ offense that most other quarterbacks aren’t capable of doing. In 2020, Jones reached the fastest speed by any quarterback as a ball carrier since 2018, per Next Gen Stats. This specific run was the longest run by a quarterback who didn’t score on a play since at least 1975.

Of course, this is the infamous run against the Philadelphia Eagles, where he traveled 80 yards before tumbling over himself. The young quarterback hit 21.23 mph on this unforgettable mad dash, hitting a faster top speed than Lamar Jackson, and was just 0.06 mph slower than Tyreek Hill, arguably the fastest player in the NFL.

What does Daniel Jones bring to the New York Giants that’s unique?

So, what is this underrated factor for Daniel Jones? It is none other than the read-option. The Giants must utilize Jone’s athletic superiority in 2021, especially with the additions of Kenny Golladay, Kadarius Toney, and the return of Saquon Barkley. Defenses will be preoccupied in the secondary stopping the receivers, so Jones can execute planned runs to perfection without much resistance.

In fact, one of the only positive factors from the Giants’ offense utilize last year was the read-option, as Jones picked up 423 yards and one touchdown, averaging 6.5 yards per attempt. While he did fumble 11 times, most of these occurred in the pocket as a pure passer and not running the football.

With the added element of the option play, the Giants can get creative with their scheme and surprise defenses with different schematics. This is one of the more unique things Jones brings to the football field, the Giants would be foolish not to utilize it moving forward.

The New York Giants are hoping that quarterback Daniel Jones takes a massive step forward and 2021, and based on his work ethic this off-season, their expectations are justified.

Management did very little to bolster the offense around Jones, giving him the proper weapons to utilize and protection in the trenches. Jones has been running for his life ever since been drafted in 2019, possessing one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL, specifically in pass blocking. If you remember the latter portion of Eli Manning’s career, you likely recall him being sacked frequently and the happy feet habit he developed due to constant pressure.

Jones has faced something similar the last two seasons, and while the Giants did little to upgrade their OL this off-season, they did provide more weapons, which should take blitzers out of the equation and force defenses to focus on coverage, playing more defensive backs. The additions of Kenny Golladay and Kadarius Toney should theoretically help Jones and take more pressure off of him, but he also has to improve his pocket awareness and mobility to lower his fumble totals and improve his efficiency throwing the ball.

Jones fumbled the football 18 times in his rookie season and cut that number down to 11 in 2020 over 14 games. He saw a significant step forward in that category, but it still represents a weakness in his game and something he needs to improve upon.

The Giants’ quarterback has been working with Mickey Brueckner of “Annex Sports” in Chatham, New Jersey.

Working on building pocket movement efficiency with @Daniel_Jones10

Some key points to look at:
🔹 Balanced center of mass over his base
🔹 Hips move under his shoulders while head and shoulders remain down field
🔹 How quickly he can put his foot into the ground and move pic.twitter.com/zVF6fvOeRY

— Mickey Brueckner (@mickbrueckner) May 29, 2021

What has Daniel Jones been doing to improve for the New York Giants?

Daniel has been working on improving his balance, with the center of his mass over his base, keeping his hips moving under his shoulders while keeping his upper body solid and still, and utilizing his feet to react and move quickly in the pocket.

All of these different factors should contribute toward a more successful 2021 season for Daniel, who primarily needs to progress with his pocket awareness and keeping the ball protected when defensive pass rushers come close. He’s had issues in the past keeping the ball away from his body and fumbling due to a lack of awareness and protection.

The only way for Jones to improve upon his weaknesses is to train during the off-season and create muscle memory, which is exactly what he’s been doing as training camp nears. I believe that this additional work will pay dividends, and while we need to see it applied to the football field before making any assumptions, there’s no question that Jones’s work ethic is on display.

There’s plenty of reason for optimism regarding the New York Giants’ offense in 2021, but they must overcome a variety of issues that plagued them in 2020. Quarterback Daniel Jones had his fair share of issues, ranging from pocket awareness to trouble progressing through his reads in the passing game. Ultimately, Jones saw a stretch of growth and momentum before suffering a hamstring injury against the Cincinnati Bengals in week 11, but there’s no question he has the tangible traits and characteristics to be a quality quarterback at the NFL level.

I would argue that the Giants have given Jones little to work with over the past few seasons, which has stunted his growth and physically stopped him from maximizing his potential. Finally, they added a few weapons in free agency, and the NFL draft this offseason, including wide receivers Kenny Golladay and Kadarius Toney.

The success of this team simply revolves around Jones, as the NFL has been redefined as an offensive league that focuses on points on the board, as we’ve seen with teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers. At times, you can supplement weaknesses on your defense with a quality offense, but the Giants are trying to enjoy the best of both worlds.

There are a few factors that could hold them back in 2021, so let’s take a look at the Giants, and what could hold them back on offense.

Three factors that could hold the New York Giants’ offense back in 2021:

1.) The offensive line

Once upon a time, general manager Dave Gettleman promised that he would solve the offensive line issues, but he has yet to fulfill that goal. The Giants remain optimistic with their group, as they will have in-person training and a pre-season to utilize, which should help tremendously. However, they must overcome the loss of Kevin Zeitler at right guard and develop a more downfield-oriented offense, which is expected. After all, Golladay did say he loved the “vision” of the offense for 2021, so we have to imagine he will be maximized downfield in man coverage.

Ultimately, Daniel Jones will only go as far as the offensive line takes him, as providing more time in the pocket is essential for route development and downfield prowess. If they can hold the line and give Jones a bit more protection, he can take advantage of the best passer rating when targeting receivers 20+ yards down field in 2020.

2.) Play-calling

Last season, former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett took over offensive coordinator duties for the New York Giants. We saw plenty of inadequacies, ranging from poor route concepts to a lack of creativity. The occasional end-around simply didn’t get the job done, but with gadget-style players like Toney, John Ross, and Sterling Shepard, his offense is bound to take a massive step forward. As long as the scheme can catch up with the talent, the Giants could make a significant jump from the 31st ranked offense in points scored per game last year.

3.) Daniel Jones’ pocket-awareness

Quarterback Daniel Jones saw his fumbles drop from 18 to 11 in 2021, but that number is still a bit scary. With more protection in the pocket, Jones will feel more confident in his offensive line, which is essential for success. Daniel Jones is currently undergoing something similar to what Eli Manning faced toward the end of his career with happy feet, feeling pressured when there was nobody there and making silly mistakes out of habit.

However, Jones needs to improve his ball security and awareness from his blindside, and I do expect those factors to advance. Jones did see improvement toward the end of the 2020 season, fumbling just once over the final three games of the year. He did enjoy a stretch in the middle of the season against Tampa Bay, Washington, and Philadelphia, where he didn’t lose a fumble, showing that he can improve in that category.