New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones is not wowing people with his numbers. He doesn’t need to. The 7-2 Giants boast a top-10 scoring defense and one of the top rushing attacks in the league.
For the fourth-year signal caller, it’s all about managing the game and avoiding mistakes. He’s done that for the most part this season with just two interceptions in 237 pass attempts. Jones also joined some elite company in Giants franchise history during the Week 10 win over the Houston Texans Sunday.
He went a sixth consecutive game without an interception, becoming the first Giants quarterback since the great Phil Simms to accomplish this feat. Simms did that back in 1993, his final season in the NFL.
- Daniel Jones stats (past six games): 67% completion, 1,036 passing yards, 262 rushing yards, 8 total TD, 0 INT, 99.1 QB rating
Jones isn’t throwing for a lot of yards. Rather, he’s managing the game and letting stud running back Saquon Barkley do this thing. That’s exactly what first-year Giants head coach Brian Daboll had in mind when he took the gig in Jersey.
Daniel Jones’ 2022 performance sets up interesting decision for the New York Giants
Let’s be clear here. New York’s passing game remains a major weakness. It ranks 29th in passing yards and passing touchdowns. Sunday against a bad Texans squad, the Giants ran the ball nearly 50 times.
In fact, Daboll was asked in the postgame press conference whether his conservative game plan on offense was to mask issues in the passing game with an obvious focus on Jones.
“I wouldn’t use that word. I would just use we try to do what we think we can do, which was run the ball for 46 times. I think (a previous question) asked me, ‘Is it as simple as just running the ball with Saquon Barkley?’ The answer’s no because they do a good job,” Daboll said on his Week 10 game plan. “They made some runs. But each week, we just do what we think we need to do for that particular game. If it’s 60 passes, it’s 60 passes.”
That’s the primary issue here. Is New York OK with a mere game manager with limited upside leading the charge moving forward? Perhaps the team believes Jones can be more if it is actually able to provide him with some receiving weapons outside of Barkley out of the backfield.
Some might look at the Giants’ 7-2 start to the season as nothing more than a mirage. Six of their seven wins have come by one score with victories over hapless squads such as the Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans.
Even then, 7-2 is 7-2. The Giants are in playoff positioning right now. Jones continues to do what’s asked of him in the passing game. As an impending free agent, it remains to be seen if that’s going to be enough for the Giants to commit to him this coming spring. A lot of that will depend on what we see throughout the remainder of the 2022 campaign.
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