Why is Daniel Jones playing safety? Explaining Giants’ decision to put benched QB on scout team | Sporting News

The Daniel Jones era in New York is all but officially closed. New York made the decision to bench the starting quarterback, and it does not appear as though he will be suiting up for any more games for Big Blue. 

Jones didn’t just lose the No. 1 job with the Giants — he’s gone from getting starting reps with the offense to playing snaps as a safety on the scout team. The organization is demoting him all the way down the ladder.

While Tommy DeVito is leapfrogging Drew Lock for the starting role, keeping Lock as QB2, Jones is competing for the third-string position with recently-signed QB Tim Boyle. The full QB picture won’t be made clear until New York takes the field in Week 12 against Tampa Bay, but it’s evident it won’t be Jones under center. 

With Jones’ decreased role, he now is doing anything he can to help the team … even if that means playing defense. The quarterback was spotted playing safety as a member of the scout team to help the offense prepare for the Buccaneers. 

“I’m still processing and trying to think through [the] best thing for this team, what the best thing is for me,” Jones said after practice.

Daniel Jones playing safety on #Giants scout team defense with a pinny on.

Not unusual for offensive players who arent going to play Sunday to hop in. Unusual for $160M player https://t.co/toZzQL1oz1

— Ryan Dunleavy (@rydunleavy) November 21, 2024

It’s incredibly rare to see a quarterback who was paid $40 million a season to be the franchise player fall all the way to scout team duties, but that appears to be where the Giants are at with Jones. It won’t be officially over until this offseason, but New York most certainly will be looking for a new QB1 moving forward. 

Here is more on why the Giants benched Jones. 

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What is the scout team?

The scout team refers to a group of football players who are on the practice squad and utilized to play the style of upcoming opponents. 

It’s not uncommon for offensive players to take part on the scout team. If they are not going to be playing in the upcoming game, these kinds of teammates will play on the defensive side of the ball to help the offense. 

Jones’ case isn’t the first time a benched quarterback has played for the scout team. In 2022, Baker Mayfield went from the starting QB of the Panthers to a scout team member, seen getting his hands dirty on the defensive line for Carolina. 

Can Daniel Jones play safety?

There does not appear to be any evidence that Jones has played safety in the past. He only played quarterback in college at Duke and only has ever been a QB in the NFL. 

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Why did the Giants bench Daniel Jones?

The Giants’ decision to bench Jones is intriguing for a number of reasons, but it’s not unexpected.

The 2019 first-round pick has not been the same quarterback that brought the Giants to the playoffs in 2022, regressing last year before an injury ended his season, and he hasn’t returned to form in 2024. 

New York currently owns the lowest-scoring offense in the league, with the team averaging a lowly 15.6 points per game. The Giants are 26th in passing yards per game (189.8) and 24th in total yards on offense per game (309.7). If the team wants to somehow salvage the season, a change at quarterback was necessary. 

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The other interesting part of the Jones benching is the financial repercussions that would have come had the Giants kept him in as the starter. The quarterback has a $23 million injury guarantee for the 2025 season that comes into play if he suffers an injury and is unable to pass a physical in the offseason. 

Not playing Jones saves New York an immense amount of money and will allow the team to look elsewhere for a starting quarterback in 2025. Jones has two more years left on his four-year deal he signed after 2022, however, it will be much easier to get out of his contract this offseason — as long as he is healthy. The club could clear roughly $19.4 million off of its salary cap by releasing Jones. 

It’s a trend that has become relevant in the NFL in recent years. There have been multiple circumstances where a team would bench a quarterback who has an injury guarantee in their contract. Just last season, the Broncos benched Russell Wilson in the final weeks of the year to avoid triggering his $37 million guarantee for this season. The Raiders did a similar thing with Jimmy Garoppolo in 2023, benching him to avoid a potential injury that would guarantee an additional $11.25 million to his contract. 

With the Giants making this move now, it almost certainly signals that the Jones era in the Big Apple will soon be over.