Daniel Jones giving Giants almost no chance to win with end finally in sight

There are so many debates and arguments and snide remarks that can go into all this, with the state of the Giants being what it is. It is almost impossible to hear what Brian Daboll said on Monday regarding Daniel Jones and come up with spirited and passionate rejoinders suggesting he is not seeing this clearly. 

“I think he gives us the best chance,’’ Daboll said. 

If you are so inclined, feel free to add, “Best chance to … what, exactly?’’ 

This was Daboll’s way of reiterating what he declared a day earlier, only minutes after Saquon Barkley had danced over, through and around his former team and the Jones-led offense — with Daboll calling all the plays — once again treated the end zone as if it were contaminated, a place to steer clear of at all costs. Daboll took Jones off the field and sent Drew Lock, the backup quarterback, in for the final 11:26 of the 28-3 loss to the Eagles, hoping to “create some type of juice and maybe make a few plays and swing the momentum a little bit.’’ That did not happen and, without prompting, Daboll in his postgame remarks said Jones remains the starter “going forward.” 

That was smart on Daboll’s part. Indecision at the quarterback position is no way to run a team. And Daboll is right about Jones giving the Giants the best chance to win. Now for the hard part: What this franchise now must know is that Jones does not give it a chance to win often enough. And that there will be a new quarterback starting games for them in 2025. 

It was always going to be a long shot that Jones made it to a seventh year with the team that over-drafted him (No. 6 overall) in 2019. The desire to find the next Eli Manning in temperament, comportment, demeanor and play-style led to an overevaluation of this particular player, but this does not need to be relitigated. It is the here and now that matters and Jones is here now but not for much longer. 

Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen inherited Jones, and the plan after the 2022 playoff season was to sign Saquon Barkley to a multiyear deal and then have the franchise tag available to swing at Jones in case he was going to play unrealistic financial hardball. A deal could not be worked out with Barkley and the tough decision at the time would have been to let Barkley test the market and use the franchise tag on Jones, giving him security for only one more season — one prove-it-again season. 

Instead, Schoen put the franchise tag on Barkley and signed Jones to a four-year contract worth $160 million, but with a very steep speed bump stuck smack in the middle of the deal. The Giants can part ways with Jones after two years for a heavy but not onerous dead cap hit of $22.2 million. That is the direction this is headed and the Giants will dive back on the quarterback carousel that they wanted to ride this past spring, but could not find a way to trade up in the draft to get Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye. 

It is worth mentioning that the Giants back in March had Russell Wilson in for a visit and he ended up signing with the Steelers — the next opponent for the Giants — for the bargain price of $1.2 million, the veteran minimum. Instead, the Giants signed Lock (one year, $5 million, all guaranteed) and kept Tommy DeVito around as the third quarterback. So, when Daboll says Jones gives the team the best chance to win, he is saying plenty about the other quarterbacks in the room. 

Jones, 27, is not giving the Giants much of a chance to win. He has been decent or blandly effective in four games this season. The offense is not functioning at MetLife Stadium, where there are sure to be good seats available the rest of the way. It has gone from bad to worse. The loss to the Eagles was the third time in four home games that Jones was unable to generate a single touchdown. The 119 total yards were the fewest by 31 yards in a game since Daboll arrived in 2022. The 43 net passing yards was the second-lowest total under Daboll. The 10 first downs tied for the lowest total under Daboll. 

Daboll continues to bemoan the lack of explosive plays on offense — plays that gain 20 or more yards. The longest gain in last week’s 17-7 loss to the Bengals was 15 yards. The longest gain against the Eagles was 14 yards. This is on everyone but it is always mostly on the quarterback. 

“I thought there were a lot of plays that he did exactly what he needed to do, and then look, there were some plays where it wasn’t just on Daniel,’’ Daboll said. “It was a collection of things. It wasn’t just one person, a protection or a route.’’ 

It is never just one person. But sometimes, one person arriving or departing is the way to move forward.