Darren Waller will no longer be catching passes from Daniel Jones this season after announcing his retirement last month, but the Pro Bowl tight end believes that Jones can return to the form that earned the signal-caller a four-year, $160 million contract after a successful 2022 campaign.
“I’m just excited for him to get another opportunity,” Waller said on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “I feel like he gets a bad rep. [In] 2022, man, [he] played such good football. Last year was his first opportunity to get out there and play on the new bag. … It was tough for us as an offense to protect him, and you can’t put any quarterback back there and not have any protection and expect them to really, truly thrive in the pocket.
“[I’m] hoping that they can get those things shored up and allow him to have an opportunity to show that he is a talented dude … [and] to play the football that he was playing in 2022. He’s very athletic. … I feel like that’s definitely still in him.”
Jones was stellar in 2022, throwing for 3,205 yards and rushing for another 708 yards. He threw 15 touchdowns and ran for seven more. His follow-up campaign, though, was terrible in comparison. It was a season marred by injury: Jones missed Weeks 6-8 with a neck injury before suffering a season-ending ACL tear in Week 9.
In the games Jones did play, he was abysmal, mustering just 909 yards and two scores against six interceptions. That was more in six games than he gave up in 16 starts during 2022 (five), and Jones unsurprisingly went 1-5 in those outings.
Which, unsurprisingly to many, prompted Brian Daboll’s willingness to seek out a new headman to lead his offense. Daboll told Giants general manager Joe Schoen before the 2024 NFL Draft that he’d be open to trading up to acquire Jayden Daniels, who ended up going second overall to Washington. New York did not draft a signal-caller, instead opting to sign former Seattle quarterback Drew Lock in free agency.
Jones’ lack of job security is a deserved reality, according to Nick Wright.
“I don’t think he’s a player of the caliber that deserves job security,” Wright said on a recent epside of “First Things First.” “The only reason he would feel like he has job security is because the team was foolish enough to give him that contract. … Since his rookie year, he has played 47 games. In those 47 games, he averages 200 yards passing, has 38 touchdowns … and 41 combined interceptions and lost fumbles. That’s not a player that ever should be like, ‘I don’t have to worry about them bringing someone in.’
“[Daboll] is interested in seeing how his offense would look in New York with anyone other than Daniel Jones potentially.”
Wright pointed to Seahawks general manager John Schneider’s quote on losing Lock as a key indicator that Jones’ job may be in danger.
“This John Schneider quote meant something to me when they lost Drew Lock,” Wright recalled. “He said they basically sold him on the opportunity to compete to be the starter. He looked at Baker Mayfield’s opportunity last year and felt this could be something similar. … The Giants weren’t just weighing that second crop of quarterbacks after the top three — the Bo Nix [or] J.J. McCarthy versus Daniel Jones. They were weighing them against Drew Lock, which tells me … that’s a real competition in New York.”
Keyshawn Johnson agreed that this season may be Jones’ last in New York.
“When they (the Giants) get to 2025, they could part ways with him if they decide, ‘Hey, there’s a better option in this situation,'” he said on “Undisputed.” “This isn’t 10 years ago in the National Football League where people were afraid to take blows to the salary cap. They’ll do it in a heartbeat nowadays. If you’re not playing well, you have a high cap number, and it’s gonna hurt the cap, they’ll say bye-bye — because the cap continues to keep going up every year.
“All they’ll do is make some adjustments. It’ll sound big because it’s a large cap number, but in the grand scheme of things, it won’t affect the roster at all.”
Johnson continued to reveal which Giant he would’ve given a long-term deal to over Jones.
“I would’ve [given] my money to Saquon Barkley because I can always, in my opinion, find me a Daniel Jones type quarterback somewhere in the universe,” he said. “Even if it’s a Geno Smith that I could put back there for a couple of years, I can always do that at a lesser number. They made that decision because they didn’t have enough data on him when they took over, and he happened to play well the year that they got there.
“So now you go, ‘OK, we just got this guy. He’s not our guy, but we could give him a below-market deal, and let’s see if he grows with our offense over the next couple of years. If not, we’ll go find a guy.’ So I think 2025, if he doesn’t play well this year, is probably his last year.”
Waller’s faith in Jones, though, is certain.
“I know him for a fact,” Waller added. “He’s motivated and excited to get back out there, excited to lead. That’s when you learn the most about dudes is responding to opportunities like this.”
Chris Broussard‘s assessment of Waller’s comments was simple, and pointed to the major duress that Jones is facing.
“You better feel motivated.”
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