Giants’ Brian Daboll Focusing on Commanders, Not Just Jayden Daniels

Jayden Daniels’s NFL debut wasn’t all that spectacular, but neither were any of the other rookie quarterbacks, and one could even make the case that he performed the best out of the bunch. Even with a solid rookie debut, Daniels and the Washington Commanders failed to score enough to keep their Week 1 score close with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, ultimately losing the contest 37-20.

Daniels and the Commanders will now get a lesser opponent in Week 2 when they return home to Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland in the form of NFC East division rival the New York Giants.

The Giants had a tough offseason losing Saquon Barkley and have decided to continue rolling out Daniel Jones as their quarterback. All of the decisions by the Giants have come to bite them in the rear end and that couldn’t have been any more glaring than the outcome of their season opener, losing to Sam Darnold and the Minnesota Vikings in blowout fashion 28-6.

READ MORE: Giants’ Malik Nabers Battling LSU QB, Commanders’ Jayden Daniels

New York’s defense couldn’t hold Darnold and the Vikes’ offense in check at all this past Sunday and will perhaps have an even tougher matchup this go around with Jayden Daniels and the weapons of the Commanders’ offense.

This offseason the Giants were the center of Hard Knocks on MAX and their head coach Brian Daboll showed interest in moving up in the draft to take Daniels, which ultimately didn’t happen as they stayed pat and selected wide receiver Malik Nabers. When posed with what he liked so much about Daniels Daboll noted that it’s Daniels’ electrifying dual-threat ability.

“I think he’s a good football player. He’s athletic. He’s dynamic with the ball in his hands, whether it’s a passer or a runner. But again, this is more about the Washington offense in general. They played a good Tampa Bay team. Tampa Bay played well. He’s a rookie quarterback that definitely did some good things that you saw from college on tape. He had 88 yards, 70 yards on scrambles, throws the ball well, but it’s more about getting ready to play their entire offense.”

Daniels did have a decent game and although we didn’t see any huge explosive plays from the rookie signal caller we did see him control the offense and not look too rattled when the ball was in his hands and looking to make plays.

Giants’ head coach Brian Daboll continued to talk about Daniels’ debut but quickly switched gears to notating that football is the ultimate team game and that their focus would be strictly on the Washington Commanders and not just their quarterback.

READ MORE: Commanders ‘Fired Up’ for NFC East Matchup vs. Giants

“Looks like a good football player to me. Again, I’m sure there’s plays he would like to have back just like all of us, but I think he’s a good football player. I think he’s a good quarterback. I think they’ve got a lot of good pieces around him. (Commanders Wide Receiver Terry) McLaurin is an exceptional receiver. Speed. (Commanders Running Back Brian) Robinson is a tough runner. They brought (Commanders Running Back) Austin (Ekeler) over there from LA. Again, it’s the biggest team sport there is, and that’s where we’ll focus.”

With the disparity between the two team’s opening game, it is easy to go out on a limb and say that the Commanders appear to be the better team at this point. However, the game still has to get played.

Even so, the Commanders’ offense should be able to exploit the Giants’ defense in a similar way that the Vikings were able to and if Daniels can dissect quickly what they are trying to do on defense then New York could be in for another long day of football.

Stick with CommanderGameday and the Locked On Commanders podcast for more FREE coverage of the Washington Commanders throughout the 2024 season.

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