Giants QB Daniel Jones’s Fantasy Football Stat Projections Pedestrian at Best

Fantasy football team owners, beware. Drafting New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones could be hazardous to your team if  ESPN’s 2024 projected season stats turn out to be accurate. 

Jones is coming back from a torn ACL which he suffered last November and was sidelined for the rest of the season. In his one preseason game this summer, Jones had an awful first half that was punctuated by two interceptions, including one very foolish one (and that total could have easily have been three), before settling down in the ocd quarter. Still, he didn’t engineer any touchdown drives in his one half of play.

He is also playing behind an overhauled offensive line that while showing glimpses of improvement from last year’s historically bad showing, hasn’t gotten any game snaps together due to injuries.

Jones also doesn’t have running back Saquon Barkley behind him any more. Barkley left for Philadelphia, replaced by Devin Singletary who played in Houston last season. SIngletary played well last season.

What does that mean for Jones? Jones will see a lot of defenses set up to protect against the run because they want to force Jones into passing situations because he has a tendency to throw as many interceptions as he does touchdowns.

In 2023, before Jones got injured, he threw six interceptions in the first four games. That number represented one more than he had over the course of the 2022 season when the Giants last won a first-round playoff game.

He missed three games in 2023 due to a neck injury, only to return briefly in Week 9 and tear his right ACL.

Jones is currently ranked as the 23rd best option at quarterback, with a 2024 projected stat line of 315/490 for 3,285 yards, 14 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. As a runner, he’s projected to have 92 carries for 486 yards and three rushing touchdowns.

While it’s unclear how ESPN arrived at those projections, they’re interesting considering Jones finally has a legitimate No. 1 receiver in Malik Nabers who joins an already good receiving corps. 

He will also have head coach Brian Daboll calling the plays this year, all of which would seemingly have the former Duke signal caller set up for success.