How Daniel Jones Era Ended With The New York Giants

The news broke early Monday morning, officially, but the statements of everyone from New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll to GM Joe Schoen telegraphed this for the past week: Daniel Jones is no longer the starting quarterback of the New York Giants. Tommy DeVito is the new number one.

As noted here, Jones found himself in an impossible position this season. Coming off of an injury that cost him nearly a calendar year, he was tasked with elevating the New York offense, integrating a number one receiving option in Malik Nabers who happens to be a rookie, relying on a running game that lost its most effective option this past offseason in Saquon Barkley, and over the past several weeks, asking for protection from a revamped offensive line missing its most important cog in Andrew Thomas, lost for the season to injury.

Any one or two of these things would have proven to be too much to overcome, in all likelihood. Taken together? The results have been self-evident.

“In general, I understand the question, you want to pull him out, but it’s everybody,” Schoen told reporters last week. “Everybody’s got a hand in this. Again, I know being the quarterback and offensive coordinator, head coach, a lot of people like to point to those guys, in general. Daniel (Jones) has played some good games. There’s some games where maybe he’d like to have some throws back or do things differently. But, in general, it’s not one individual or one situation that keeps occurring, unfortunately. So, whether it’s the defense is on the field at the end of the game and we’ve got a chance to close it out. Or offense has the ball in a couple different games and we could go down and score and close the game out. So, we’re going to look at solutions and we’re going to evaluate everything, like (Head Coach) Dabs (Brian Daboll) said yesterday, and that’s what we’ll do moving forward here.”

The evaluation of Jones had to take into account less the bottom line results and more whether the in-season trajectory suggested sufficient improvement to make him the long-term option at the position. And a handful of plays in last week’s loss to the Carolina Panthers suggested that progress simply wasn’t happening.

Sins of omission are still sins for a quarterback, and Jones had an opportunity to make a big play on a great play call from Daboll with the Giants trailing in the third quarter, 17-7, third and five. Here’s what happened on the flea flicker. Watch Nabers, number 17.

Nabers jumped up and down in frustration. Back in the United States, so did many Giants fans.

The forced passes which led to an interception and the mistakes that have come to mark Jones’ tenure are bad enough. But failing to make the big plays when a largely listless defense offers them up is more than the Giants can withstand. A quarterback who chooses not to throw in the circumstances above, but who forces it into coverage here, on a third and seven where even an incomplete pass means a field goal attempt, is not growing as a decision-maker.

The Giants have struggled to make the big plays all season and find themselves last in the NFL in red zone conversion percentage. There aren’t really any other ways to score offensive touchdowns!

Schoen assured reporters the decision would be “a football decision”, but let’s not miss the context here. Backup Drew Lock is signed through the end of this year at $5 million. DeVito is signed through next season at roughly a quarter of that, just over $1.3 million. Whether DeVito is the future starter — and it is not impossible, though highly unlikely due to all the factors mentioned up top, that he can prove himself worthy of that role — or he is a future backup for his home state team, he has a potential 2025 role.

Does Jones? Here’s what Schoen said when he was asked about the future. Specifically, Jones’ future with the team. See if you can spot where Schoen mentions Jones in this answer.

“We have seven games left in this season and that’s what we’re focused on,” he said. “I’m focused on 2024 and how we can get better these final seven games. We have 19 of 22 starters under contract for next year. I believe it’s 41 players on the 53 (man roster). So, there is a young nucleus of players here, and some veterans, that are going be together. We’re in a position where we have some continuity. As this team grows together, it’s important over these final seven weeks that… A lot of these guys are going to be together again next year. We’re finally in a position where there will be some continuity year over year. It’s important that we find ways to win games, specifically those ones I spoke about earlier when it’s close. That’s part of changing the culture and expecting to win. You don’t want it to be, ‘Here we go again.’ So, that’s a mindset that we’re still trying to develop. We do have a young team. We have the youngest defense in the league. We have (tight end) Theo (Johnson), (running back Tyrone) Tracy (Jr.), (wide receiver Malik) Nabers, some young guys on offense that are playing major roles for us and contributing. It’s important for them to grow and learn how to win games as well.”

If that sounds like a GM imagining a future without Jones, you’re not missing the signs. Put another way, here’s how Schoen self-evaluated:

“You come off a winning season, some of the issues were maybe masked or you’re blinded a little bit by it because of the success. Then once we extended (quarterback) Daniel (Jones), you try to accelerate it because the way that contract was structured. You got to make mistakes, too.”

Injuries happen. But barring those, it sure doesn’t sound like the Giants plan to have Daniel Jones play quarterback for them ever again.