NY Giants: Evaluating all of the rookies’ 2019 seasons

“An Emerging Franchise Quarterback” – QB Daniel Jones

Since being named as the NY Giants starting quarterback in Week 3 on the road in Tampa Bay, Daniel Jones successfully transitioned from Eli Manning’s back up through 12 encouraging starts under center.

It’s been a very promising debut for Jones as signal-caller, despite his season total 18 fumbles, which (for good reason) has seemed worrisome to most fans. However, under the right coaching, there is no reason not to believe that Jones will be able to correct his current issues with ball-security.

Through 13 games – 12 of which he started – Jones completed 284 of 459 pass attempts for 3,027 yards, 24 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and an overall 87.7 passer rating. These are favorable stats for the rookie quarterback when compared to Eli Manning’s first season in 2004, where he completed 95 of 197 pass attempts for 1,043 yards, 6 touchdowns, 9 interceptions, and an overall 84.1 passer rating in 9 games.

Among several record-breaking achievements from Jones’ rookie season as the Giants starting quarterback, he also surpassed the previous franchise rookie season touchdown passing record of 22 (held by Charlie Conerlyduring his rookie season back in 1948)with a total of 24 touchdown passes in only 12 games.

Danny Dimes would have surpassed Baker Mayfield’s NFL all-time rookie record of 27 total touchdown passes had he not missed four games.

While Jones has demonstrated his ability to perform under center, he needs to learn how to protect the football better. Still, he threw for over 300 yards in five games this season while setting a Giants rookie record of 24 TD passes. Clearly he has the goods; he just needs the coaching to iron out the kinks in his game.

If management is able to address the weaker points of the roster with their eight current draft picks and nearly $60 million in freed-up cap space for free agency acquisitions, they should be able to pick-up another wide receiver to improve their porous receiving corps while also stabilizing and upgrading the left side of their offensive line.

With this added help, I think we’ll see even more success from this 22-year-old quarterback as he continues to gain experience in what is looking like the beginning of a promising NFL career.