It goes without saying, but NY Giants signal-caller Daniel Jones is entering a major year. General manager Joe Schoen and the Giants’ front office decided to decline his fifth-year option, making it a make-or-break campaign in East Rutherford for him. If he performs poorly, the 24-year-old quarterback will most likely hit free agency. Jones is now under head coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, with the two looking to set him up for success.
Jones has never caught on with the New York offense, but the root source of Daniels’ drop in production from his first season was likely Joe Judge and Jason Garrett’s play calling. Jones has only regressed since that first year, which was under the direction of former head coach Shurmur. That year, Jones tossed for 3,027 yards and 24 touchdowns, both career-highs.
Is Daniel Jones breaking out this season?
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Looking ahead to this season, Jones has a ton of pressure on him, but things have been looking promising for him thus far in OTAs. If New York is going to record a bounce-back campaign, Jones will need to deliver. In this piece, we take a look at three ambitious goals for the young QB.
Leading the Giants to a record around .500
The Giants simply have not been a successful team over the past few seasons, which included going 4-13 last year. New York has not won more than six games since 2016, the last year they made the postseason. They went 11-5 that campaign. If Jones wants to show he can be the quarterback of this team for years to come, he must lead the team to a record close to .500, with 7-10 or 8-9 seeming reasonable.
In order for that to happen, Jones will need to take a leap as a quarterback in production, and a big one as a leader. One of the most important characteristics of a quarterback is the ability to lead his team to victory. Thus far, the former Duke quarterback has failed to do so on a consistent basis. The NY struggles haven’t been solely on Jones, but he’s failed to come up big for the offense.
In order for a team to be successful, you can’t set your quarterback up with a bad overall offense, bad play callers and a lack of talent. Most QBs would also struggle with a similar setup. The Giants have been working on improving things over the last two seasons. Only time will tell if it’s enough for Jones to record more wins, but things are looking promising.