Giants fans are watching Shane Steichen make another a huge Daniel Jones mistake
The New York Giants, for once, are dealing with strong quarterback play. Even though Jaxson Dart is out for the season, they've had Jameis Winston and most recently J.J. McCarthy lead the Giants to wins. It's rare territory for the Giants, especially after Eli Manning's retirement after the 2019 season. But they are also watching one of their former starting quarterbacks fail at a new destination.
Daniel Jones convinced the Indianapolis Colts that he was their worthy starting quarterback for the foreseeable future, and was rewarded with a two-year, $88 million contract. But now, Jones is having yet another post-contract decline, but somehow, he's playing even worse.
On Sunday, the Colts lost 16-10 to the Minnesota Vikings to fall to 2-4 on the year. Jones was facing a tall task, as Minnesota's defense is the best and most vicious in the league, as he could only manage 108 yards passing on 13 completions after they blitzed him on 85.2 percent of his dropbacks, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
It was going to be a tough matchup for Jones, but his overall numbers this season have not been good. Despite this, Colts head coach Shane Steichen is still sticking with him at quarterback, while the team enters an inevitable fire sale.
Giants fans are watching Shane Steichen make another massive Daniel Jones mistake
Again, it's hard to fault Jones for having a bad game against the Vikings, considering he was under duress for most of the gmae. But this season, Jones has had a rough-go of things. While he did recover from a torn Achilles, his numbers dropped off.
Through seven games, Jones threw for 1,398 yards, four touchdowns, and seven interceptions while completing 59.6 percent of his passes. For context, Jones has never had a completion percentage below 60.0, so that goes to show just how difficult of a time he is having.
Yet, Steichen isn't giving up on Jones. Even with the team looking like one will have a clean house by the end of the season, Steichen won't make a change at quarterback. Jones is his guy. He said so after the game, and reiterated his point on Monday.
"He's proven that he can do it. So that's where the confidence comes from. And we need to get him back playing to that level that he was last year. It's taking a little bit longer," said Steichen, h/t ESPN's Stephen Holder.
Daniel Jones isn't going to save a lame duck coaching staff
More power to Steichen. He is fully a believer in Jones being able to play like he did last season before he tore his Achilles. In 13 games, Jones threw for 3,101 yards, 19 touchdowns, and eight interceptions on a 68.0 completion percentage. It's incredibly difficult to see Jones being able to get back to that level of production.
Giants fans have seen coaching staffs place their faith in Jones, and he couldn't save then. Of course, there was Pat Shurmur during his rookie season, Joe Judge after that, and then Brian Daboll. Although, the latter pulled the plug early on in the 2024 season, leading to his release. Luckily for the Giants, they seem to have found their long-term starter in Dart, with McCarthy and Winston as high quality backups.
The Colts do have two enticing young quarterback options in Anthony Richardson and Riley Leonard. If the losses continue to pile up, maybe then Steichen will give up on the Jones experiment and show that he can develop one of the two youngsters into a quality starting quarterback.
The Colts are heading nowhere fast, and their roster is going to look significantly less talented if they opt to trade away some of their top talent in an effort to recoup draft picks. But we've seen what happens to coaches that hitch their wagons to Jones, and it doesn't end well. Steichen may find that out.
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