Giants’ Quarterback Daniel Jones Has Work to Do

The New York Giants may be finding their footing as the season continues, but this doesn’t mean their problems have gone away.  Quarterback Daniel Jones had some standout moments in recent games, but his passing game has still been lacking.  The Giants won their first match of the season against the recently renamed Washington Football Team on Sunday, October 18, and optimistic fans were too quick to call it a comeback.

To be fair, New York has performed better recently, with wide receiver Darius Slayton and cornerback Ryan Lewis carrying the offensive and defensive lines, respectively.  And though he was the last pick in last year’s draft, linebacker Tae Crowder also recently surprised critics by recovering a fumble for a 43 yard touchdown.

But it was 301 days since their last win, which coincidentally was also against the Washington Football Team.  And the mistakes that have followed the Giants through their first five games have continued since.

The most glaring flaw, obviously, has been Daniel Jones’ inability to prevent turnovers.  With nine total turnovers this season, Jones is not making good use of his time in the pocket, and when the defense breaks he has struggled to find creative solutions to prevent sacks.  In the game against the Washington Football Team on October 18, Jones under pressure tossed a lob to the back of the end zone without a target.

This is not a new problem.  In their September 14 game against the Steelers, Jones threw a nearly identical pass under pressure that resulted in an interception.  Jones’ passing statistics have been weak, and though he has a strong arm, he seems to struggle to find a target.  As a result, the Giants’ passing game has been cautious, and riddled with errors.

These are errors that can be expected from a rookie: Jones had five 300 plus passing yard games last year, but plenty of interceptions and sacks.  This year he hasn’t had a single game over 300 passing yards.  Jones seems to want to avoid the interceptions and incompletions by throwing more hesitantly and cautiously, but that isn’t the answer.  In order to fix the problem, Jones needs to find a way to be faster and more reliable at finding viable targets from the pocket.

ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky noted on Twitter that Daniel Jones isn’t the first to struggle with his passing game.  According to Orlovsky, Jones is similar to the Rams’ Jared Goff in 2017: he is fixated on a single receiver and fails to even consider his number two and three receivers.  To combat this, Rams coach Sean McVay would run scenarios in practices where the number 1 receiver was not a viable target, forcing Goff to throw to his number 2 or 3 receivers.  Orlovsky recommends the same strategy for Jones.

Credit where credit is due, however, Jones’ running game has been strong.  He reached an amazing 20.64 miles per hour during a 49 yard run in the game on October 18.  It must be recognized, too, that Jones is trying to fill the massive hole left by Eli Manning.  Even compared to other second-year quarterbacks, though, Jones has poor passing stats and his running game can’t carry the weight of the Giants’ offense.  Jones needs to address his passing issues, or the Giants’ future will be in jeopardy.