Brian Daboll is Proud of Giants QB Daniel Jones’s Comeback Journey

Jones has worked hard in his return from a torn ACL.

East Rutherford, NJ -- July 24, 2024 -- Quarterback Daniel Jones and head coach Brian Daboll during the first day of training camp for the 2024 New York Giants. / Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

Thanks to the miracles of modern medicine, overcoming a torn ACL to perform typical daily activities isn’t as grueling as it might have once been.

But for New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, who relies on his legs to not only set a base when he throws but also uses his legs to move the chains, overcoming a torn ACL to where he received the green light to do everything his job description requires at a competitive level is downright impressive.

Giants head coach Brian Daboll shares this sentiment. “What he’s done eight months, or eight and a half months, whatever it may be, and to come back and take every rep. He feels good,” Daboll said this week.

Daboll, who publicly backed Jones as the team’s starter even as Hard Knocks cameras captured him and general manager Joe Schoen was heavily investigating the top quarterbacks in this year’s class–that back taking place earlier int he year when the Giants brass still wasn’t sure if Jones would get the green light to return by camp–has done everything possible to set Jones up for success.

In addition to a (hopefully) improved offensive line, the team added speedster Malik Nabers, who thus far in training camp, has been the real deal with his electrifying speed and ability to get behind defenders.

Another facet of what Daboll has done to ensure Jones is set up for success has been to drastically reduce the number of 7-on-7 drills typically run in camp–drills in which there are no offensive or defensive lines and hence no true pass rush–in favor of as many 11-on-11 drills as possible.

The goal of that is to provide Jones and the rest of the quarterbacks with a pass rush (even though the quarterbacks are protected from being touched) so that they can work on developing the all-important timing with their receivers on the longer passes. 

“The timing, the body language–there’s a lot to the passing game to make it work,” Daboll said. “So, we’re doing as much as we can, whether it’s individual routes, whether it’s certain plays we’re trying to take a look at for those guys. But it’s important to build that chemistry.”

Thus far, through eight practices, Jones’s timing remains a work in progress. At times, he has been mostly on the money, and at others, he has been off. 

On some of those plays in which he’s been off, it’s fair to say that the protection hasn’t held up, or, as was the case on a few pass attempts, there was a miscommunication among the receivers to the point where there might be two receivers within the same vicinity that created a log jam.

Regardless, Daboll sounded pleased with Jones’s commitment and work ethic which backed the quarterback’s bravado mindset from the spring in which he insisted to anyone who asked that he would be ready for training camp with zero limitations.

While Daboll, who has called the plays since the spring, isn’t a fan of mistakes, he’s been much more tolerable of them when they took place in practice, and he’s also been perhaps a little more tolerable when he remembers just how far Jones has come in overcoming his latest adversity. 

“It’s pretty impressive to me in terms of, you have that injury, this is where he's at, this is what he's looked like physically,” Daboll said, adding,  I’m proud of him.”

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