Emmanuel Acho Favors Giants Benching Daniel Jones

Why Acho's take makes no sense.

Aug 17, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) scrambles 16 yards and slides against Houston Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. (24) in the first quarter at NRG Stadium. / Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports

In the aftermath of his subpar preseason performance against the Houston Texans, New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones’ perpetual miscues have been under the microscope as the team braces to make its final roster decisions for the 2024 regular season. 

Returning to the field for his first game reps since tearing his ACL last November, Jones looked shaky as he struggled to make smart decisions with the football in two quarters of play on Saturday. 

He turned things around in the second to command two scoring drives with the starting offense, but not before throwing two foolish interceptions in the first quarter of the 28-10 loss that has put his development back into question. 

The glaring fact that a player at this stage of his NFL career, some six years in, hasn’t figured out how to protect the football and keep it out of harm's way is certainly head scratching to say the least, but then there is the opinion of FOX Sports 1 analyst (and one-time Giants linebacker) Emmanuel Acho, who has seen enough, and is employing the Giants leadership to push the topic to the extreme and sit Jones down on the bench.

“If the New York Giants do not bench Daniel Jones, they are admitting they are forfeiting the season,” Acho said on the network’s Speak show. 

“When you walk into an NFL locker room and Daniel Jones is your starting quarterback, you are admitting not just to the 53 players, plus the ten practice squad players, you are admitting to the fans, ‘We are submitting during the season, we are already saying mercy, we are losing.’

“You are betraying the entire organization when you make Daniel Jones the starter, because all of their work is void by starting Daniel Jones. That’s like adding all of the numbers into a calculator and hitting ‘times zero’--you will always end up with zero.”

While Acho’s take is not only an absolutely absurd one, to be frank, the issue of Jones as the Giants starting gunslinger has been hashed out many times before. 

The truth, even if those like Acho don’t want to buy into it, is that Jones is the best option the franchise has on its roster, and that isn’t going to change, at least not right now. 

Of course, the Giants are financially bound to the No. 6 overall pick for $40 million this season, which would entice most teams to run with a certain guy, but that element is merely a formality at this point. 

The team’s brass made it clear throughout the offseason that they are treating the year as a ride-or-die campaign with Jones as the starter, and both their maneuvers and his teammates have rallied behind that statement.

The turnovers are definitely something Jones has to clean up if he wants to have a long-term future in the Big Apple, but the Giants are hopeful everything they’ve done to install pieces around him will help with that. The receiving weapons have already shown flashes in camp and the games, like wide receiver and projected No. 1 option Malik Nabers, to put some excitement around the targets he’ll throw to, and the starting offensive line has looked like a better pass-blocking unit than the 31st ranked failure we saw last season. 

It’ll now be up to Jones to shake off the cobwebs and be efficient with the football, something that he has been better at than the competition in the last three seasons. 

Since 2019, when his mishaps topped at a career-high 12, Jones has kept his interception totals below double digits in three of the last four campaigns. He posted a career-low five picks in 2022 when he threw for 3,200 yards and won a playoff game in Minnesota and then followed it up with six, albeit in a shortened 2023 season due to injury.

Meanwhile, the Giants' backups, Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito, have not been as proficient in their early careers. Locke, who is already dealing with a hip injury and holds 23 career starts, has just one season of at least 2,000 passing yards under his belt and posted a 16-15 touchdown to interception ratio in that span. 

DeVito was a feel-good story in his nine games played last season after Jones went and Tyrod Taylor went down but is nothing more than a game manager who needs growth when it comes to his skill set.

In the preseason, neither backup option has looked like a player that could steal the job from their veteran counterpart. Locke survived just one quarter of play in the opener with the Lions where he threw an interception before leaving with the ailment. DeVito has earned some valuable time under center, but also been unable to surpass 100 yards passing in his two trials and push the ball very far, let alone into the endzone. 

Add in the element of quality rushing with the football, and there is no other option on the Giants roster that compares to the overall package Jones brings when is healthy. His first preseason showing might have been concerning, but those like Acho need to remember that it is not always indicative of how a player will perform once the competition matters in September onward.

That was clear last preseason when Jones and the starters looked good during their dress rehearsals before collapsing in a 6-11 season. As long as Jones stays upright and handles the pigskin smartly, he is in a better position than ever to give the Giants offense what it needs to succeed. 

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