New York Giants Have Failed Daniel Jones Again

The Giants grossly misjudged their offensive line talent, and it's costing them big time.

In 2022, New York Giants co-owner John Mara made a stunning but long overdue admission just moments after the team introduced Joe SChoen as its new general manager.

"We’ve done everything possible to screw this kid up since he’s been here," Mara said.

The evidence was staggering. Since drafting Jones sixth overall in 2019, the Giants have failed to put a decent supporting cast around him, starting with a reliable offensive line that doesn't resemble a bunch of human turnstiles to the receiving weaponry at Jones's disposal to the stability of having the same coach and offensive system for more than a couple of years.

Under Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll, they tried to fix that. When Kafka was part of Andy Reid's staff, Daboll and his hand-picked offensive coordinator, Mike Kafka, designed an offensive system that married concepts run in Buffalo by Daboll and Kansas City.

They brought back a healthy Saquon Barkley to stoke the running game and take some of the onus off Jones at a time when their receiving corps wasn't anything to write home about.

Daniel Jones Opens Up About His Neck Injury

The offensive line?  

Well, here we are again. The Giants offensive line is a problem. Injuries haven't helped the unit one bit, not when they happen to be your two best players, left tackle Andrew Thomas and center John Michael Schmitz. But the inability to get Evan Neal, the seventh overall pick in last year's draft, over the hump or to get this offensive line to where it can recognize and pick up stunts or block for screens has been nothing short of maddening.

This past off-season, the Giants stuck with what they had on the offensive line, save for Schmitz, a move they had to make to stop the revolving door at center. They figured that youngsters like Shane Lemieux, Marcus McKethan, Matthew Peart, and Joshua Ezeudu--all players who missed all or parts of the 2022 season, by the way-- would suddenly given them an abundance of young talent to shore up what's been a problem unit for the better part of the last decade.

They were wrong.  

Thus far this season, Jones hasn't been a quarterback. He's been a human pinball that's been sacked 28 times (putting him on pace to be backed 95.2 times this season, assuming he plays all the snaps the rest of the way) and hit 51 times, including 28 times over the last seven days.

As those beatings slowly sapped the confidence from Jones, who still has a disturbing lack of feel and naturalness in the pocket, we began to see a skittish quarterback behind that offensive line, almost waiting for the inevitable to happen. We saw his internal clock get thrown off course, and we saw the version of Jones that made a lot of Giants fans' stomachs turn earlier in his career.

To that end, the Giants have failed Jones, who took one hit too many this week to where he is now dealing with a neck injury which may or may not be related to the one that cost him the final six games of the 2021 season and which could (depending on the test results) cost him playing time this season.

Jones, who was given a 4-year, $160 million contract, is a quarterback the team felt it could win with and, at the time, was the best option given where the Giants were drafting last year. Whether they actually can win with him against better teams is something we might never know so long as this offensive line continues to resemble a sieve.

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