Giants Country

New York Giants Reader Mailbag: Daniel Jones, Daniel Jones, Daniel Jones

Let's see what's on the readers' minds this week.

Patricia Traina

New York Giants Mailbag
New York Giants Mailbag / Patricia Traina | New York Giants on SI
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So everyone wants to blame DJ only for the week 1 loss. Yes, after all, he dropped 5 passes. Yes, even the announcers said, "Jones is being pressured, AGAIN." 

Also, they said looks like the receivers don't know where to go. He called two running plays for himself at the 50-yard. line. He missed the block playing RT on the screen to 4 WRs that should have been WR going out on crisscrossing patterns. 

Of course, he gave up the 12 in a row pass completions by Darnold and the 99-yard TD drive. He was the one that failed to rush the passer, AGAIN. 

He did throw one bad int. and missed a couple of throws on the running away from pressure. He missed OL blocks, and of course, he wanted to run out of the pocket with big D players chasing him. Why didn't DJ block to open up running lanes? 

Or why didn't DJ run patterns to get separation or call for throwing to WR with all that speed, several deep passes, or all the 9 accepted penalties, including the bad pass interference call on Adoree. Yes, it's ALL DJ's fault. 

WAKE UP. This loss is because of three things with one thing in common, DABOLL. 1. bad play calling, 2. The Giants were not ready to play in game one, AGAIN, 3. Daboll was outcoached, AGAIN. 

DJ is not blameless, but neither is Daboll, The OL, the receivers, the lack of a pass rush, the bad pass coverage. Can anyone say that Daboll coached a good game? Or wasn't outcoached by the Vikings staff? - Joe G.

Joe, my sincerest wish is that all the single folks out there looking for a lifelong partner find someone who will love them, faults and all, as much as you seem to love Daniel Jones. 

You regurgitate cherry-picked facts to support your argument; and I'm sorry, but your lack of objectivity here doesn't cut it with me. Your latest letter smacks of desperation to absolve Jones of his share of the blame in the debacle when, in fact, NO ONE is saying he is solely to blame for the loss. 

Let me hit you with some FACTS about Daniel Jones and his showing last week. Per NFL NextGen Stats and from actually having watched the film from this last game rather than seeing what I want to see.

The Giants receivers averaged 4.4 yards of separation, which is the fourth-best in the NFL. So don't tell me the receivers weren’t getting open. 

He averaged 2.82 seconds to throw, which is the eighth-best mark in the league out of 32 quarterbacks, so don’t tell me the offensive line was garbage for the entire game. (It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as you make it out to be.)

Jones locks in on his first read and if that read is taken away or isn't the best option, that's all she wrote. Witness this play in which he had a clean pocket to step up into and a wide-open receiver on the right side, yet he NEVER looked in that direction.

Why? Because he's a one-read quarterback who, thanks to getting hit a lot in his career, has no sense of how much time he has in the pocket to where he goes through progressions. I've been saying this for months, if not years, and I'm not saying it to be mean. It's what I see from him.

You seem so desperate to defend Jones that you’re now claiming that some people believe it’s his fault the defense and special teams weren’t sharp. Give me a break! 

I haven’t seen or heard one media report blaming him for the defensive woes or the special teams issues. Yet you seem to be wiling to blame Daboll for the performance of the players? Can’t have it both ways, my friend. 

People are upset because this guy is in year SIX, and he’s still struggling with post-snap reads, looking lost when his first read is taken away from him, showing ZERO feel for the pocket (he ran himself into three of his five sacks!), and forcing balls into windows where he has no business throwing to.   

Did Daboll call a brilliant game? No. Did the defense play lights out? No. Did the team look flat and uninspired on a day when they were honoring the franchise’s legends? Yes.   

Do yourself a favor, Joe. Take off the rose-colored glasses when it comes to Daniel Jones and watch some film. Run the plays in slow motion and leave out the television broadcast commentary. I can guarantee you you’ll see what I and others have said about Jones’s shortcomings, which are not figments of our imagination.  

And if that doesn’t convince you, use common sense. This team’s brass seriously looked into replacing him in the offseason, so they were willing to trade draft assets that could otherwise have been used on pressing needs.

If that doesn’t SCREAM to you that they’re not completely sold him the way you are, if the fact that Brian Daboll can’t answer a simple yes or no question about having faith in Jones, then my gosh, Joe, I don’t know what else to tell you. 

Your platform and writers were extremely critical of offensive line coach bobby johnson and Mike Kafka. Those guys were replaced. Who do you blame now for this dismal showing? – Dennis W.

Dennis, recollections may vary in that I don’t recall us being as critical of Kafka as we were of Johnson, who I will maintain didn’t do a good enough job of developing the young talent on the team–and the proof is in the pudding on that. But as I said in the above response, the problems were across the board. 

As for the o-line, per PFF, Jones was responsible for the 38.9 percent of the pressures against him in Week 1, the highest percentage of four quarterbacks with at least 15 dropbacks being under pressure. Jones was also directly responsible for running himself into three of the five sacks he took and seven of the 20 pressures. Bottom line though is htat with very few exceptions, no one in either facet of the game played well.

Bill, the Giants have surrounded Daniel Jones with his best supporting cast to date. They have turned to head coach Brian Daboll to call plays, which is part of why they hired Daboll in the first place. And Jones works his tail off every day.

If Jones is “right” mentally, he can get back on track. But I need to see it because I thought he looked squeamish in the first game to the point where it was alarming. Jones says he’s mentally tough. I say, "Don’t tell me–show me." And I hope he does.

The whole team needs to get its colletive butt in gear--including Daboll and the coaches.

If he's healthy and plays a decent game, Jones will be. If he is healthy and wets the bed this weekend, then all bets are off.

They're not trading for DeShaun Watson. People REALLY need to let this idea go. Watson has a fully guaranteed contract, and if people are complaining about Jones's cap hit, try dealing with a fully guaranteed contract for a player whose NFL future sounds like it's up in the air.

If anything, they'll start over with a young prospect and let Brian Daboll groom that prospect as he did with Josh Allen.

As explained in this article, Hyatt is currently the fourth receiver behind Nabers, Robinson, and Slayton. With there being so many balls to go around, he ended up with the short straw. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets more targets this weekend. If the Giants can't light it up against that banged-up Commanders defensive secondary, then I don’t know what else to tell you.

I know people don't want to hear this, but it's just one game so I for one am not panicking over that disappointment just yet. That said, if those two can’t figure out how to beat chips and turn up the heat starting this week, then I might start my worry meter.

I don't see the Jets trading Tyrod Taylor to the Giants, so i think you can forget about that. I think Ryan Tannehill is still out there, but the problem you run into is he has to learn a brand-new offense.

That’s not to say that he can't do so, but in case you haven’t noticed, since Daboll has been the head coach, whenever this team has brought in a quarterback, it’s usually been someone who has prior experience in the system he’s run, be it here or with Buffalo.

So if the Giants do decide to bench Daniel Jones, I think the next man up becomes Drew Lock with DeVito as the backup, and Jones as the emergency option. 

The rookies. I wrote about them in this article, so have a look.

Paul, I think this year is what it is unless a rash of injuries forces the Giants’ hand. If the team moves on from Daniel Jones after this season, they better hope they're high enough in the draft order and/or have a lot of extra draft picks if they have to move up for a blue-choip, can't-miss prospect. 

The team also will have to decide whether to extend Lock and DeVito, both of whose contracts I believe expire after this year. What they do there is to be determined. But I would think they’d want a transitional player in there until a rookie is up to speed.

This is NOT to compare the talent level of the 2007 team with the 2024 team, but I vividly remember people screaming about how that season was over after an 0-2 start in which the defense gave up 80 points in those first two games only to turn things around. In other words, chill out, and let’s see what happens this weekend before we declare the season over.

Howie, I’ve long said that for a quarterback to have any chance of success, you want to make sure the pieces around him are stable and solid. The Giants have done a poor job of that, but I think this year is the best it’s been for Daniel Jones in his now six seasons.

As a long-time Phil Simms–his is the first and only jersey I ever spent my hard-earned allowance money on as a kid–the fan in me says yes. However, the reporter in me says making a compelling argument to convince the Hall of Fame voting committee to vote for him is a long and arduous road that I don’t see going in that direction.

Benny, I’m really not sure what you’re talking about here. John Michael Schmitz wasn’t the weak link on the offensive line. In fact, he was mostly solid last week (and please don’t respond with PFF’s grades because I don’t put stock in those since they’re not reflective of what the assignments are.)

The only issue with Schmitz’s game was he was getting pushed into the backfield by power on one occasion, but he stood up quite well to several subsequent bull rushes. He’s not really a physical player, but he ran the operation smoothly, his mobility and balance on the move were positive. He also did a good job getting to the second level and making good decisions with his double-teams. 

Now that all said, he was not challenged very often one-on-one, so his help-blocking was important. But I didn’t have a problem with JMS’s game last week. And to assume he didn’t step up to defend Daniel Jones because he doesn’t want to be seen this week is as big of a reach as you can make.

You're never going to fill every need in an offseason. And as we saw on Hard Knocks, Joe Schoen knew it would be hard to get a cornerback in free agency–remember, they tried to land three different veterans during free agency without any success.

Their only hope was the draft, and the two cornerbacks they wanted in the second round were gone by the time they went on the clock–they sacrificed cornerback for Brian Burns. Had they had that first of two second-round picks, they would have gotten their cornerback. That said, you can write in ink that cornerback is going to be a top priority next offseason for this team.

Rob, I wouldn't worry about the cap space for next year right now. Every year fans make that mistake, and I keep telling them the cap is fluid. Remember how last year everyone was so excited because the Giants had like $40 million which by the time they got to free agency, I don’t think they had that much. 

Remember, there is postseason accounting to be done, which may or may not affect the cap. Cuts will be made, and we don’t yet know what the 2025 cap figure is. So let’s put the brakes on worrying about that until we have a more complete picture regarding those factors. Let's revisit the question again at the end of the season when we can at least have a better idea as to where things are headed.

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Patricia Traina

PATRICIA TRAINA

Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for over three decades for various media outlets. She is the host of the Locked On Giants podcast and the author of "The Big 50: New York Giants: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants" (Triumph Books, September 2020). View Patricia's full bio.

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