NFL Insider: Giants "Not Ready" to Close Door on Daniel Jones

The Giants' willingness to run it back with Daniel Jones for one more season comes as no great surprise. But let's take a deeper dive into how this situation might play out.

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen has made zero secret that the franchise still believes in embattled quarterback Daniel Jones, even saying as much at his season-ending press conference.

In case anyone thought that was just Schoen offering encouragement to Jones, who is aggressively rehabbing from a torn ACL, that sentiment appears authentic, according to Bleacher Report insider Jordan Schultz.

“The Giants are not ready to shut the door on him. There’s a lot still to be played out in terms of the Daniel Jones-Giants situation,” Schultz said. “What I’ve been told is that not only does the staff and Brian Daboll believe in Daniel Jones, but (Mike) Kafka and the players do as well.

“When you combine both of those things together . . . there’s a really good shot that Daniel Jones next season is the starting quarterback and that he does return to the type of success he had in 2022.”

Schultz notes that the Giants believe that many of Jones's problems last year in the games he played stemmed from the offensive line's inconsistencies and the injuries to Saquon Barkley and tight end Darren Waller. This opinion is consistent with what Schoen said at his year-end press conference.

Here are a few other points from Schultz's report, along with some additional insight provided by yours truly.

Jones Won't Be Traded

Schultz said that a trade of Jones can be "ruled out." This is obvious for multiple reasons, one of which is that he's still rehabbing from the torn ACL and won't be able to pass a physical in the coming months.

But more importantly, you have the finances. A trade of Daniel Jones before June 1 would mean the Giants save $13.79 million, but they'd also have to eat $33.315 million in dead money.

That's not happening, not for a team that, as of this writing, has $14,014,144 ineffective cap space and $21,847,691 in total space and needs to sign its draft class and add some depth in free agency. (Yes, the Giants can restructure contracts if they need to--and they figure to do that--but Schoen has also said he doesn't want to get into that habit.)

The bottom line is that Jones will be on the roster this year due to the financials.

The Giants Are Going to Address QB in Free Agency

Schoen has also said more than once that the quarterback position needs to be addressed, if for no other reason than the fact that Tyrod Taylor is set to hit free agency, and there is no guarantee the Giants will re-sign him. If they lose Taylor (who has also been injury-prone during his time with the Giants), that leaves them with Tommy DeVito as the only healthy quarterback on the roster as of the spring.

Schoen has said they want to have a guy who, if necessary, can go in there to start the season if Jones isn't ready and can win some games. (Reading between the lines, it's fair to wonder if he thinks that guy is DeVito, who did win three games last year as a rookie starter, including an impressive win over the Green Bay Packers.)

What's worth watching in this case is why Schoen ultimately brings in via free agency and on one kind of contract. My gut feeling is that the Giants will look to do something similar to what they did with Taylor a couple of years ago when there were still questions about Jones's future as the team's franchise quarterback moving forward.

The Giants, remember, brought Taylor, who was widely thought of as one of the top backup quarterbacks in the league at the time of his signing, in on a deal that saw his pay adjusted if he had to go in and start. There is a good chance that the Giants will follow a similar path this off-season as, yet again, questions swirl around Jones's future, though this time for a different reason.

Giants Could Still Draft a QB in the First Two Rounds

This year's quarterbacks class is rich in talent. Right now, the feeling is the Giants, who draft sixth in the order, won't have a chance at one of the top three quarterbacks (USC's Caleb Williams, UNC's Drake Maye, and LSU's Jayden Daniels) unless they trade up (unlikely to happen, by the way, given the haul it would take to get past the quarterback-needy Commanders and Patriots, who draft second and third in the order).

Rather than reach for a quarterback at sixth, it makes more sense for the Giants to draft either a top receiver (one of LSU's Malik Nabors and Washington's Rome Odunze, the top two receivers in this draft class after Ohio State's Marvin Harrison, Jr, who likely won't make it to the Giants at No. 6). Getting a legitimate No. 1 receiver, which is something the Giants haven't had since the days of Odell Beckham Jr, will make a huge difference for whoever is behind center on game day.

Meanwhile, the Giants have two picks in the second round, No. 39 and No. 47, the latter one of the picks they acquired from Seattle in the Leonard Williams trade. The Giants could look to sit tight at this point or, if someone is falling down the board that they have to have at quarterback, maybe look to trade back into the bottom of the first round.

So yes, the Giants may land a quarterback at some point in the first two days of the draft.

Jones's Future

If the Giants draft a quarterback within the first two rounds, where they have three picks, there are a couple of ways to interpret this.

The fact is that Jones is likely one more neck injury away from his career being placed in serious jeopardy. Schoen himself said that they can't bury their heads in the sand regarding Jones's injury history, which is why quarterback is such a pressing need this off-season.

Assuming the Giants draft a quarterback with one of their first three picks, the likely plan is to let Jones, if he's healthy, or the veteran backup if Jones isn't healthy, start the season while the rookie sits and gets some fine-tuning on his development. This would mirror how the Kansas City Chiefs handled Patrick Mahomes and the Green Bay Packers handled Jordan Love.

If Jones does well when he returns, the Giants can see if they can find a trade partner for Jones after the season, much like how the Chiefs traded Alex Smith in 2018 for cornerback Kendall Fuller and a 2018 third-round.

Would another team give up at least a third-round pick for Jones in a trade? Smith, remember, was 34 and a three-time Pro Bowler when he was traded. Jones, who doesn't have the Pro Bowl pedigree Smith had, would be 27. Jones's appeal in the trade market would likely come down to the depth of the 2025 quarterback class and if teams were looking for a veteran over a rookie.

The Bottom Line

In putting the pieces of the puzzle together, Schultz concluded, “When you combine both of those things together . . . there’s a really good shot that Daniel Jones next season is the starting quarterback and that he does return to the type of success he had in 2022.”

Schoen confirmed this thinking in his year-end presser when he said, "You do a deal with Daniel, and you see how it was structured, so you try to expedite the process and give him a chance to succeed."

There is one small problem, though, with this thinking. Injuries are going to happen. Taylor and DeVito played behind a sub-par offensive line, yet each managed to move the offense and score points. Both had Saquon Barkley and Andrew Thomas in the lineup, but both were also without Darren Waller at times in their starting stints.

So the big question regarding Jones is at what point do they take a good, long, hard look in the mirror and realize that there are no longer excuses to be made for any future struggles Jones might encounter? 

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