PFF Has Low Opinion of Giants QB Daniel Jones, But Is It Justified?

Pro Football Focus ranked all 32 quarterback situations ahead of the preseason and Jones didn't get too much respect in this iteration.

New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones / Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Add Pro Football Focus to the growing list of people who are not bullish on New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones.

Trevor Sikkema, in his ranking of all 32 NFL quarterbacks ahead of the 2024 NFL season, put Jones 29th, just ahead of Raiders quarterbacks Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew, Vikings quarterbacks Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy, and Broncos quarterbacks Jarrett Stidham and Bo Nix.

Sikkema’s primary argument for ranking Jones so low is that in the six games he played last season, Jones was “either elite or one of the worst-graded quarterbacks in a given week, with no in-between.”

We’re not quite certain whether Sikkeman’s rankings consider each quarterback’s supporting cast, but in the interest of being fair to Jones, his supporting cast left much to be desired and was often a result of having to be patchworked together. 

Jones’s offensive line, the biggest underperformer of the supporting cast, changed nearly every week thanks to injuries, the biggest being to left tackle Andrew Thomas, who missed several weeks with a hamstring strain. Jones was sacked 30 and pressured on a career-high 30.5 percent of his dropbacks.) 

While Jones hasn’t exactly had an ideal supporting cast around him, he hasn’t been guilt-free in his regression from the 2022 version that looked so much more decisive and in command with the same supporting cast he had in 2023 as last year. 

During that season, Jones compiled career-highs across the board--67.2 percent completion rate, 15 touchdowns, five interceptions, 3,205 passing yards, 708 rushing yards with seven rushing touchdowns, five game-winning drives, 9-6-1 regular season record, one playoff win).

Last year, when he wasn’t struggling behind center, Jones again dealt with injuries, including his second to his neck in three years and the torn ACL, which ended his season in Week 9.

Jones’s biggest step back, in fact, seemed to be a regression in his downfield aggressiveness. Other than for the second half of the Week 2 game against Arizona in which he led the team back from a 20-0 halftime deficit—this without Thomas in the lineup and with a new starting right guard (Marcus McKethan)—Jones always seemed to be reluctant to take a chance slinging it downfield. 

Last season, in 209 dropbacks, Jones attempted just 11 passes of 20+ yards, completing two for 89 yards, the lowest mark among the team’s three quarterbacks. 

The year prior, Jones, in 650 dropbacks, attempted 26 deep passes, completing 10 for 359 yards and two touchdowns, absorbing a career-high 51 sacks. 

Going back to his rookie season (2019), when he had his most productive campaign, Jones completed 16 of 54 deep pass attempts (on 527 dropbacks) for nine touchdowns to four interceptions, absorbing 40 sacks that season.

And of the pressures faced last season, 20 percent were of his own doing.

Add it all together, and you have a quarterback with athletic talent and the ability to make all the throws but who has yet to consistently show the intangibles necessary to slow down the defense’s pursuit, a point Sikkema also made. 

“He is a good athlete whose rushing production and ability to escape the pocket have always been a big part of his game. But in four of his five years with the Giants, he has finished with more turnover-worthy plays than big-time throws.”

Jones, who continues progressing from his ACL injury, aims to return with no restrictions by the time the team begins training camp. Both head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen have said that if healthy, Jones will be the team’s starter.

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