This Off-season Report Debunked in Giants' "Hard Knocks" Season Premiere

The Giants were reportedly "done" with quarterback Daniel Jones. However, the premiere of Hard Knocks appears to have debunked that notion.

Daniel Jones, quarterback. The NY Giants NFL team held an organized team activity at their training facility in East Rutherford, NJ on Thursday May 30, 2024. / Tariq Zehawi/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY

NFL Network's Rich Eisen made headlines in early March when, on his podcast, he spoke about the biggest rumors he heard at the annual NFL scouting combine, one of which was that the New York Giants had "buyer’s remorse" about the four-year, $160 million contract they gave to quarterback Daniel Jones following the 2022 season.

"Done," Eisen said on his podcast. "Might have to play him this year... The words I heard at the combine multiple times, two words, were 'buyer's remorse.'"

Giants general manager Joe Schoen, who addressed the media more than a month later as part of his draft preview press conference, denied that what Eisen had allegedly heard was accurate.

"There's stuff out there all the time that's not true," Schoen said in response to the questions about Eisen’s report.

"I'm still confident in Daniel, the way he's wired, what he showed us in 2022. I've still got a lot of confidence in Daniel."

Schoen has said since the day after the Giants' 2023 season ended that the plan was for Jones to be the team's starting quarterback once he recovered from a torn ACL. He continued to insist that at every press briefing he held afterward, as did head coach Brian Daboll.

In the series premiere of Hard Knocks, which focuses on the Giants' off-season, Schoen again emphasized the organization's commitment to Jones. Jones's contract was constructed to include all his guaranteed money being paid in the deal's first two years.

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"The reality is -- facts -- [Jones has had] three serious injuries in two years," Schoen said in the episode. 

"We need to protect ourselves. He didn't have much of a chance this year. That's legit. Like your offseason, your core guys that were gonna play together played less than 60 snaps together. Miami, we got three practice squad guys playing for us.

"You could have Pat Mahomes, and he can't win behind that. I'm not giving up on (Jones). He's under contract for three more years. Just protecting ourselves, because [the] best predictor of the future is the past."

Schoen's belief in Jones, who had his best season in 2022 when he stayed healthy and let the team to its first postseason berth since 2016 and its first postseason win since 2011, is believed to be the catalyst behind his plan to restock the offensive line, a unit that's been a problem for years, even if it meant not having a chance to re-sign running back Saquon Barkley.

In Schoen's mind, adding to the offensive line was wiser to give the offense a chance at being productive. 

In the segment filmed before the draft and before tight end Darren Waller decided to retire, he pointed out that the team already had some solid skill position playmakers and that the offensive line additions, plus a running back to replace Barkley and a No. 1 receiver, made the most sense for the franchise which needed to determine if Jones, entering his sixth NFL season this year, is the guy moving forward.

“This is the year for Daniel,” Schoen said, adding, “Plan all along was [to] give him a couple of years. Is he our guy for the next ten years, or do we need to pivot and find somebody else?”

What hasn’t yet been addressed in the series is whether the numerous reports of the Giants looking to trade up to the third spot in the draft with New England to have a chance at quarterback Drake Maye were true. 

If that answer does get revealed, some might interpret it as validating what Eisen heard during the combine. 

But even if it is proven that the Giants were desperate to move on from Jones, the counterargument is why they didn’t look to come out of what was a historically deep quarterback class with their signal caller of the future, whom they could have afforded the opportunity to sit for a year while Jones played out the string.   

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