How Daniel Jones will benefit from his upcoming preseason start

Giants head coach Pat Shurmur announced that Daniel Jones will get his first NFL start in Thursday night's preseason finale against the Patriots. Here's a look at how Jones can benefit from the starting assignment.

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Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones, who has been the toast of the preseason given his play, will be taking the next big step in his orientation as a future starting NFL quarterback Thursday night when he gets the starting assignment in the team's preseason finale.

Coach Shurmur announces Daniel Jones will start against the Patriots on Thursday. Eli Manning will not play. pic.twitter.com/K9ZEnT86YB

— New York Giants (@Giants) August 25, 2019

"It is an important step in his development," said Mark Schofield, the LockedOn NFL podcast network's quarterbacks expert and contributing writer to Inside the Pylon.

"It is another marker in the process of learning how to be a professional quarterback. Sure, Daniel Jones has started games before, but not in the NFL. Sure, he's known during the preseason that he'll be playing, but it is another thing entirely to know four full nights ahead of time that you're out there to start things off."

While Shurmur hasn't indicated how many snaps the rookie will see, besides not having started a game and not having played through halftime, Thursday night will provide Jones with the next logical step in his NFL development.

"Playing quarterback is in large part all about comfort and feel, and now he'll get a chance to experience going through the buildup to a game knowing he's the starter," Schofield said.

"Going through the final walkthrough, going through the pregame, dealing with pregame jitters of a different kind," he said.

Jones figures to get plenty of work behind the starting offensive line, which so far this summer has played approximately 60 snaps over the first three games, as well as the backup offensive line.

With Manning already declared as the starter for the immediate future, this opportunity will be the last one for the Giants to get Jones those last few remaining experiences that are common for a starting NFL quarterback but which he has yet to experience.

"It's important to have him experience that," Schofield said. "And it's important that he's done both, so whenever the sees the field in a live game, it will at least be in a scenario he's had some experience with.

"There's no real way to replicate taking the field the first time as an NFL player in a regular-season game, but they're giving him as many facsimiles as they can."

While it hasn't been said how long Jones will play, Schofield noted that it's not as crucial for the rookie to play through halftime right now, though if the circumstances do present themselves, it won't hurt the rookie's development.

"I'm reminded of something John Madden wrote in one of his books" Football players are creatures of habit. New and unfamiliar experiences - such as longer halftimes, travel delays, etc. - cause strife," Schofield said.

"So letting Jones get a feel for starting a game, or playing into and out of halftime, will make things that much easier on him when he eventually has to do it for real."