Giants Country

How New York Giants Can Help Fix Daniel Jones's Ball Security Issue

Daniel Jones has 30 career fumbles in 28 games, 18 of which he's lost to the other team. If the Giants are going to have him perform RPOs and zone reads, the ball security issue needs to be fixed once and for all.

Patricia Traina

Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com via Imagn Content Services, LLC

In football, there's a saying that every play--even those that look identical to the naked eye--has its own story.

While that's sort of true for quarterback Daniel Jones's 30 career fumbles, they all have one thing in common other than they shouldn't be happening at this point, and that is Jones isn't securing the ball high and tight when he takes off as a runner the way a running back might be coached to do.

Jones's latest fumble came as he crossed into the red zone against the Broncos Sunday, a loose ball recovered by the other team that ended the Giants' most promising scoring drive since they took a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter.

And sure enough, after the game, there was Jones, as he's done 29 times prior when he fumbled, talking about how he has to do a better job, how he can't be fumbling, etc.

It's enough to drive a coaching staff mad because for all the things Jones does well, it takes that one boneheaded and careless moment with the ball to undo it in a snap. And the ball security issues are squarely on Jones--not his protection, not his skill position players, and certainly not on the offensive coordinator.

So the multimillion-dollar question is how the heck do the Giants fix this chronic problem once and for all?

"Like him, with any other player as well, you’ve got to show them on tape what’s happening, show them what the symptom is and why it’s been an issue, and then you’ve got to make sure you drill it on the field and improve the technique," said head coach Joe Judge.

"We’ve got to keep doing a better job of coaching, putting our players in a position within practice where we’re getting the ball attacked and the exact fundamentals of what they’re getting issues with."

Teaching is one thing; however, Jones, from all accounts, is certainly a quick study in the classroom and an intelligent player. But sometimes, when one is in the heat of battle, instincts take over.

And those instincts don't always align with smart football or fundamentals, such as Jones's choosing to lower his shoulder and drive straight ahead to pick up extra yardage rather than slide and give himself up, the latter being what the coaches teach.

"There are times where a guy’s going to be aggressive and he’s going to have to go ahead and lower his shoulder to get an extra yard in a got-to-have-it type of situation. There are other times as a quarterback where you go ahead, and you slide, and you avoid the contact," Judge said.

To Jones, every situation seems to be a "got-to-have-it" moment.

"Look, Daniel’s a tough dude and I’m the one that’s got to tell him to slide sometimes," Judge said. "I know he hates hearing that. He doesn’t want to be treated like he’s got kid gloves on, but that’s part of what we teach him in terms of getting down and protecting."

If Jones is going to insist on not being handled with kid gloves, what's the answer then to fixing his fumbling problem/

"I’d say the coaching on any of these situations is if it’s not a 'got-to-have it,' you want to protect the ball as best as we can, whether it’s getting out of bounds or sliding and getting down," Judge said.

There's also the old Tiki Barber approach, "high and tight," which fixed a chronic fumbling problem Barber struggled with early in his career. To fix the issue, the coaches had Barber carry the football everywhere he went in the facility high and tight, with people randomly trying to knock it out of his grasp--unsuccessfully at that once he got the hang of it.

That might be an extreme step, though, for a player whose primary job description is to move the chains by throwing the ball and whose priority needs to be on making smart post-snap reads.

If the Giants are going to continue taking advantage of Jones's athleticism and ability to use his legs, teaching "high and tight" along with getting him to slide to protect himself is something that, if not already part of the daily routine, should be incorporated as soon as possible.

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Patricia Traina
PATRICIA TRAINA

Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for 30+ seasons, and her work has appeared in multiple media outlets, including The Athletic, Forbes, Bleacher Report, and the Sports Illustrated media group. As a credentialed New York Giants press corps member, Patricia has also covered five Super Bowls (three featuring the Giants), the annual NFL draft, and the NFL Scouting Combine. She is the author of The Big 50: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants. In addition to her work with New York Giants On SI, Patricia hosts the Locked On Giants podcast. Patricia is also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the Football Writers Association of America.

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