What Daniel Jones needs to improve ahead of his next start

Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones was very self-critical of his first NFL start, saying he had some things to work on. Here is a checklist of what some of those things might include.

Daniel Jones’ first start as the New York Giants’ quarterback went about as well as could be reasonably expected. 

He completed over 60 percent of his passes, the Giants scored more points than in their first two weeks combined and clawed their way back from a deep hole to claim their first win in dramatic fashion.

But that doesn’t mean everything was perfect for Jones, that he is a finished product and there isn’t anything left upon which he can improve. 

There are certainly issues in Jones’ game that he will need to address in his preparation for the Washington Redskins and in practice going forward.

Pocket awareness

Jones was under heavy pressure from Shaquil Barrett and the rest of the Tampa Bay defensive front and has been praised for how he handled that pressure. 

Jones’ willingness to stand and deliver the ball in the face of a pass rush is consistent with the pre-draft scouting reports based on his play at Duke. 

But there is a fine line between a quarterback being poised in the pocket and unaware of his surroundings, and at times, Jones seemed to drift into the latter territory.

Jones was sacked five times and hit another 11, and on some of those instances, he seemed unaware that there was a defender closing in on him. 

In those cases, he didn’t react and try to move within the pocket or protect the football until the defender got a hand on him. 

Sometimes he was able to shrug off the sack attempt (or the defender took a bad angle) and extend the play, but the door was still open for the defender to make a play.

Obviously nobody wants to see Jones become overly sensitive to pressure and start hearing footsteps in the backfield, but he should work on being more aware of his surroundings in the pocket. 

Part of Jones development will need to be recognizing when pressure is imminent and reacting appropriately. 

He will also make sure he is getting the ball out on time whenever possible, but also work on using his peripheral vision to alert him to pressure and either flow in the pocket or take steps to secure the ball (either throwing it away or tucking it away securely)

The Giants have a good guard duo who should set a deep enough pocket for him to step up and avoid pressure off of the edge. 

In their primes, Eli and Peyton Manning were each among the least-sacked quarterbacks in the NFL, due in large part to their ability to identify from where pressure is coming and either navigate the pocket to avoid it or speed up their process to beat the pressure.

These are things Jones should be able to work on, but it isn’t something he will be able to fix in just one week of practice.

Eye discipline

At times Jones showed the understanding and ability to manipulate the defense with his eyes and body language. 

Identifying which players are dropping in coverage and using his eyes to move that player away from where he intends to go with the ball is an important trait in a quarterback, and it’s a good sign that Jones has flashed the ability to do it early in his career. 

However, there are also times where he gets tunnel vision, locking on to his intended target and never deviating. 

That eye discipline can lead defenders to his intended targets, leading to tighter coverage, smaller passing windows, big hits to receivers, and potential interceptions.

The good news is that this can be worked on during the week and should improve as Jones gets more comfortable in the Giants’ offense and processing information at the speed of the game at the NFL level.

Accuracy and precision

This has been a concern for Jones going back to his college scouting reports. Jones generally threw the ball well against Tampa Bay, completing nearly 64 percent of his passes. 

But in looking closer at his passes, we see that not all of his completions were the same.

Precision and placement, the ability of the quarterback to put the ball in a place where the receiver can catch it relatively easily and safely without having to contort, and be set up for yards after the catch, are somewhat in the eye of the beholder. 

After rewatching the game, it is fair to say that about 10 of Jones' passes were poorly placed. Not all of these fell incomplete; some, such as Evan Engram's spectacular one-handed catch or Saquon Barkley's 6-yard reception along the left sideline, were hauled in by the receiver.

Generally speaking, Jones was much better and more effective throwing in the middle of the field and his placement issues only showed up when throwing outside the numbers, toward the sidelines.

Whether or not a young quarterback can improve his accuracy and precision is a topic which is still up for debate. 

Historically speaking, a quarterback's performance at the college level roughly represents his ceiling as a passer. While improvements can obviously be made with more coaching and experience, the speed of the game and the quality of defenders will increase as well.

But there is no reason why the Giants shouldn't work with Jones to try improving those traits. 

Considering the Giants' offense is based in large part on yards after the catch, Jones' ability to maximize the offenses' potential is something they absolutely should try to improve.

Looking ahead

What should we expect from Jones this weekend against Washington and beyond that as well?

The most likely answer is an incremental improvement. Jones should be able to improve on most of his issues as he takes more practice reps and sees more in games.

We won’t see massive strides in just a week’s time, but we should see improvement from game to game. 

We can only wait and see what strides Jones will be able to make over the course of the season.