New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll benched quarterback Daniel Jones in favor of Drew Lock to start the fourth quarter in Sunday’s humiliating loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Daboll claimed the decision was made to help “spark” the struggling offense.
It was a curious decision because the coach had also pulled several of the team’s other starters by the time Lock took the field, and then no such spark was found. Lock appeared less functional than Jones had before him, and that’s saying something.
Despite the benching, Daboll immediately committed to Jones as his starter after the game and reiterated that stance on Monday, telling reporters that DJ gives the Giants the best chance to win.
“I think he gives us the best chance, number one,” he said. “I thought there were a lot of plays that he did exactly what he needed to do and then look, there were some plays where it wasn’t just on Daniel, it was a collection of things. It wasn’t just one person, protection, or a route. It was a collective deal, and we’ll sit here, we’ll watch the tape. We’ll do everything we can do to be better this week.”
Daboll also shut down any potential notion that he may be blowing smoke and could make the move to Lock, adding that Jones will continue to receive all first-team reps in practice.
“No,” Daboll said when asked about Lock getting more reps. “Daniel, again, I made that change when it was 28 to 3, 11 minutes left in the fourth to try to create some type of spark. Obviously, it wasn’t going great. That’s not all on Daniel, trust me. So, again, I told him right after the game that he’s, what I told you guys. He’s the starter, and we’ll work on improving the things we need to improve.”
It’s more likely that the decision to bench Jones for Lock had to do with injury potential rather than actually creating a spark. The game had been lost and Jones was taking a wicked beating.
And Daboll is right about one thing… Based on the quarterback room, Jones does give the Giants their best chance to win. Unfortunately, that’s not much of a chance and there’s been very little winning.
