In the most crucial season in the young NFL career of New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, he is holding his own.
The fourth-year former first-rounder out of Duke has led the Giants to a 6-2 record at the break, dragging the team to victory in five of those games by leading fourth-quarter game-winning drives.
That has been enough for the Giants to start considering entering into a long-term relationship with Jones although his personal statistics have been paltry:
143-of-220 passing (65.0 percent) for 1,399 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions for a passer rating of 88.0. In addition, Jones also has 363 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 64 carries (5.7 YPC).
The Giants did not exercise Jones’ fifth-year option this spring with the intention of Jones having to go out and prove himself worth of an extension this season.
Halfway through the year, he’s done everything asked of him and more. There have been rumblings of general manager Joe Schoen readying up an extensive offer to Jones, but as of Tuesday, Jones said the team has not approached him.
Instead, Jones will forge on ahead — as he always does — and continue to try and get his team to a much-desired playoff berth.
“I’m focused on playing the best I can, and that’s kind of been my outlook the whole time. I play the best I can, and let the other stuff work itself out,” Jones told reporters. “There’s always more to do. I think just for me personally, I think I have expectations of myself and goals for myself to continue to improve week to week. How that’s seen by other people is really out of my control. So, for myself and personally I want to improve every week and continue to put this team in a position to win games.”
The Giants are favored this week at home against the 1-6-1 Houston Texans and then host the 2-6 Detroit Lions. There’s a possibility they could be 8-2 heading into the final seven games of the season, five of which will be against NFC East rivals.
Co-owner John Mara said this summer the Giants have done everything possible ‘to screw this kid up’ since they drafted Jones three years ago.
That is still going on, although it’s not the Giants who are screwing him up but rather the football gods. Jones has hardly any weapons to work outside of running back Saquon Barkley thanks to another massive spate of injuries.
The Giants have relied on the legs of Jones and Barkley on offense and a very opportunistic defense to win games. But now, the defense is experiencing injuries, most notably the off-field one to star safety Xavier McKinney.
The injury is one of those unforced errors that has derailed the Giants in the past. Jones handled it like the leader he has become.
“Tough situation there, and I feel for Xavier,” Jones said. “I think it’s a tough situation and feel for him. Support for him, certainly. It’s not easy for him to go through that. We’ll have guys step up and play that role and do a good job, we’re confident in (them).
“He probably regrets it, and we feel for him. I think he certainly doesn’t want to be in that situation. We’ll support him. The next guy up has got to be ready to go.”
