After the New York Giants failed to land a new quarterback in the 2024 NFL draft, the debate immediately shifted to who would win the starting job out of training camp: Daniel Jones or Drew Lock.
The desperation to have anyone start other than Jones has clouded the minds of many, including former Giants vice president of player evaluation and director of college scouting Marc Ross.
Like many DJ detractors, Ross has convinced himself that the Giants won’t go with the former No. 6 overall pick under center. General manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll, despite transparently hitching their wagon to Jones, must go with someone else.
“Yes, (Lock) does (have a chance to start). And I think our guy Mike Garafolo hinted at it when they said, ‘Yeah, there can be an open competition.’ And I think there really should be,” Ross said on NFL Total Access this week. “You look at the Giants’ offense last year and they played better, they scored more points and they won more games when Tyrod Taylor and Tommy Cutlets, Tommy DeVito played, as opposed to Daniel, when Daniel Jones played. It’s the combination of the injuries and the inconsistent and, at times, not very good play there.
“So there’s still a little small contingent of Giants fans holding onto Daniel Jones. But Drew Lock, I think if they give him an honest, open competition, he might just flat-out win the job, if not Day 1 then at some point during the season.”
The main problem with Ross’ commentary is that Garafolo never said there would be an open competition between Jones and Lock. In fact, the veteran reporter very specifically stated that Jones would be the team’s starter in Week 1 and would only, potentially, relinquish that job if he regressed throughout the season.
“If you get into the season and Daniel Jones isn’t playing well then perhaps (Lock) will push him,” Garafolo said. “But I want to be clear about — and what the Giants have been clear about — is that if Daniel Jones is healthy, and they do hope and expect that he’s going to be healthy (by) Week 1, he is going to be the quarterback.”
At the time of his signing, the Giants very explicitly told Lock that Jones would be the starter and he’d be serving as DJ’s backup.
“Daniel Jones is the starter of this team. That’s been conveyed to me,” Lock told reporters in March. “Now, I need to come in and push Daniel to be the best that he can be. That’s the role that I played for Geno [Smith], that’s the role I played for Teddy [Bridgewater].”
But why let facts get in the way of a good offseason narrative? Something has to fill the empty space before training camp opens.
