Daniel Jones wasn’t thrilled that Giants coach Brian Daboll sent him to the bench this week when the rest of the team did 11-on-11 drills. The quarterback’s knee still is a little tender. But Jones is competitive.
“I wasn’t pumped up,” Jones told reporters following Tuesday’s session of minicamp. “I’m not a coach, I don’t make those calls. I understand. Dabs wanted to get a lot of team work and that’s what they did. Yeah, wasn’t my favorite thing, but that’s not my job.”
From that comment alone, Giants fans probably can ascertain that Jones’ surgically-repaired knee is feeling pretty good. He tore his ACL in November, so he still has some rehab to go. But Jones was healthy enough to go through some seven-on-seven drills. However, Daboll didn’t want to push his starter too far in 11-on-11, even though the drills are non contact.
“Knee feels good. Really good,” the Giants quarterback said. “I think every week I’ve continued to feel better and better and taking steps. Doing a lot of the same things I’ve been doing, but doing them better and feeling sharper, cleaner with a lot of my cuts. Kind of working on getting that explosiveness back and then taking steps in improving my change of direction and cutting from even where it was before the injury.”
Jones, specifically, and the Giants, overall, suffered through a bad season in 2023. Jones hurt his neck and then his knee. It’s why he started only six games. It definitely was dangerous for one’s health to play quarterback for the Giants.
New York allowed a league-high 85 sacks last season. Now, for some context. The Panthers and Commanders tied for second in sacks allowed. Each team was 20 behind the Giants. However, New York shopped the free agent market and signed four new offensive linemen. You can’t solely blame the line for sacks. The Giants used three quarterbacks, going from Jones to journeyman Tyrod Taylor to undrafted free agent rookie Tommy DeVito.
Taylor signed with the Jets in the off season. But DeVito, a fan favorite from New Jersey, is still around. Plus, the Giants signed Drew Lock, a former second-round pick, from the Seahawks. He has started games for both the Broncos and Seahawks.
There was some chatter that the Giants wanted to use the sixth pick of the draft to select a quarterback.
“I mean, I wasn’t fired up about it,” Jones told reporters last month.
Instead, New York went with dazzling LSU wide out Malik Nabers instead of a QB. The Giants reportedly wanted North Carolina’s Drake Maye. However, the Patriots selected him at No. 3. The Giants didn’t want to use the sixth pick on Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr or Oregon’s Bo Nix. (All three of those quarterbacks then were off the board by pick 12.)
Instead of breaking in a rookie, the Giants will nurse along Jones’ knee. Jones, the former Duke star, says he’ll be ready for training camp next month. However, If the knee still isn’t strong enough to start the season, then Lock could go as Plan B. Or maybe New York goes with DeVito, who started six games as a rookie.
But plan A is a healthy Jones.
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