Daniel Jones received a text from the Giants while they were on the clock in the NFL Draft on Thursday night, and given all the buzz about what the team might do with the No. 6 pick, he was forgiven if he feared the worst about what that message might say.
Instead, the text was from general manager Joe Schoen, confirming that the Giants were giving Jones both a No. 1 receiver he so desperately needed and a vote of confidence few around the league expected he would receiver. They not only took LSU star Malik Nabers but, in the process, passed on Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
They had a chance to replace Jones, and instead, sent a loud message to their locker room and fan base that he is still their guy. On a night that saw a record six quarterbacks drafted in the first 12 picks, the Giants declared — for now, at least — that they believe their own franchise passer is already on their roster.
Was that the right decision? Check back in, oh, eight months or so. For that to be true, Jones will have to reward their faith with the kind of season that has so far eluded him.
“He’s fired up,” Schoen said of Jones. The text message chain from the GM to the quarterback included Nabers’ phone number, so presumably, Jones will be among the first to welcome the 20-year-old Youngsville, La., native to New Jersey.
The night could have gone another way. The Giants reportedly tried to trade up to the third pick to grab Drake Maye, but the Patriots were set on keeping the North Carolina quarterback for themselves. Given how much time and effort Schoen spent evaluating the quarterbacks in this class, it is clear that Jones will not exactly have the longest leash when the 2024 season begins.
He’ll have a chance, though, and given all that he’s gone through in his professional career, he’ll gladly take it.
To think: It is just over a year — 415 days, to be exact — since Jones signed a four-year, $160-million contract with the Giants. That deal, with its escape hatch for the team after year two, was hardly an ironclad guarantee that he’d be the team’s franchise quarterback. Even so, neither side could have imagine how quickly things would go sideways.
Jones was pounded in a 40-0 season-opening loss to the Cowboys, then suffered a concerning neck injury before an ACL tear finally ended his season in early November. He has played only six games since the team handed him that nine-figure deal, and still, all signs pointed toward the Giants being ready to mash the reset but and bring in his replacement.
Schoen might have done exactly that had Tommy DeVito not stolen a couple of Ws during a lost season last fall. The fall from No. 3 to 6 in the draft order kept the Giants from having their pick of the elite available quarterbacks, and despite plenty of smoke that Schoen would pull the trigger on a deal to move up, that never materialized. Then, with McCarthy available, Schoen passed.
“Malik was our guy. We targeted him,” the GM said. “You know the players on the board, and we took Malik Nabers.”
Imagine how frustrating it must have been for Jones to look up and down the NFC East and see who his rivals had lined up around him. Jalen Hurts was passing to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith en route to a Super Bowl a couple years ago. Dak Prescott had CeeDee Lamb and a collection of No. 2s — Brandin Cooks, Amari Cooper — who were better than anyone Jones had on his side.
Jones was an easy target without (ahem) an easy target. That changes next season with Nabers, who comes from the same school as former Giants star Odell Beckham Jr. with a different skill set that includes more pure speed and power.
“I’m not coming in to replace Odell — I’m coming to leave my own legacy,” Nabers said, and that’s just fine. Beckham left town in 2019 and no one has come close to replacing him, as a playmaker on the field or a star attraction off it.
Jones has had to make do with the likes of Darius Slayton, Isaiah Hodgins and Kadarius Toney. When the NFL Network’s Rich Eisen reported that the Giants had “buyer’s remorse” over Jones’ big contract, you had to wonder if Jones felt the same way given the team’s inability to surround him with top-level personnel.
The quarterback still has plenty to prove. He has to show that his middling stats — he has 62 touchdown passes in 60 career games — are the product of terrible blocking, multiple offensive coordinators and other circumstances beyond his control. He needs to make Schoen forget about his wanderlust, and that starts with him staying healthy.
Jones needs to have the best season of his career. He won’t have any excuses now about lacking receivers. On a night that many expected the Giants to show him the door, they gave Jones a big playmaker and an even bigger vote of confidence.
Copyright © 2024
Leave a Reply