It's another gloomy Monday morning in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the topic is of interest Jets Fans is not whether Aaron Rodgers can still lead Gang Green to the playoffs, but whether the team can easily get rid of Aaron Rodgers following the season. Can't beat that Giants do their own number in the East Coast dance of quarterback malaise, Daniel Jones pull the plug after a 2-8 start.
It is neither an unreasonable nor a surprising move. Jones essentially had six years to audition to be the Giants' quarterback, and generally speaking, the less busy he was with throwing the football, the better the Giants performed. Despite missing multiple games due to injury in four different seasons, the former first-round draft pick has the fifth-most turnovers (73) of any player Player since 2019, his first year on the scene. It was time.
And yet now is the time to applaud the Giants for this decision? It's very possible, if not likely, that this is a newcomer Tommy DeVitoA fan favorite in his early years due to his local ties and athleticism, he will provide a temporary boost to New York's offense. Both DeVito and other reserves Drew Lock may offer more upside than Jonesas do the majority of signal callers in the NFL.
But that raises additional questions: Why on earth did it get to this point? Why did it take the Giants more than half a decade to come to this conclusion? Why did it take the current regime almost three years? Better yet, why isn't the offensive infrastructure demonstrably better than it was at Jones when Pat Shurmur was head coach? Eli Manning was still in uniform? Jones may not have upgraded the G-Men properly in 69 rocky starts, but how many times did his staff and staff upgrade him?
Current head coach Brian Daboll would certainly point to 2022 if Jones were taken under his wing alongside a healthy player Saquon Barkley and ultimately to new heights as shepherd of a scrappy 9-6-1 playoff team that even upset the team Minnesota Vikings on the road to open the postseason. At this point, everything finally seemed to be falling into place, except for the fact that Jones was acting almost exclusively as the poster boy for ball control in a run-first attack. There's nothing wrong with adapting in the name of victory. But the Giants viewed this version of Jones as either sustainable or a stepping stone toward becoming elite as a true passer. Because soon they made him, not Barkley, the face of the franchise with a long-term contract worth $160 million.
Here, too, the Giants' decision-making was not illogical on the surface: of course you pay the quarterback, not the running back, even if he has incorrigibly special qualities, as Barkley did and still does, now at the rival Philadelphia Eagles. And Jones' bloated salary quickly plummeted to the level of lucrative quarterback deals. Still, it seems pretty clear now, just a year and a half later, that New York fell prey to the market by overstating its own assets at the game's most important position and giving in to Jones' financial demands when he had just one Small amount stacked had promising season in addition to three really worrying ones.
But that is just one part of the Schoen administration's multifaceted failure. It was one thing to reward Jones for his leap from battered and unreliable to cautious and competent. It was one thing to believe in his potential for growth outside of the regime that landed him at No. 6 overall. It would be another thing entirely to expect Jones' already questionable arm and decision-making to flourish, let alone live up to $40 million-a-year expectations, by investing few resources in proven stars both up front and back invested in the outside world. This year's lineup has produced at least two potential building blocks Malik Nabers And Tyrone Tracy Jr.but only after Jones thrashed and blew out his knee behind a bad line to open 2023.
In some ways, Daboll can be forgiven for building an offense that was so reliant on Jones' legs and short-yardage passes, because it seems he often compensated for the quarterback's tools, or lack thereof. However, the Giants are still 17-26-1 under his watch, and that record doesn't come by chance or without some deeper dysfunction when it comes to situational play calling, offensive strategy, etc. As with any team facing massive changes at quarterback (or higher), there are many hands to blame, and while Daboll has been vocal about possible Jones replacements ahead of the 2024 season He also held Schoen's hand as they pretended to belatedly reconfirm Jones as their future.
Speaking of Schoen and the unfortunate search for Jones' replacement, this trade for Tommy DeVito in Week 11 also reflects poorly on the men responsible for making such a trade, as Jones' demotion was essentially telegraphed for months. Schoen didn't hide his interest in some of this year's top quarterback prospects, even as he bragged during the HBO series “Hard Knocks” about the size of the contract he handed Jones, which doubled as an excuse to the late Barkley not to be paid as a player The offensive centerpiece of the Giants. Everyone and their brother knew that Jones wouldn't have to wait much longer for the first gig unless he and Nabers made an immediate Joe Burrow-Ja'Marr Chase connection at MetLife. The Giants ousted him anyway, with nothing more than Drew Lock as insurance and/or unofficial competition.
It's ironic – or just fitting – that Lock, who was guaranteed $5 million to become Jones' primary reserve, will now continue to sit on the bench as the Jones era comes to an end, and likely for always. In the meantime, Russell Wilsonwho was available for the veteran minimum and reportedly rejected brief overtures from the Giants after New York informed him he would not compete for the top job, heads the Pittsburgh Steelers to a potential AFC North title with confidence approaching that of his peak Seattle Seahawks Fame. On the other hand, the Steelers aren't exactly dealing with constant questions about the stability of their personnel.
In the end, the Giants might be better off with the uncertainty of a post-Jones offense. It's just a shame that it took so much time and so much effort to get here. Because the next steps — at quarterback, on offense, across the board — still belong to the guys who allowed things to get this bad in the first place.
