The Inglorious End of the Daniel Jones Era
I saw earlier today that the Daniel Jones era with the New York Giants has officially ended. Let’s discuss.
This seems pretty harsh and fast, but not all that crazy if you look at his short lived career. Jones was never the answer with the Giants. I can remember writing about him before he was drafted. I had him firmly in my bust category. He didn't really have the juice in my opinion. He seemed slow, he wasn't very accurate and I figured the bright lights of NYC were going to be too much for him. It seems like I, along with many other writers, had him pegged perfectly. And don't let some phony stats or one playoff win fool you. He was never the reason why the Giants had any of the minimal success they had while he was the starting QB.
The Giants won during that time because they had a killer defense and Saquon Barkley. Look at how stacked the boxes were when Barkley was drafted by the Giants. The guy was facing seven and eight man boxes and he was still producing. The Giants defense during that time created turnovers and rushed the passer. They did the little things they needed, had a superstar in Barkley and they won in spite of Daniel Jones.
Where the Giants screwed up was giving Jones such an enormous contract after their playoff run a few years back. They picked Jones over the Barkley and the rest is history. Barkley played one more season with the Giants, putting up somewhat decent numbers, and now he is thriving in Philadelphia. That team knows how to use their running backs, they have a legit MVP caliber QB in Jalen Hurts, their defense has taken a step up and Barkley seems to be the missing piece. This couldn't have worked out any better for Saquon Barkley.
Daniel Jones, well, as mentioned up top, he was cut today. Before that he was benched in favor of Tommy Devito. I don't know why Brian Daboll picked Devito over Drew Locke, but he did. Maybe Daboll wants out of NYC as well. But, they picked a flash in the pan who is more noteworthy for what his agent wears than anything he has ever done on the field. That speaks volumes to me. The Giants are going to eat whatever money they owe Jones now, but they don't care, they just want him gone. He was taking 4th string QB reps in practice yesterday and they even deployed him at safety on the Giants scout team defense for this week. I have to imagine when that happened that Jones knew it was only a matter of time before he was gone. I mean the disrespect they showed him is kind of sad but also hilarious to me.
What I don't think I'll get over as a fan of football is picking him over Barkley. Barkley is a generational back. He can run and catch. He is a good return man. He knows what he does best and he excels at that while always trying to get bigger, faster and stronger. Jones looks like a dope on and off the field. He seems like he doesn't really want to play this sport that made him millions of dollars. It is clear that he wasn't the guy for this job from day one. I'll be curious to see where his career takes him from here, but I have to assume he will never be more than a backup until he retires. And Saquon Barkley may be the spark to an Eagles team that could make a deep playoff run this year and seasons after this.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.
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