“With the 6th pick of the 2019 NFL draft, The New York Giants select Daniel Jones, quarterback, Duke.”
As Roger Goodell made the announcement, NFL fans fell into shock. With their quarterback Eli Manning aging more like milk than wine, the best option for the Giants was to pick a quarterback. Yet the question is: Did they choose the right one? The answer might not be as obvious as most fans think. Yes, Daniel Jones has had some brutal seasons throughout his Giants career, but the degree to which his environment affected his lack of performance needs to be considered.
After the Arizona Cardinals selected Kyler Murray with the first overall pick, quarterback options for the Giants became scarce. The biggest names that remained on the board were Dwayne Haskins, Drew Lock — who ironically finished the 2024 season as the Giants starting quarterback — and Daniel Jones. Out of those three, Daniel Jones has arguably had the most successful career, but does that mean drafting him was indeed the right choice?
The short answer is no. The Giants could have waited to draft a quarterback in the 2020 draft, which has produced five premier quarterbacks by the names of Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, and Jalen Hurts — all of whom have started in playoff games for their respective teams. It obviously would have been an incredible call to wait it out while desperately needing a quarterback, but in hindsight, the right thing to do in 2019 was to refine a separate weak area in their system.
Early in Jones’s career, he became known for fumbling the ball and making dangerous throws that often got intercepted. Jones threw 34 interceptions (football play in which the defense catches the pass granting their team the possession) in just 54 games played across his first four seasons in the NFL. In addition to the picks, Jones was often caught off guard which resulted in his reputation for having poor ball security. In that 54 game span, Jones was responsible for 42 fumbles. It is important to note that Jones’s offensive line might as well have been five cones at certain points in his career, as he received no protection.
Having a strong offensive line is essential to protect the ball, avoid sacks, and have successful throws down-field. Whether or not Jones would have been able to do those things with a strong offensive line is up for debate, but at certain points in his career he demonstrated decent ball protection and the ability to make explosive plays. Some say that Jones was not cut out for having success in the NFL, but I would argue that it was the poor state of the Giants organization that he was not cut out to repair. The Giants had a disastrous pair of seasons in the years before Jones took over. They had a combined record of 8-24 in the years 2017-18. Excelling as the Giants’ quarterback during this time was a feat that not even the most elite quarterbacks would have accomplished.
In 2022 however, the Giants went on some kind of a run. They finished the season with a 9-7-1 record and were set to take on the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis for the NFC Wild Card game.
The G-men were playing with house money, which ultimately set the stage for Jones to have a signature Giants’ moment. Every sports fan knows that a team playing with a chip on their shoulder is a dangerous one, and that proved to be true for Jones and the Giants.
Jones stepped up in a big way. Jones completed 24 of his 35 passes, while throwing for a pair of touchdowns. While that may seem like a somewhat average performance, it came during the biggest moment of his career and earned the Giants a massive win, giving them a chance to extend their playoff run.
Unfortunately, that run came up short just a week later when they set foot in Philadelphia to face a stacked Eagles team. The difference in quarterback play was extremely obvious as Jalen Hurts — one of the many quarterbacks the Giants could have waited out on — simply outplayed Jones. As the Giants entered a rowdy Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles suffocated Jones in the pocket (the area between the right most and left most lineman where the quarterback throws the majority of their passes), taking away the entire Giant’s attack. Quarterback rating (QBR) is measured on a scale of 0-100. Daniel Jones had a pathetic QBR of 11.7, while Jalen Hurts had a QBR of 85.2. This proves to be one of the reasons why the game ended in such a lopsided Eagles victory: 38-7. Even though Hurts’ surrounding team may have complemented his game better than how the Giants supported Daniel Jones, Giants fans can’t help but think: What if we had a guy like him instead?
As much as fans may have wanted to see an elite quarterback, the Giants would not have been able to contend for a Super Bowl with an elite level quarterback at any time during Daniel Jones’s career due to their other weaknesses. The Giants’ offensive line has been one of the worst in football over the past five years, and that is simply something that will hold back any quarterback, regardless of how skilled they are. Unfortunately for Jones, he got most of the slander from the media and fans.
Aside from Saquon Barkley who was on and off the field, Jones has had a mediocre surrounding offensive unit at best. His wide receiver group was led by an aging Sterling Shepard and young talent that never fully developed. Players such as Isaiah Hodgins and Darius Slayton were Jones’s go-to targets. These players don’t deserve to be number one or two targets at the NFL level, but unfortunately for Jones, that was the kind of talent he was given. During Jones’s time in New York, his receiving core served as a contrast to the talented receivers within the division. The Cowboys relied heavily on Ceedee Lamb and Amari Cooper, The Commanders offense had success due to the speed and agility provided by Terry Mclaurin, and The Eagles combination of A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith proved to be unstoppable. Yes, when a quarterback struggles it falls on the quarterback himself, but it is also unfair to blame the Giants’ lack of offense entirely on Jones.
After an abysmal 2024-2025 season — which only entailed two wins for Jones — Jones was released by the Giants. The Minnesota Vikings then picked him up and signed him to a one year, 375,000 dollar deal. As Jones was released, the Giants solidified themselves as a team looking to get a high draft pick rather than play meaningful football.
Even though a 3-14 may seem like rock bottom, the fact that Joe Schoen — the Giants’ general manager — decided to pay Daniel Jones over guys like Saquon Barkley and Xavier Mckinney makes the Giant’s failures sting even more. Barkley served as the face of the Giant’s franchise who was given the option to walk. If you didn’t think the misery of Giants fans could get any worse, it did. Barkley decided to sign with the Philadelphia Eagles, one of the Giants’ biggest rivals. Barkley had what was hands down the best year of his career. He came just 100 yards shy of breaking Eric Dickerson’s single season rushing record, a feat that was thought to never be broken because NFL teams have adapted lethal air attacks and as a result have moved away from run games.
Being in the New York spotlight makes everybody’s lives harder, and if you are the quarterback of the New York Giants, you don’t get cut any slack. Right from the get go, people doubted Jones’s ability. While Jones was a class-act on and off the field, it didn’t seem like he was having a lot of fun as a New York Giant, at least from an outside perspective. While avid football fans could see his potential, not a lot of people were having fun watching him play. Over the years Jones’s confidence steadily decreased as more fans began to doubt his ability.
So why did the Giants draft the Duke product so high when he was off the radar of fans, analysts, and other organizations? Well, Jones had an almost identical build to Eli Manning who was a diamond in the rough, leading Giants scouts to believe he would provide a smooth transition into a new era of “Big Blue Football.” One could argue that it was not Manning’s talent, but his surrounding players that made him such a successful quarterback. Maybe if Jones was born fifteen or so years earlier, he would be sitting pretty as a two time Super Bowl champion, but unfortunately for Jones, he wasn’t dealt a full house like Manning. He was given a low pair.
Being in the New York spotlight makes everybody’s lives harder, and if you are the quarterback of the New York Giants, you don’t get cut any slack.