No change — yet — at quarterback
New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll said Monday that Daniel Jones will continue to be the team’s starting quarterback this Sunday when the team travels to Germany to face the Carolina Panthers.
Jones will also continue to receive all of the first-team reps.
“Nothing changes,” Daboll said.
The Giants are 2-7 and have lost four straight games. Jones is in the second year of a four-year, $160 million contract, but has no guaranteed money beyond this season provided he does not suffer a catastrophic injury that would prevent him from passing a physical next season.
That $23 million injury guarantee, and the belief that the Giants will move on from Jones after this season, has everyone wondering how long the Giants will ride with the sixth-year quarterback before pulling the plug to avoid being stuck with the injury guarantee on their 2025 books.
Jones, though, is coming off what could be considered his best game of the season. He was 20 of 26 (76.9%) for 174 yards with two touchdowns. He added 54 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. Jones had a 119.7 passer rating, his best since posting a 125.2 against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 17 of the 2022 season.
“I thought he did a nice job. The week before [against the Pittsburgh Steelers] I thought he did a lot of good things,” Daboll said. “When you lose, you know, it doesn’t feel like any of that, But he made a lot of good plays for us.
“He had the batted ball, we had Malik [Nabers] behind it, a couple other balls that were kind of right off the tips of a couple of guys here. I think he executed the offense well and gave us an opportunity.”
The Giants have a bye after this Sunday’s game against Carolina. Should the Giants lose a fifth straight game and fall to 2-8, they may have to move on from Jones whether he is playing well or not.
Gano might be ready this weekend
Placekicker Graham Gano, on injured reserve since suffering a hamstring injury on the opening kickoff against the Washington Commanders in Week 2, “has a chance” to be activated prior to Sunday’s game.
“I think Graham is getting close,” Daboll said. “How close he is right now, I think we’ll know here in the next couple of days.”
Greg Joseph made 13 of 16 field goals (81.3%) and all six of his extra-point attempts in six games as Gano’s replacement before going on IR before Sunday’s game with an oblique injury. Rooke Jude McAtamney was elevated from the practice squad. He made a 31-yard field goal and his only extra-point attempt.
Daboll said that edge defender Kayon Thibodeaux (fractured wrist) was unlikely to be ready. Punter Jamie Gillan is not on IR, but has missed four games with a left hamstring injury. Daboll said Gillan also “has a chance” to be ready this weekend.
Trade deadline
The NFL trade deadline is Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET. There is speculation that the Giants could move edge defender Azeez Ojulari, and perhaps wide receiver Darius Slayton. Daboll deflected chatter about what the team might do.
“Our focus, my focus is on doing what we can do to to get a win here and do everything we can do. So, I know Joe is upstairs and and evaluating and things like that.
“But my focus is on our team and who we have right now and trying to help them improve. That’s what I focus on.”
2-point conversions
The Giants are 0 of 6 on 2-point conversion attempts this season. NFL teams are converting just 31% of 2-point conversion attempts this season. After failing on a pair of such attempts on Sunday Daboll was asked about the failures on those plays.
“I think that you evaluate the league relative to defenses you see or schemes that people are using and then you go into it each week deciding if we’re in this situation, do we want to go for it or do we want to kick it?,” Daboll said. “Certainly with some of the two-point plays that we’ve had and not executing that weighs into it. Felt good about those and that’s not to say it could change, certainly haven’t been successful on those as we’d like to be.
“Something that we talk about, I’d say often with the analytics group that we have here, down 14 there’s a wide variety of things that we talk about, situations down, up. That was something that we were going to do this game and didn’t go on it.”
Developing young players
Many of the key mistakes in Sunday’s game involved Giants rookies and other young players. Daboll said monitoring those young players and helping them learn from mistakes is a constant.
“The coaches continue to emphasize the things that we need to do, be in the right mindset, practice with the right habits, prepare with the right habits and ultimately go out there,” Daboll said. “There’s going to be some things that happen throughout a game, particularly for young guys that you’re going to have to go ahead and coach up. We need to continue to do that.
“They’ve had some good spots here in the last few weeks of improving. And then there’s things that happen with any young player that you’ve got to continue to correct and make sure that they’re in the right head space. I like our rookie class. (5:46) I think they are mature.They work really hard and we’re just trying to keep cleaning it up.”
