Giants-Panthers: ‘Things I think’ entering Week 10 — Daniel Jones, trade deadline, more

This has already been an eventful week

The New York Giants face the Carolina Panthers in Week 10 as they play out the string of yet another lost season. Here are some ‘things I think’ as we gear up for the game.

Daniel Jones’ last stand?

Daniel Jones is coming off his best game of the season. His best game, in fact, since 2022. Yet, the reality of where the Giants are in their season and where Jones is in his career, mean that Sunday in Munich, Germany could mark the final start of Jones’ career as Giants quarterback.

The Giants and Panthers have identical 2-7 records, yet the Giants are a significant favorite when it comes to the betting odds. This has always been a game the Giants were expected to win.

If they don’t, they will be 2-8 heading into their bye week. It will be difficult at that point for head coach Brian Daboll and GM Joe Schoen to justify starting Jones at MetLife Stadium Week 12 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The season will clearly be over in terms of competing for a playoff spot. It already is, of course, but even the Giants will have to admit that if they can’t beat the Panthers. It is clear that the Jones-Giants marriage has run its course and that the Giants need a new plan at quarterback.

It is a huge financial risk for the Giants to continue to play Jones when the outcome of the 2024 season, and when we know what has to happen when it’s done, are already all but certain.

Daboll has already, without hesitation, said Jones will start against Carolina. In my view, that is the right call. He is coming off an excellent performance. It would be a terrible message to the locker room for him to get benched after it — one that would make players question if if playing hard and playing well mattered.

Neither Drew Lock nor Tommy DeVito has taken first-team reps, and on a week where the team is traveling internationally asking one of them to step into the lineup is not a good circumstance. Following a bye week is a different matter.

Regardless of when it comes, it seems like we are now on a week-to-week death watch for Jones’ time as the Giants franchise quarterback.

Trade deadline

I understood GM Joe Schoen’s desire to get more than sixth- or seventh-round picks in return for Azeez Ojulari and Darius Slayton, particularly the 24-year-old Ojulari. The big questions remains — now that the Giants kept both players for the remainder of the season, can they keep them beyond that?

Both can be free agents. Both should have markets, particularly Ojulari. Does Slayton, who seems to feel perennially undervalued by the current regime, even want to come back? Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns account for more than $38 million on the 2025 cap, more than 14% of a projected $272.5 million cap, have the ability or desire to get into a bidding war for a third edge defender when they have multiple holes at other positions?

Getting a compensatory pick for either player is no guarantee.

This is what the compensatory pick cancellation chart for the upcoming draft looks like, per Over The Cap:

The compensatory pick formula is a complicated players gained vs. players lost formula. Compensatory picks potentially gained for players lost this coming offseason won’t be added to draft capital until 2026.

Provided Schoen is still the GM after this offseason, why would he stay out of the free agent market and play the compensatory pick game for 2026? He might not be around by that point if he doesn’t build the best possible roster next season.

The point is compensatory picks aren’t guaranteed, even if the player or players you are losing qualify to be included in the formula.

The Nick McCloud release

The NFL is a harsh business sometimes. The Giants lost Nick McCloud on Tuesday because they needed the $1.404 million in cap savings they got from cutting him more than they needed player. And don’t think the Giants didn’t know that the versatile cornerback/special teamer was a useful player.

Fact is, per Over the Cap the Giants were down to $1.166 million in salary space, last in the league. No chance they make it to the finish line of the season with that miniscule amount of money, so they had to do something.

McCloud was playing on a non-guaranteed one-year, $2.985 million contract. Multiple reports indicated that the Giants have been trying to get McCloud to accept a pay cut for weeks now. He refused. The Giants, with few other options to save a few pennies, cut him.

I can’t blame McCloud for standing his ground. No one likes to take a pay cut, and he was being paid what his RFA tender said he was worth. I can’t blame Schoen for the decision, either. He has to have money to operate.

What I can do is wonder how the Giants, with Schoen having had three offseasons to dig out from the cap disaster former GM Dave Gettleman left him with, is still not out from under it.

I don’t have the answer. My thinking is a lot of it has to do with taking the big swing at Brian Burns, with Burns taking up $15.5 million on the cap this season.

Interceptions, please

The Giants lead the NFL in sacks with 35. That is a pleasant surprise, and may or may not be sustainable over the season’s final eight games. One oddity, though, is that a team with a successful pass rush could usually be expected to force a high number of turnovers from opposing offenses.

That has not been the case for the Giants. They have only one interception on the season and seven total takeaways.

Their lone interception came on a tipped pass that rookie linebacker Darius Muasau grabbed in Week 1 when the Giants were already being blown out by the Minnesota Vikings. The Giants have not had an interception in eight games, a franchise record and an astounding stretch of futility in creating game-changing plays.

The Giants are playing far more zone with Shane Bowen as the defensive coordinator than they did with Wink Martindale.

Tae Banks played man coverage 39.3% of the time last year. This year, just 29.7%. Cor’Dale Flott was in man coverage 46.1% of the time a year ago, more any other qualifying cornerback. This year, he has been in man coverage 29.3% of the time.

So, why can’t the Giants create interceptions?

Banks and Adoree’ Jackson are cornerbacks without elite ball skills. Jackson has just 4 interceptions in eight years. Banks has trouble locating the ball, and did not display elite ball skills in college. Slot cornerback Dru Phillips did not have an interception in four seasons at Kentucky.

Safety Jason Pinnock had the only 2 interceptions of his four-year career last year. Tyler Nubin had 13 interceptions for the Minnesota Golden Gophers, but those ball-hawking abilities have yet to translate to the NFL.

It just doesn’t look like the Giants have defensive backs who really pose a threat to opposing quarterbacks.