Daniel Jones admitted that the parameters of his injury guarantee - $23 million if he is hurt and unable to pass a physical for next season – was ‘in the discussion’ of his benching, as much as it really was a football move for the Giants to evaluate Tommy DeVito for the next six weeks.
And to Chris McMonigle, well, the G-Men did absolutely nothing wrong, were more than fair to Jones, and owe him nothing.
“I’m a little puzzled by the reaction from many on Jones; you all know where I stand: I had optimism like everybody else did when he first was drafted, even if I didn’t love the pick, but I said all before the draft when you don’t have a QB, you need one,” C-Mac said. “And I still hear people arguing about Saquon Barkley, but with Jones, there was a lot of promise, and you felt like with a little luck, some positive things happen. I was in the camp of belief in Daniel Jones.”
C-Mac waxed poetic on the beginning of the Jones era as the Eli era ended, and what the Giants looked like at the time (and how DJ looked like Eli)…but six years later, we now know it wasn’t the way.
“Slowly but surely, Daniel Jones completely eroded from that player. And I’ve said before that this organization failed him in many ways – and I think you could say that about most failed or busted players,” Chris said. “I don’t even know if Jones is a bust, if you get paid as much as he did and you win a road playoff game, but this is what needed to happen. Daniel Jones was an extreme disappointment.”
Whatever you call it, the time was right to move on, the contract was a mistake that they can now fix (albeit two lost seasons and some dead cap down the road), and here we are.
“As we say goodbye to him today, after watching the years and years of failed football from Daniel Jones – and yes, the organization failed him with the amount of head coaches and offensive coordinators, the inability to get an offensive line together, the weapons they gave him, all that – watching him speak, as much as I believe the Giants are doing the right thing, and I can’t imagine anyone disagrees, I feel terrible for him,” Chris said.
The dichotomy of emotion: the Giants are doing the right thing, but you still feel for Danny Dimes.
“As much of a disappointment as he's been and as awful as he is, that is a guy who gave everything to this team. There is not a second that Daniel Jones wasn't focused on winning for the New York Giants,” Chris said. “I totally believe that. He is a quality person, good dude, and excellent teammate, and a leader on this team. He’s had unlucky injuries, but he is a tough son of a gun and does not run or hide from anything – contact on the field, criticism in the press or from the fans, responsibility in his play. Watching him speak, you understand why the Giants invested all this in the person that is Daniel Jones; he has been everything you could’ve asked for off the field, on the practice field, and everywhere else…except where unfortunately it matters most. production on the field.”
And that, as much as all the rest matters, is why it’s long past time.
“Reporters and pundits have killed the Giants for not recognizing what they should have recognized: that Daniel Jones is not a good enough quarterback,” Chris said. “Despite the offensive line issues and the weapon issues and all the other different stuff, the coaches, the offensive coordinators, all of that stuff has hampered him...after six years, great quarterbacks find their way to overcome that, and he hasn’t.”
And so that’s why Chris feels the Giants don’t owe anything more to Jones…or to those same pundits who are now crushing Big Blue for moving on the way they did.