Mother Nature got in the way of Daniel Jones' preseason debut.
Jones was supposed to play quite a bit against the Jets in the Giants' preseason opener, but severe weather in the area caused an hour-long delay just at the end of the first quarter. The rookie QB was only under center for eight plays and didn't play after the delay.
On Thursday, Giants head coach Pat Shurmur explained his thinking behind Jones' limited playing time last week.
"The plan, obviously, last week was to play him longer," said Shurmur to the Giants website. "But with the delay, I shut down that whole group and restarted a new group. That was the idea. Ideally, the way last week played out would have been for Eli [Manning] to play a few more plays, and then Daniel Jones to play a few more plays."
Jones was impressive in his brief appearance on the field. The former Duke star displayed his accuracy by completing each of the five passes he threw.
Manning is the starter heading into the season, and possibly for the majority of the year as well. But Jones is a developing young quarterback who will need to get his reps from somewhere.
Shurmur noted that he has four quarterbacks to play, not just Manning and Jones. Alex Tanney and Kyle Lauletta will also have to feature.
"I do plan on playing all four quarterbacks, like I did last week. We'll see. I'd like to see Eli get a little bit more time. We'll just see how that plays out. But there's a chance that he [Jones] could play behind the one [offensive] line … I think Daniel's going to play throughout [preseason]. We'll just have to see how it plays out. I think it's important for him to compete in all four of the games, and certainly you'd like him to get as many reps as you can as he gets himself ready to play."
The Giants take on the Bears on Friday night at MetLife Stadium.
