Joe Judge is entering his maiden season as Giants head coach with more hurdles than perhaps any rookie head coach in club history. So unless there's a full team mutiny or a winless season, Judge will likely get a mulligan.
The same can't be said of their quarterback.
Daniel Jones entered last season under murky conditions. The Giants were blasted for drafting him in the first place and then entering the 2019 season, the team was still dedicated to Eli Manning for at least another year or two.
Then, two games into the season, Jones was handed the keys to the Big Blue castle. The rookie responded with two sublime performances and two surprising wins, evening the club's record at 2-2 and earning an instant handle, "Danny Dimes."
Then things fell apart.
The Giants had a historically bad defense. The team's best weapon, Saquon Barkley, suffered a high ankle sprain. Even Jones got hurt, which morphed into an accidentally perfect farewell game for Manning.
Jones returned on Dec. 22, tossed five touchdowns against Washington and finished the game with a 132.1 passer rating. He finished his rookie season with 24 touchdown passes, 12 interceptions, completed 61.9% of his passes and a 87.7 passer rating. By contrast, Jones's counterpart down the bowels of MetLife Stadium, Sam Darnold, ended his rookie season with 17 TDs, 16 INT, and a 77.6 passer rating.
So even with Jones's 3-9 career mark, Giants fans are justifiably excited as he enters his second season. The Giants made a major investment into Jones' safety by drafting Georgia tackle Andrew Thomas, whom Pro Football Focus had rated the highest (92.4) among the quartet of coveted tackles coming out of college. Not only is Thomas expected to give more time for Jones to throw, he should also help with Jones's surreal number of fumbles last year - 18 - which led the league by a mile.
At his best, Jones looked very much like a top-10 draft pick, a future franchise QB and someone ready to take a substantial step in his development. Giants fans can't lament the lack of practice time Jones is having with his teammates since every NFL club has been hamstrung by COVID-19. Still, the NFL just announced it plans on playing a 17-game schedule, the specifics to be released this Thursday (May 7) at 8 p.m. The NFL expects to start the 2020 season on September 10, and play the Super Bowl on Feb. 7, 2021. So far the only tweak of note is the cancellation of five international games, necessitated by the coronavirus.
None of those games were hosted by the G-Men, anyway. So Jones enters this season with a beefed-up offensive line, a healthy and hungry Barkley and a full complement of pass catchers: wideouts Golden Tate, Sterling Shepard, Darius Slayton, and TE Evan Engram. Big Blue has also fortified their defense, signing free agent cornerback James Bradberry and linebacker Blake Martinez, and picked seven defensive players in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Daniel Jones showed the poise and passion, the smarts and the spirals, of someone built for the NFL. He's refreshingly mature and mobile, and even looks bizarrely similar to his beloved predecessor, Eli Manning. Playing for an original NFL franchise, in the nation's media vortex, was not too much for Daniel Jones as a rookie. As a sophomore he should return to Danny Dimes and maybe Jones can help the G-men jump from 4-12 to 8-8.
Twitter:@JasonKeidel
