Daniel Jones’ season ended on Thanksgiving weekend, as he suffered a neck sprain of some magnitude in the Giants’ 13-7 win over Philadelphia – their final win of the season – and did not play again after finishing that game, as he was not cleared for contact and then eventually placed on injured reserve in late-December.
Now six weeks past that injury, Jones finally gave an update on his status Monday.
“Yeah I’m doing good," Jones said Monday in the Giants’ final media availabilities. "Progressing and now there’s a healing process that takes time, so trying to stay diligent with my rehab and treatment with the guys here. Everything is going well and I’m feeling good.”
Jones’ neck will still take “weeks” to be fully healed, he said, but given that there’s nothing going on for a while, he should be “absolutely” ready to go come training camp.
"There’s no contact for me until August so I can do everything from a lifting, throwing, running standpoint," Jones said when asked about his timeframe. "I’m not limited in those areas. It’s a process, I think it’s weeks, but it’s irrelevant at this point because I don’t expect to be doing any contact."
Jones had a career-best 64.3 percent completion percentage this year, but threw for just 2,428 yards and 10 touchdowns against seven picks in his 11 games, and the team was 4-7 with him at the helm.
Unlike with Robert Saleh and Zach Wilson, though, Jones isn’t convinced that watching the Giants’ offense from the outside in December and January will be helpful in the long run.
“I think it gives you a different perspective, but it’s not as helpful as playing because you learn the most on the field in games,” Jones said. “You never want to be on the sideline watching. There’s things you can see differently, but there’s no sub for being on the field.”
Perhaps, in part, that’s due to the state of the Giants’ offense without him, something the team needs to improve upon as he heads into what could be a make-or-break 2022 for him.
“When you look at the situation, no one expected it to turn out like it did,” Jones said. “When you look at what went wrong, you have to be smart in how you characterize it; you have to look at the picture as a whole. That’s what we’ll do. I take a lot of responsibility in it, and I think each of our guys should, understanding their roles and what we all need to do to improve the offense as a group and as individuals.”
Related
The 24-year-old won’t know for a little while if the Giants will pick up the fifth-year option on his rookie deal or let him play in 2022 on the final guaranteed year, but his mindset isn’t going to change either way no matter what happens.
“It’s all speculation at this point. My job is to prepare to play as well as I can to help this team play as well as we can, so that’s my mindset,” Jones said. “There will be a time to have those conversations later.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
Follow WFAN on Social Media
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch