Brian Daboll joined Boomer and Gio live from Giants camp on Tuesday, and discussed his game plan for Saturday’s preseason game against the Texans, which marked Daniel Jones’ return to game action for the first time since tearing his ACL.
For Daboll, the heavy dose of throws down the field were by design, as Daboll wants to get his quarterback ready for a new-look offense that will operate differently than in years past, when they had a shoddy offensive line that relied heavily on Saquon Barkley, now with the rival Eagles.
“I wanted to do that a bunch this game,” Daboll said. “One, to get his timing back...coming back from his ACL and having not played, I wanted the protection around him to be good, I wanted to develop the routes down the field and have him hang onto it if he needed to hang onto it, and see the decisions he made.”
The results were a mixed bag, as Jones threw two interceptions in the first 13 minutes of the game, one being a pick-six in which Jones hurled a pass while under pressure that resulted in an easy touchdown for the defense.
Still, Daboll came away encouraged after seeing how Jones responded later in the game.
“He knew it wasn’t a good play,” Daboll said. “The other interception, those are gonna happen. It was one-on-one outside...just keep pushing the ball down the field and let’s keep working on our timing. We did that quite a bit. I think half our throws were at least 20 yards. That was important to me and I think important to him.
“We had that play where we were backed up and the decision he made. As soon as he came back out, I called a similar play, they played a similar coverage. He reset and got it to the backs very quickly...I think we learned from some of the stuff that we did.”
Jones looked better as the game went on, and Daboll will continue to have his quarterback look to make big-chunk plays through the air with a rebuilt offensive line to give him more time, and a revamped receiving core that includes hyped rookie Malik Nabers.
“It’s hard to have 15-play drives over and over...being able to push the ball down the field is gonna be important,” Daboll said. “That’s something we’ve been focusing on since OTAs. For him, it was in 7-on-7, which I don’t really think helps much for a quarterback coming back from an ACL. That’s something that we’re gonna have to do.”