Daniel Jones is likely out for Sunday’s game against the Bills, as injury concerns are back after a rare season of full health in 2022.
Keith says Jones’ breakout season last year backed the Giants into a corner in a sense, though there will be a way out after next season via an escape hatch in his contract.
“If you don’t see that this guy is an NFL caliber quarterback in year two, you should move on by year three,” Keith said. “Here we are with Daniel Jones in year five, and Zach Wilson in year three, and we’re fighting each other…people are calling for Daboll’s head now? Hold on, Daboll just got here. He didn’t draft Daniel Jones sixth overall.
“It was one half with literally the season on the line…they defaulted into this. You can have him on his fifth-year option for $22 million…they didn’t believe in him last year. Then he went out and won some games…they won 10 games and a playoff game. Nobody predicted that to happen. Even in the Giants organization, they didn’t expect that to happen. They defaulted into, ‘We didn’t pick up his option, we don’t have another quarterback, we have to pay him the market rate.’”
Jones has struggled this season, and while Keith puts a lot of that blame on a shoddy offensive line, he still would take a top quarterback if Big Blue finds itself in position to do so at the NFL Draft.
“If you do drop into that top - maybe even five - and one of these top quarterbacks are there,” Keith said. “You gotta take one.”