Last year, Kenny Golladay was on the Detroit Lions, Kadarius Toney was on the Florida Gators, Kyle Rudolph was on the Minnesota Vikings and Saquon Barkley was on the sidelines. The plan this year is for all of them to actively play roles in the New York Giants offense, along with returning talents Sterling Shepard, Darius Slayton and Evan Engram, meaning the G-Men should have a whole lot of firepower.
That's a good thing for Daniel Jones... or so you'd think. It's only a good thing for Jones if he can produce at a high level given his revamped group of weapons and lead a successful Giants offense that ranked second-to-last in the 2020 NFL season with 280 points scored. Otherwise, that might spell trouble for the 24-year-old who was selected with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 draft.
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One anonymous NFL executive put it bluntly in Mike Sando's annual "NFL Quarterback Tiers" breakdown with input from 50 coaches and evaluators around the league.
"They are built to be a seven-on-seven team with the weapons they have, and if he cannot put up points with this group, he never will be able to."
Never. That's a strong word. And it's a bold claim for a player who is only going into the third season of his NFL career, but it's not one that's all too far-fetched. At this point, Jones' production in 2021 may very well make or break his outlook as a professional quarterback. He might be out of excuses when it comes to his supporting cast, at least in terms of the players at skill positions. Here's a problem, though: the Giants' offensive line may be among the worst, if not the worst that the league has to offer.
Steve Palazzolo of Pro Football Focus ranked them dead last in his 2021 offensive line rankings from a week ago, so there isn't all that much promise.
Giants offensive linemen have combined to produce the fifth-worst overall grade in the league over the past two years, and they rank in the bottom eight in both pass blocking and run blocking... The bottom line is that the Giants' offensive line is a massive question mark. They need their young players to develop and their veterans to provide career years just to rank in the middle of the pack for 2021.
That doesn't make it much easier for Danny to give us Dimes, now does it?
With that said, this year will be the "truest evaluation" of Jones to date, according to an anonymous NFL executive — which may have been the same exec as before, or another one.
“I think there is enough ability there,” this exec said. “You can start and win with him. He’s another guy, two different coaches, a couple of different offenses, haven’t really had a lot of weapons around him. They tried to upgrade that this offseason and they got Saquon Barkley coming back.
"This will be the truest evaluation of him.”
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