Brian Daboll, Giants to 'evaluate where we're at' on quarterback position during bye week
Was the Giants’ loss in Munich potentially the end of the Daniel Jones era?
Head coach Brian Daboll said following Big Blue’s 20-17 OT loss to the Panthers in Germany that they will ‘evaluate where we’re at’ during the upcoming bye week, the first time he has not given a blanket vote of confidence to Jones this season.
"I'd say we got a lot of work to do here in the next few days, in the next week, and we'll evaluate where we're at and what we need to do," Daboll said.
Jones finished 22-of-37 passing for 190 yards with two interceptions, with 26 yards and a rushing TD on the ground, and he did get the team in position to kick the game-tying field goal in the final seconds of regulation, before a Tyrone Tracy fumble on the first play of OT led to the loss.
Still, Jones, who now has 2,070 yards on a 63.3 completion percentage, with eight touchdowns against seven interceptions this season, had a simple synopsis of his day:
“Not good enough,” he said. “Any time you turn the ball over twice in the red zone, yeah, not good enough.”
The Giants were shut out in the first half by the worst defense in the NFL statistically, but Daboll admitted he didn’t think about benching Jones at halftime, shortly after an interception in the red zone cost them a shot at points right at the end of the half.
“I did not,” Daboll said. “I thought we could get something going, which did. Started out slow, but had some opportunities there."
Jones said that his bye week mindset will probably be the same as the team’s – “I need to evaluate what we haven't done well enough, what's holding us back, see where I need to be better” – and Daboll basically echoed that sentiment.
“Obviously we're not where we want to be. We'll evaluate things in bye week, do the things we need to do. We'll practice a couple days next week and evaluate everything,” Daboll said. “The record isn't what it needs to be, but we'll go back and evaluate the things we need to do to finish up strong the last half of the season.”
Whether or not that includes Jones, though, will have to be seen, and a decision now could be an indication of whether or not the Giants, who looked at top QBs in this past draft, will cut ties with Jones this offseason with two years left on his deal but not an unmanageable dead cap number.
Jones also does have an injury guarantee in his contract, stating the Giants would owe him $23 million in 2025 if he were to suffer a serious injury and not be ready for next season, so that could weigh into things.
Drew Lock, who has relieved Jones in two games this year, has started 23 games over his six NFL seasons – although he led the NFL in INT in 2020 when he started 13 games for Denver – and Tommy DeVito, who has been inactive for every game this year as the third QB, was 3-3 as the starter last year.
