The New York Giants might be banged up in the wide receiver department, but the Saints know they’ll have to keep an eye on Daniel Jones’ legs almost as much as his arm.
The sneaky fast Jones’ running ability presents “quite a bit” of a challenge in preparing for a team that also has superstar running back Saquon Barkley sharing a backfield. Saints coach Sean Payton recalled a walk-off TD run against the NFC South rival Tampa Bay Bucaneers, and pointed out that when things aren’t perfect, it can turn into a huge gain.
“You get into some of your man coverages where the eyes are on the receivers and your rush patterns aren’t perfect, he can climb the pocket and instead of an 8-yard gain he can [break it for a big play],” Payton said. "He’s real athletic.”
And the stats show that running ability well. Since the start of the 2020 season, only Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, Arizona’s Kyler Murray and New England's Cam Newton have accounted for more rushing yards at the quarterback position than Jones. Saints QB Taysom Hill is No. 8 on that list.
ON THE RUN
QB rushing yards since start of 2020 season
1. Lamar Jackson, Ravens: 1,256
2. Kyler Murray, Cardinals: 889
3. Cam Newton, Patriots: 592
4. Daniel Jones, Giants: 584
5. Russell Wilson, Seahawks: 545
6. Jalen Hurts, Eagles: 536
7. Josh Allen, Bills: 509
8. Taysom Hill, Saints: 506
9. Deshaun Watson, Texans: 444
10. Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs: 368
Jones has already rushed for a pair of touchdowns this year, and his runs won't just be broken plays. The Giants scheme implements a good number of zone read plays and designed QB runs to take advantage of their QB's athleticism in space. That was true on an 80-yard keeper against the Philadelphia Eagles last season that ended with the quarterback losing his footing and stumbling before what appeared to be a sure touchdown.
Even with some Benny Hill music playing behind it, that run marked just the fifth time in the last quarter-century that a QB ran for 80-plus yards on a play. It's the only one that didn't end in a touchdown.
"That adds a dimension relative to your defense, especially when you’re in man-to-man coverages," Payton said.
Some of the QB runs in Jason Garrett's scheme were probably implemented out of necessity a year ago, with Barkley lost early in the season to injury. The running back is now healthy, but the same can't be said for the receivers. Both Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton, two of the team's top three target-getters, have already been ruled out for Week 4 with injuries. The Giants do still have prized free agent signing Kenny Golladay and first-round pick Kadarius Toney to work with.
But with fewer weapons at their disposal, the Saints will likely make containing Saquon Barkley to the inside and staying patient in pass-rush assignments against Jones a priority.
"He's good at it. He knows he can run," defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon said this week. "You see him just trying to outrun guys, not going down right away, not sliding right away like you see a lot of other quarterbacks do. ... We know he's a runner and we're prepared for that."
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Last year against another quarterback running a lot of RPO/zone read in Jalen Hurts, the Saints got gashed for 221 yards rushing between the QB and running back Miles Sanders.
So how does the defense get prepared for an offensive wrinkle they'll only see a few times each season?
"Film. You watch a lot of film," Kpassagnon said. "You see the mistakes a lot of other teams make with that type of offense and you just try to correct the mistakes other teams did so you don't make them."
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