Daniel Jones cracks my top fifteen!
Daniel Jones had a career year in 2022, and it was right in the nick of time not only for the Giants, but for his own career. 2022 was Jones' fourth season and he looked average at best up until then. If Jones couldn't produce a year like he did, it might have been difficult to persuade any team to see him as an NFL caliber QB1, let alone the Giants.
Not to really say Jones had zero potential based on his first three seasons. There was a fair amount of circumstances working against him in his first three years. Coaching changes, injuries, a lack of weapons for the most part. Still, it is not like these are some type of unique challenges. Every team and every QB, to a degree, deals with the same challenges. It's year four now, it was time to once and for all figure out if he's legit or not.
Daniel Jones did exactly what he had to do and it did surprise me if I'm being honest. He played really well and especially ran the ball at a pretty high level. Sure, I knew Jones was pretty athletic and everything, but I did not expect him to be rushing as much as he did. The guy ran for 708 yards and 7 touchdowns. It was impressive for sure.
I personally see Daniel Jones as Josh Allen lite. It feels like a perfect comparison. Like a game manager version of Josh Allen.
Jones posted a career high in a lot of categories in 2022: Games played/started, wins, completion percentage, passing yards, quarterback rating, rushing yards, and rushing touchdowns. He had career lows in interceptions and fumbles despite all those career highs, which is pretty eye-opening if you think about it. Especially considering fumbles were particularly a big problem earlier on in Jones' career.
Jones and the Giants actually made the playoffs and won a freaking game against the Vikings so all in all Jones pretty much mostly flipped his narrative. He's a solid QB.
A part of me wonders if Jones was going YOLO mode since it was a contract season for him. BUT over four years, it's pretty clear he's far from a scrub and he's still pretty young. He only JUST turned 26. He's just entering his prime.
Giants got a guy in Jones, just have to try and continue to build around him now.
