Jordan Raanan, ESPN Workers WriterOct 2, 2023, 06: 00 AM ET
Shut
Jordan Raanan is a reporter for NFL Nation at ESPN. Raanan covers the New York Giants. That that you just might additionally apply him by way of Twitter @JordanRaanan.NEW YORK GIANTS quarterback Daniel Jones lined up his putt while running abet Saquon Barkley stood shut by.
They were on the 14th gap at Mountain Ridge Nation Membership in West Caldwell, New Jersey, and Barkley’s patented chirping turned into finest getting louder.
The 2 shut pals and Giants teammates were on opposing groups in this match, and Barkley’s tandem turned into 4 up with five left to play. This turned into a gamble to shut it out.
That’s till Jones’ tee shot landed 40 feet from the cup on the par-3, and he coolly sank the uphill birdie putt to lead his team to victory on the outlet, and within the end the match.
Jones barely even blinked after the putt.
“I am a appropriate money putter,” Jones told ESPN with a disclose now not too prolonged within the past when asked how he handles stress.
Jones now desires to search out that money stroke on the soccer enviornment. That is the expectation for someone who signed a four-year, $160 million contract this offseason. In the early going, the return on investment has been underwhelming.
He entered Week 4 22nd in QBR while the Giants sat at 1-2 with the fewest substances scored (43) within the NFC. Jones and the New York offense might perhaps now not ceaselessly operate against the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers, and performed one appropriate half of against the Arizona Cardinals.
The money finest makes him a better goal.
“A mode of oldsters who produce all that money don’t even deserve it,” 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw mentioned after a 30-12 drubbing of Jones and the Giants.
Greenlaw turned into one in every of several Niners to opt swipes at the quarterback after the game.
“Yeah, I advise some folks are adore that where they feel the must construct that,” Jones mentioned. “That’s heavenly. That’s section of it.”
The stress remains on Jones’ shoulders when the Giants host the Seattle Seahawks on “Monday Evening Soccer” (8: 15 p.m. ET, ESPN). The Giants need the preserve sharp referring to the ensuing road day out involves matchups with the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Funds.
Jones — who is 1-11 as a starter in top time — will almost surely be without Barkley (ankle) for a 2nd straight sport, a large job sharp referring to the Giants rushed for 29 yards on 11 carries against the 49ers in his absence within the Sept. 21 loss.
IT TOOK ONLY a few seconds after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called Jones’ title because the No. 6 overall opt within the 2019 draft for the worn Duke well-known person to realize the expectations and stress fervent with taking half in quarterback for the Giants.
“As soon as I obtained drafted you construct media for two hours after, and I hadn’t experienced anything else adore that,” Jones mentioned.
“It is a full diversified ballgame coming from faculty soccer to the NFL and positively a diversified ballgame in New York.”
Add to that the original contract, and all exact now those tight-window throws change into even extra scrutinized. When he misses, as he did within the season-opening 40-0 loss to the Cowboys, a sport in which Jones’ QBR turned into 8.2, the criticism is presumably now not laborious to search out.
“That stuff is going to happen regardless,” broad receiver Safe Shepard mentioned. “It don’t topic. Nobody in here presents a s— referring to the overall outdoors stuff or what the outdoors thinks because they construct now not know what it be adore to be in this case. It would now not produce no sense to hear to that stuff.”
Jones typically would now not. He does a appropriate job of sheltering himself from the outdoors world. In point of fact, he once told ESPN he now not ceaselessly ever knew there turned into a firestorm occurring outdoors the building until it turned into relayed to him by his mom.
And when he does know, he has stumbled on a chuffed routine that helps him cope. Jones talks with a sports psychologist weekly, and makes utilize of his family as an additional sounding board. He also does yoga continually.
Jones, 26, mentioned he does all of it to get “perspective from folks I belief and diversified issues to deem that I construct now not mediate of exact away.”
The fifth-year quarterback also now not ceaselessly ever makes utilize of social media — he has attach up three posts on X this year — and his in-season involvement on Instagram is an occasional advert or promotion.
“There might be going to be a story in a roundabout way, some way,” Barkley mentioned. “He’s the quarterback of the New York Giants. It is advanced in phrases of the media aspect of it. The manner that he’s, anybody who knows Daniel carefully or is appropriate ready to be conscious him from the outdoors, the fetch of person he’s, his work ethic, it be constructed him for the 2nd.”
Jones made broad strides closing year under coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. He done sixth in QBR at 62.9 after never beforehand coming shut to cracking the tip 10. He performed particularly effectively down the stretch, with 9 touchdown passes and appropriate three interceptions within the closing eight video games of the usual season sooner than a dominant performance within the wild-card spherical.
It is why the Giants fetch attach loads on Jones’ plate this season.
“He’s very consistent in his way, in actuality since I have been here,” Daboll mentioned. “Whether it be in OTAs, the first sport of the season, the Monday night sport, he’s in here early, he’s assembly with gamers. He’s a in actuality soundless particular person. He would now not get excessive. He would now not get low. He’s very real. He makes a speciality of the issues he can work on and meets reasonably loads with the diversified gamers as effectively.”
The money finest adds to the equation. Jones is guaranteed $82 million over the first two years of the deal and performs in one in every of the NFL’s largest markets.
“He would now not must reveal regret that he had his simplest year in a time when they obligatory to redo [his contract],” mentioned worn NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck, who backed up Eli Manning on the Giants from 2005 to ’07. “That’s now not your fault. You don’t must reveal regret for that. There might be now not this kind of thing as a query [the money] is section of [the criticism], however I could perhaps perchance also argue for him to play the manner he did closing year, now not everybody can construct that.”
JONES HAD PERHAPS the finest sport of his profession in closing season’s wild-card spherical when the stress turned into at its highest. He turned into the first quarterback in NFL history to file 300-plus passing yards, 2-plus passing touchdowns and 70-plus speeding yards in a playoff sport.
The Giants beat the Vikings 31-24 that day for his or her first postseason preserve in over a decade. Jones went 24-for-35 passing for 301 yards and two touchdowns, as effectively as to speeding 17 times for 78 yards. It helped him land that broad contract, which now has him tied for 10th among highest-paid quarterbacks, averaging $40 million per season.
Jones is effectively the highest-paid player on the Giants, so when issues high-tail disagreeable, he’s the lightning rod.
“Nah, man, at this level, now we fetch performed been by way of all of it,” broad receiver Darius Slayton mentioned. “[The 40-0 season-opening loss to the Cowboys] turned into reasonably disagreeable however, s—, 4-12 [in 2021] turned into reasonably disagreeable. We now were by way of loads at this level, and for him, he takes all of it in trot.”
Jones’ first profession birth in 2019 featured a dramatic comeback in Tampa Bay. The Giants trailed by 18 substances and he ran for the game-suited touchdown with 1: 16 closing. It turned into on that drive that Jones, typically gentle-spoken, stepped into the huddle and declared “Let’s f—ing to find.”
Giants followers is at probability of be echoing that sentiment.
After the shutout loss to the Cowboys, Jones and the Giants faced a 20-level halftime deficit against the Cardinals. These 60 substances the Giants allowed sooner than scoring their first level of the season were the 2nd-most unanswered substances to birth a season since the 1970 merger, and essentially the most since the 1978 Baltimore Colts (86).
Jones went 17-of-21 passing for 259 yards and two passing touchdowns while adding eight rushes for 58 yards and but every other touchdown within the 2nd half of on my own against Arizona. He struggled appropriate days in a while Thursday night, throwing for 137 yards with an interception against the 49ers.
Right here’s where the comps to the even-keeled Manning evaluation out.
“I feel adore there are so many alternatives within the NFL to scurry the roller coaster whenever you might presumably adore to, and I feel adore he appropriate refuses to get on it,” tight end Darren Waller mentioned. “While you ask at, we’re adore, what, 60-0 in our first six quarters? There are turnovers, there might be drives that are now not getting there, and it be appropriate adore, you don’t search for him wearing it, you don’t search for him pointing at diversified guys or getting enraged on the sidelines. It is appropriate lastly as prolonged as we preserve plugging into this route of and making an try to construct issues the pleasing way, it be going to flip for us.
“And that energy paid off [in Arizona], and it be something which that you just might presumably also apply.”
With extra money comes the truth that there is extra accountability and stress on the quarterback. All of a unexpected, within the wage cap league, where Jones takes up 7% of the cap this year and a projected 18% subsequent year, there turns into much less money to high-tail around for the supporting solid.
Jones has to play effectively so as for the Giants to preserve. That turned into evident once extra within the first three video games of the season.
“Stress putts, on the soccer enviornment, shooting free throws, regardless of what, it be his on a fashioned basis existence, his fashioned,” Barkley mentioned. “He’s constructed for anything else.”
Read More
World News1 week ago
World News1 week ago
World News1 week ago
World News1 week ago
World News6 days ago
World News1 week ago
World News5 days ago
World News7 days ago