Daniel Jones injured his right hamstring against the Bengals on Nov. 29. The Giants quarterback missed one game and returned only to injure his left ankle on a hit in the pocket Dec. 13 against the Cardinals. He then missed another game.
Giants coach Joe Judge said most other NFL players would have missed more than only two games.
“Look, Daniel is the last guy that’s going to use anything as an excuse,” Judge, who rarely talks about injuries, told The Michael Kay Show on Monday. What I would say about the injury last year is it was much more serious than maybe people thought on the outside. I would say probably 90 percent of players in the league who would have had that injury, including quarterbacks, would have been on IR for the remainder of the year. That’s just the reality of it. It was much more severe than maybe he allowed people to know or the information that was put out there, and we’re going to protect our players by not disclosing everything about their injuries to be honest with you. He fought through a lot of things. He earned a lot of people’s respect.”
Jones spent the last five weeks of the season on the injury report. He missed two practices, was limited in nine practices and had four full practices.
The Giants listed him as doubtful in Week 13 when he didn’t play against Seattle and questionable in Weeks 14-16 when he missed one game and started two others. He had no injury designation in Week 17.
The team repeatedly has defended Jones this offseason. Now in his third season, though, Jones has much to prove.
The former sixth overall choice is 8-18 as a starter with 35 passing touchdowns, three rushing touchdowns and 39 turnovers. He has thrown for 5,970 yards and has a 84.1 passer rating.
“I’m very pleased in the progress Daniel made last year,” Judge said. “I really am. Let’s be honest about this guy: There’s no excuses, but he didn’t have a spring to work in the new system. He didn’t have preseason games to get a feel for it and build chemistry with his teammates. We did the best we could in training camp. Ultimately, it took a little bit more time to acclimate an entire team to a new offense. But I’m very, very encouraged. I was very pleased. But he’s fun to work with a daily basis.”
Jones is nearly out of excuses/reasons for not getting it done yet. It’s time for him to figure it out or the Giants likely are back in the quarterback market in 2022.