It’s clear that Daniel Jones hasn’t lived up to expectations since the New York Giants made the former Duke quarterback the sixth overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. Selected to be the heir apparent to two-time Super Bowl-winning QB Eli Manning, Jones has never won more than five games in a season.
While it’s hard to fill the shoes of one of the Giants’ all-time greats, Jones hasn’t even proven enough to earn a second contract with the team, just three years after he was seen as the potential future of the franchise.
While there are several arguments to be made, citing different reasons as to why Jones has struggled, the point is, he hasn’t gotten the job done. The results have led many Giants fans to already write the 25-year-old QB off, while another legion of fans is still just as supportive of the athletic signal-caller as they were in 2019.
But Eli Manning? He’s somewhere in between, though he does believe in the new direction led by general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll. He also has a few thoughts about Jones and how much more difficult his path has been since arriving in the NFL.
Eli Manning compares his situation to Daniel Jones’
One thing Eli Manning didn’t have to experience until his later years was the constant turnover Daniel Jones has seen during his Big Blue tenure. No, that’s not a veiled shot at Danny Dimes’ turnover struggles thus far, we’re getting there.
Manning had stability early in his career, with Tom Coughlin as his head coach for his first 12 seasons.
Jones on the other hand? Three different head coaches as he enters his fourth season.
It’s an area many spectators don’t put a lot of thought into, but for a young quarterback, having familiarity and generally, a strong comfort level goes a long way. It’s something Manning touched on recently when speaking at the annual Manning Passing Academy.
“By my fifth year, I had been in the same offense the whole time, I knew it, I could coach it up, new guys are coming in, I was speaking the same language as my offensive coordinator and as Coach Coughlin, and kind of preaching the same stuff. And with [Jones], it’s all new, and it’s learning, and he’s consistently trying to learn and learn and learn, and it just takes some time before it all sinks in,” Manning said to NFL Network.
One can only imagine how difficult it is when trying to focus on developing your physical skills when you have to slow down and think about the mental aspects of processing information, each and every offseason. It leads to a slower thought process and likely, more mistakes, or in Jones’ case, possibly hesitancy to let ‘er rip, which isn’t ideal either.