DAN MANNS UP
After 0-for-6 start, Jones finishes strong on first day of Giant camp
Jones stumbled out the gates early, but pushed through and had a resilient finish to his first Giants training camp practice on Thursday afternoon.
Jones started 0-for-6 passing in 11-on-11 drills quarterbacking the second-team offense, with two tentative passes nearly intercepted and an excellent deep throw dropped by wideout Bennie Fowler.
But in Jones’ second period, he went a perfect 4-for-4, hitting two to running back Paul Perkins, one to Fowler, and a deep throw down the right sideline to wideout Alonzo Russell.
“I think that shows when he’s going through adversity, he’s maybe not having the day he wants in the beginning, but to be able to pick it up and continue to go up strong, that’s what you want in your quarterback and all your players,” star running back Saquon Barkley said of Jones after practice.
It would have been normal for Jones to have some early jitters, though. And head coach Pat Shurmur continues to leave the door open for the No. 6 overall pick to push Eli Manning. Prior to practice, Shurmur was asked if there were a competition at every position, including QB.
“I think organically a coach likes to say that,” Shurmur said. “When you look at a roster, everybody is going to attempt to pencil in who will start. I think what you want on the field is a competitive spirit, where each guy is trying to get better each day. Then trust that we’re going to play the best players. That’s the approach.”
So Shurmur continues to invite Jones to come out and blow the coaching staff away and give them no choice. There were even a few fans chanting after Manning’s first incompletion on Thursday: “We want Daniel!” The reality, though, is that Manning has 15 years on Jones, and even if the two-time Super Bowl MVP is rarely spectacular, he completed plenty of throws on Thursday outside of an intercepted screen pass by Lorenzo Carter.
Jones, therefore, will have to continue the progress he demonstrated in the second half of practice, and then prove in preseason games that the NFL game isn’t too much for him, which remains an unanswered question, of course.
Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, for example, stopped by camp with NFL Network on Thursday and explained what Jones must show to hang in the league.
“There’s some guys that have to play in more of a perfect world, and they can be really good quarterbacks, but they have trouble taking and elevating their team and carrying their team when things aren’t great,” Warner said. “And that to me is the biggest question I have with Daniel is: ‘Can he do that? Can he be that guy that can carry a team with his right arm no matter what the situation?’
“Because when you watched him in college, there were times physically where you wondered did he have that next level talent from a physical standpoint,” Warner added. “It doesn’t mean he can’t be great with that. It just means the margin of error shrinks a lot, and you have to be in tune with all those other things that you have to do well.”
Jones, who spoke before practice, said he knows he is “a lot further along” in his development since just rookie minicamp in early May. “There’s still a lot to learn, a lot to do, and I realize that,” he added.
He wouldn’t take the bait on any QB competiDaniel
tion with Manning, though, aware that concentrating on improving every day himself is enough of a task.
“Since I have gotten here in the spring, since we have started OTA’s as a room, as a position group, we’ve worked really well together,” Jones said. “We have found a way to help each other, me in particular being the younger guy, we have found a way to kind of improve as a group, improve as a unit. That way helping the offense improve.
Shurmur is well aware that any rookie QB is going to go through struggles.
“In college sometimes you look out and everyone is open. You get used to a lot of success,” Shurmur said. “There are times in the pro game when you look out and there may be only one, or none, of them are open. What do you do then? I think because the defenses fight back really hard in this league, that’s a little bit for the quarterback to get used to.”
Shurmur is not going to take it easy on Jones even early in camp, though. He said “we’re going to try to have him continue with what he’s learned.”
“Each day he’ll build on that knowledge,” Shurmur said. “It’s full steam ahead with him.”