Giants QB looking for epiphany
The reigning MVP had just one before he took the league by storm.
The presumptive MVP this season had seven and now is redefining the game.
Daniel Jones already has more than either of them.
What are we talking about? Starts as a rookie, of course. It’s no surprise that Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson needed their rookie experiences to help them blossom into superstar quarterbacks who are carrying their teams toward the postseason. It takes time for a young player to find his footing in the NFL. But now that Jones has eight starts behind him and heads into his ninth Sunday against the Bears at Soldier Field, it’s fair to wonder if that half-season of experience is enough to start to propel him to the next level of his development.
When, in other words, will it all click for Jones?
Sadly, no magic number somehow transforms a frog of a rookie quarterback groping his way through the early stages of his career into the kind of prince that can win awards and championships. Because it’s not necessarily the snap counts or starts or practice reps that allow young players to take what is very often the largest stride of their careers. It’s the offseason that really serves as the cocoon for the metamorphosis.
“He’ll be a rookie throughout the season,” coach Pat Shurmur said of Jones on Monday. “I don’t think he’ll be able to fully internalize what’s happening to him until he has time away here in the offseason where he’ll look back and say, ‘Wow, what was that?’ ”
Jones hardly is overwhelmed by what he has faced. Just three times in NFL history has a rookie quarterback thrown for at least 300 yards in a game with four touchdowns and no interceptions. Jones accomplished that twice in the last two months. (Marcus Mariota did it for the Titans in 2015 too.)
Even Jones’ interception numbers are acceptable. He has thrown eight against his 15 touchdowns. Not great, but certainly within the tolerance of a lot of teams with or without rookie quarterbacks. About the only thing that has humbled Jones has been turnovers. He has fumbled 13 times and lost nine of them.
Oh, and the losses. He’s 2-6 as a starter and has lost six straight.
Besides Mahomes and Jackson, Jones also has more rookie starts than the last first-round Giants rookie quarterback. It wasn’t until this point in the season — Nov. 21, 2004, 15 years ago Thursday — that Eli Manning made his first start for the Giants. Imagine having waited so long to have seen Jones this year? Manning, of course, had historic struggles through those final seven games. It wasn’t until Week 17 that he notched his first win.
When he came back in 2005, though, he was a completely different player. The Giants went 11-5 and won the division.
Might that happen to Jones? It’s possible. Jones is in a different position than his aforementioned contemporary quarterbacks who joined playoff-caliber teams as a late-in-the-process piece. There was no rebuild, no roster overhaul, no growing pains shared. And Manning’s second season featured the best running back, receiver and defensive lineman in team history, along with the infrastructure of one of the top offensive lines in the NFL over the past 20 years. And a Hall of Fame coach. Jones doesn’t have that package to work with.
The Giants undoubtedly will try to build some of that around him. They have some of the pieces already, such as Saquon Barkley.
But it probably won’t be until at least 2020 that Jones truly flourishes. The next six games most likely will be about his development, not his dominance.
“I mean, he’s a rookie,” Shurmur said. “He keeps fighting through it and he keeps improving. He’s doing a lot of really good things. … At this point, he’s in it and he’s competing to help us win games.
“Yeah,“Shurmur said, “I guess chronologically, he’s a rookie.“
And there is no early graduation from that status.