Teammates fear Jones out for year
Daniel Jones is expected to miss another game Sunday against the Cowboys, and many of his Giants teammates privately are bracing for a much longer absence.
It’s clear that Giants head coach Joe Judge and the medical staff are taking a week-to-week approach with Jones, sending him for different opinions and regular testing to compare images and look for progress in his injured neck. Jones flew home late Sunday to see team-affiliated doctors at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, after accompanying the Giants on a 10day, three-city trip.
The results of those tests and Jones’ exact diagnosis remain unknown, but there is growing sentiment among teammates that their quarterback eventually will be shut down for the rest of the season, sources close to multiple players told The Post. Jones likely sitting out a third straight game was first reported by The Athletic.
It is expected Mike Glennon will make his third straight, backed up by Jake Fromm. Glennon has completed 50 percent of his passes and has a 61.4 quarterback rating over the last two starts, leading the Giants to one touchdown over the first seven quarters before the offense piled up some garbage-time numbers against the Chargers.
Giants receiver Darius Slayton — one of Jones’ favorite targets since they arrived together in the 2019 draft class — is one who hasn’t given up hope of Jones returning this season. Jones needs to gain medical clearance for contact in order to return on game days.
Nothing has changed over the last three weeks in that regard.
“Every week you hope that he’s good enough to go,” Slayton told The Post. “But you play it by ear and see how it goes.”
Slayton partnered with United Healthcare’s $20,000 grant to give out 500 winter coats Tuesday at the Boys and Girls Club in Jersey City. As he signed autographs and stressed the importance of staying warm during the cold Northeast winters that he still is not used as a Georgia native — “It’s all about giving back to these kids, and you want them to be active and stay outside,” he said — he was bombarded with Giants fan requests to beat the Cowboys.
That mission gets infinitely harder without Jones.
“It’s really tricky because it’s a neck injury,” Slayton said. “At the end of the day, I care about him as a human more than I do as a football player. The last thing I want him to do is go out there and hurt his neck and God forbid anything major happened to him. Obviously we want him out there, obviously he wants to be out there, but in a situation like this you have to play it safe.”
The Giants could be eliminated from playoff contention as early as this week with a loss as a 10.5-point underdog to the Cowboys plus a couple of other specific results across the league. In that case, the risk-reward of bringing Jones back for meaningless games seems to tilt in the cautious direction despite Judge’s typical coach vow to play the best players.
“It’s a big game,” Slayton said. “They’re rolling right now. It’s a great challenge for us.”