There’s no one more popular on any given team than the backup quarterback. That has been especially true for the New York Giants dating back to the days of Phil Simms.
Fan and pundits yearned for Simms to be replaced. They yearned for Kerry Collins to be replaced, for Kurt Warner to be replaced and for Eli Manning to be replaced. And now, they yearn for Daniel Jones to be replaced.
The latest to jump on that bandwagon is Noah Camras of Deadspin, who posed the following question: “By declining his fifth-year option, Big Blue doesn’t see Daniel Jones as the future — so why is he even the QB of the present?”
The answer is simple. It’s because financially, it made no sense for the Giants to pick up Jones’ fifth-year option. As general manager Joe Schoen previously explained, if Jones plays well in 2022 and the team desires to bring him back, they can just use the franchise tag for only slightly more money. A contract extension would then lessen that load.
But there’s no fun in that reality. Reading further into that business decision and forcing a narrative that’s not shared within the building sells better when there’s an outcry from a very frustrated fanbase.
That’s not to say Jones is a sure thing to return. He’s not. The new regime wants to evaluate what they have in the quarterback before making a big-money decision on him. That means playing him in 2022 despite the calls to move on from armchair general manager.
And Camras’ argument? Jones hasn’t played a full season yet. Neither has Tyrod Taylor, but we digress…
Jones hasn’t played a full season thus far in his career, and their midseason relievers haven’t exactly been great.
Mike Glennon and Jake Fromm went a combined 0-6 last year in games Jones missed. Colt McCoy went 1-1 in 2020.
Taylor, on the other hand, has been very sharp in his sporadic starts over the course of his career. And he’s especially adept at holding onto the football — something that has plagued Jones in his first three seasons.
Jones has significantly cut down on his number of fumbles in recent years but again, there’s a narrative that must be clung to. It defeats the purpose to acknowledge that Jones has made terrific strides in that area (just three lost fumbles in 2021 and a lower INT% than Taylor).
Again, we digress…
Schoen and new head coach Brian Daboll have treated Jones as the starter so far in training camp. He had gotten all of the first-team reps in practice until earlier this week, when Taylor got his first reps with the starters after an abysmal practice by Jones.
Back in reality, Taylor took one first-team rep as Jones spoke with head coach Brian Daboll, who later said he simply didn’t want to stop the flow of practice so he sent Taylor in real quick. It had nothing to do with how Jones was practicing, or preparing Taylor for a starting role.
Taylor will be the perfect bridge quarterback as they look to next season’s draft class, where the Giants’ new regime can start fresh, as they begin their quest of finding a quarterback in the post-Eli Manning era.
This may be true. Taylor is a more than capable quarterback who has had hard luck throughout his career. He’s played on bad teams, has been forced to change cities, systems, roles and offensive languages, has cycled through various head coaches and offensive coordinators, and has yet to be given a fair chance. Does that sound like anyone else you know?
Wanting to give Jones a fair shake isn’t a knock on Taylor. He was brought in because last year’s backups were abysmal and Jones does have a propensity for injury. He’s the ideal backup quarterback in New York and that’s precisely what role he will serve in 2021 no matter how much the narrative gets twisted and the reality misrepresented.
