“Things I Think” about the Giants: Daniel Jones, Joe Judge, offensive line, more

I find what has happened since Daniel Jones’ brilliant 402-yard performance in Sunday’s New York Giants overtime victory over the New Orleans Saints to be just hilarious.

For more than two years, the darts were thrown at Jones and the general manager who drafted him.

• It’s a joke that Dave Gettleman picked this guy # 6 overall. He’s a third round talent, and he comes from DUKE, for yelling out loud.
• It’s an escapee waiting to arrive.
• It has the processing speed of a 1990 desktop computer.
• The most notable thing he’s ever done was fall face down with the end zone closer than any defender.
• He’s more boring than Eli Manning has ever been, and not quite as talented.

Well, a funny thing happened after Jones’ virtuoso performance against the Saints. Suddenly a lot of those same people are tripping over themselves and gushing with gusto at how Gettleman could have been right and Jones is really becoming – gasp! – A QUARTERBACK FRANCHISE!

Here are some titles:

“Giants praise QB Jones ‘special’ after comeback win”

Daniel Jones is the real deal: Giants shock Saints in 27-21 win, and they have their QB to thank | 5 remarks’

“It’s time to start realizing Jones is the Giants’ QB franchise.”

‘Ready or not, this is Daniel Jones | amNewYork ‘

“Daniel Jones showing he could be the answer for the Giants”

“Daniel in cold blood has finally reached his majority”

If you’ve been careful, though, and you’re not stuck in the “Jones is terrible and Gettleman is an idiot for picking him” tale, Sunday’s career best game has been brewing for some time.

Go back to last season, and there were signs of growth ahead of his Week 12 hamstring injury against the Cincinnati Bengals. In Week 11 against the Philadelphia Eagles, he might have played his best game of the year, going 21 of 28 for 244 yards and no turnovers.

This season Jones has played well. He was average in the opener against the Denver Broncos, but in my opinion he was really good against Washington and Atlanta. He just didn’t end up with the huge stats or wins to prove it.

Sunday against New Orleans, he got both. He’s also scored 17 points in the Giants’ last three possessions, coming back 11 points with seven minutes left. He did what franchise quarterbacks are supposed to do – deliver when it mattered most.

And suddenly everyone is in love with him. Suddenly it seems like everyone wants to anoint him with something that most have spent over two years telling us it could never be – A FRANCHISE QUARTERBACK.

Like I said, hilarious.

Jones is second in the league in passing score, according to Pro Football Focus. His 98.3 passer rating after four games is a jump of 18 points from last season’s 80.4. He does what leaders do, like bringing his team back for a comeback victory and crushing gigantic defensive linemen for two-point conversions.

Is he a franchise quarterback? I’m not going to go gaga and proclaim this right now. I’ll say I don’t think the quarterback is a problem for the New York Giants right now.

Most of the time, though, I just love watching everyone who’s been bashing Jones for over two years trying to get on the “Hey Daniel Jones could be good now” bandwagon.

Offensive line

The New York Giants have a roughly average offensive line in the league. Football Outsiders has the Giants’ No.11 in adjusted sack rate and No.29 in adjusted line yards (run blocking). Pro Football Focus is the Giants’ 13th for pass blocking efficiency, 17th for overall pass blocking rating, and 20th for overall run blocking rating.

Considering the apocalyptic expectations of those outside of the Giants’ organization, I think any Giants fans would have signed up for this kind of performance early in training camp.

Considering the circumstances, I think it’s downright unbelievable.

Two valuable backups, Zach Fulton and Joe Looney have retired. Two starters, center and captain Nick Gates and left guard Shane Lemieux, are lost for the year. Expected starting right tackle Matt Peart lost that job even before the start of the season. The Giants used two starting crosses and FOUR starting left guards.

The blocking of the run was uneven, but overall the offensive line performed admirably.

Either these players are better than many thought, or Rob Sale is something of an offensive line guru.

I think in reality it’s both.

Sale, along with Pat Flaherty, Ben Wilkerson and Freddie Kitchens, obviously did a terrific job. Sale told training camp that he likes to keep things simple, with a handful of repeatable exercises to hone his skills. Whatever he does, it works. Despite the constant changes, the line has largely done the job.

“These guys work really (well) in meetings in terms of setting up, reviewing the opponent’s strip, continuing conversation throughout it, making sure we’re on the same length of time. wave from the point of view of communication. In training we get a great job against our defensive front – whether it’s faking our opponents’ rushes or just doing a good job versus a good job, ”said head coach Joe. Judge. “So we go into every game very well prepared from that point of view.”

Maybe, just maybe, the GM deserves a touch of credit too. Many laughed at the Giants’ confidence in the young starters they had planned to go with. Maybe they were right. We’ll never know. They wondered, perhaps rightly so, why Gettleman didn’t complete the line with at least one midterm draft pick.

They were wondering when Gettleman would make any real moves to add depth after injuries and training camp retreats.

When the Giants finally moved, the exchanges brought center Billy Price and goaltender Ben Bredeson. The Giants surged when former Baltimore Ravens inside offensive lineman Matt Skura became a free agent, adding him to their practice squad.

These three movements have so far borne fruit.

The biggest difference, however, has been Andrew Thomas. A while ago, I wrote that the 2020 No.4 overall pick was the one player who could absolutely change the tale of the Giants’ offensive line.

At this point, he’s doing just that. One of football’s worst tackles as a rookie last season, he’s been one of the best so far this season. In four games and 182 pass blocking snaps, he gave up only six pushes and no sacks.

Thomas, like Jones in a way, shows why you can’t rush to pass final judgment on a young player.

Could Gettleman and the Giants be right on both Jones and Thomas? We need more evidence to be sure, but it just might be.

Just enjoy this from Brian Baldinger:

Stick to the process

Honestly, I’m tired of hearing the judge talk about improvement, the process and taking the necessary steps to get to where he wants the Giants to go. It can all be hard to swallow when this improvement isn’t showing up in the field, when losses increase, and the process seems to have your wheels stuck in the same place stuck in the mud that the Giants have been for most of the last one. decade.

It was interesting to hear the Sunday judge call the results “misleading”.

“I believe in the process. I don’t believe looking at the results should justify what you are doing. I am convinced that coming back to work every week and knowing what it takes to be successful and stick to that plan, but also not giving up on it when you don’t get the result, ”he said. . “We are looking to see if we have completed the process correctly because that puts us in a position to get results. The results are the most deceptive thing in the history of mankind. If you stay focused on what’s taking you away and forget about the steps you need to take to get there (to success), you’ll never get to where you want to be.

The judge explained it another way on Monday.

“Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to you is to do something wrong and be successful. You have to be prepared to understand what the correct steps you need to take, what the real process is to be successful, and stay determined to follow it. Sometimes you are successful and it’s despite something that you did wrong, and you can’t confuse that with how to do it, ”he said. “Sometimes you fail and you have to go back and re-examine the process of what you did in the steps along the way – and you can’t give up on that. You need to make sure you stick it and do it right. For me, I just don’t believe in being results oriented. Obviously, the goal is to be successful, it’s the results, but it comes from all the steps required to be successful. “

I think it resonated with me. I am an avid golfer. Greedy, not good. I can go out and shoot a round between 45 and 50 for 9 holes, and that will include some really good shots that do exactly what I want them to do. Other days the dash is a lot worse and hits are rare.

I practice and play a lot. I think I know what I’m doing on the golf course. The thing is, I can’t really tell you the why or the how of good deals, and sometimes bad ones. If I could do that I think I would get better and more consistent results.

I think that’s what the judge is coming to. If you are rewarded for a bad habit, you won’t necessarily correct it.

About this sunday

The Giants made some huge defensive saves against the Saints. I think, however, that if the Giants play defense like they did against New Orleans (0 quarterback sacks or hits, 15 utterly absurd missed tackles) it won’t have any impact. importance how good Daniel Jones is. Dallas will score over 40 points and the Giants will not be able to call.

Incidentally, Giants-Cowboys in Week 5 is a crucial game in determining whether there will be a run in the NFC East. Here are the rankings:

Dallas Cowboys 3-1
Washington Soccer Team 2-2
Philadelphia Eagles 1-3
Giants 1-3

If the Giants can cause an upheaval at Arlington, they would surprisingly be a game out of first place. If they lose, the Cowboys are 4-1 and able to control the division.