Daniel Jones continues to make the “experts” eat their words. Admittedly, we were one who was not happy with the Giants selection of him. We still stand by the opinion that he could have been had at 17 with Josh Allen at 6. Imagine how much better you would feel about the draft if that was how it went down.

Some Giants friends of mine say its nice to finally have a QB with accuracy. I still don’t agree on that. I feel Manning was reasonably accurate. The most noticeable difference between Manning and Jones is their legs, not the arm.

From scrambling away from trouble to actually running for two touchdowns, these few plays a game where the ability to run matter are big differences.  When the line is mediocre, the value of the ability to run is even that much greater. Jones is an athlete. Manning even in his younger days was purely a quarterback but never a gifted athlete.

The Giants had good fortune to win that game. They probably didn’t deserve to if they had to rely on the miss of a short field goal attempt to accomplish it.  Even a loss would not have changed the fact that Giants fans need to be much happier today. For the first time in years, there is hope.

As this blog has written before, the way to winning a championship is to get materially more value out of the players than what they are being paid. Solid NFL starts on their second contract make at least mid -$20m (with Dak Prescott expected to get over $30m and I don’t consider him a top 15 QB). Paying $8m per year saves $16m+, probably a third of what a team needs to save to compete for a Championship.

Having a good QB on a rookie contract is how teams are usually successful. Look at recent success of Seahawks with Russell Wilson on his first contract or the Eagles with Carson Wentz, or the Rams with Goff. The Seahawks had to cut talent when they gave Wilson his big deal and the Rams and Eagles will have to do the same when contract two kicks in next year for their QBs.

The defense remains horrific. The pass rush got marginally better and Deandre Baker played a decent game, leaving hope that it was rookie jitters holding him back. The best development may have been the injury Alec Ogletree. He makes too much and must be gone by next year. The same goes for CB Jenkins who no longer has the latent to justify his huge contract. Eliminating those two, and Manning from the salary cap as well as being done with eating the unamortized portion of Vernon and OBJ, will mean the Giant’s will have some good young talent along with some significant cap space next year. For the first time in a while the future doesn’t look so dim. On the other hand, with Gettlemen as GM (which may now be solidified with Jones, the Giants will likely squander what they have going.

Losing Barkley hurts. He is far and away my favorite player, and the one who can go the distance at a moment’s notice. He should be back in 6-8 weeks. I like Wayne Gallman (who is in a different class but is a good back up).  The Giants now probably wish they had not cut Perkins.
 
- Ari Glass

Coach Schumer announced that he will replace Eli Manning after 15 years with rookie Daniel Jones.  Jones, who was over drafted by GM Gettlemen this past off-season, has nonetheless looked good in his preseason opportunity. 

The Giants deny this but it’s clearly a decision to turn the page on this season and start looking towards the future. I didn’t think Eli was playing poorly. I thought he played well in Dallas and was hampered by having no receivers to throw to against Buffalo. I don’t think Jones gives them a better chance to win right now. IF the Giants’ are arriving at the belated reality that the team as constructed is not playoff caliber so they may as well turn towards the future, its hard to argue with this approach. They are correct in that assessment and should have gotten there much earlier.  I thought Eli deserved a few more weeks but certainly at some point it made sense to make the move. Of course, they then didn’t need to pay Eli $24m for 2 games. They should’ve moved on in the off-season and been able to spend that money elsewhere.

I’d love to see them pull off a trade and get something for Eli (Pittsburg?), but salary cap considerations make this virtually impossible. The good news is that Eli did serve the purpose of tutoring young Jones.  Spending all of training camp and the pre-season allowed Jones to learn a lot from Eli. 

While Jones played exceptionally well in the preseason, it should be remembered that he played against second string defenses and had a small enough sample size as to not be statistically significant. I expect him not to be as good, but it will be nice to have a QB who can run with the ball when the pressure comes. I’d expect 2 first downs a week with his legs -something you would never get from Eli.  Eli was a great Giant. He was much maligned and never got the credit he deserved.

Some go too far and think he could be HOF-worthy just off his two Superbowl victories. I think he will fall just short and not get in. He had a 4-5 year run where he was among the top 6 or 7 QBs in the league and the long duration of his career has led to his being among the all-time leaders in passing yards and TD passes, but good for a long time is not as much of a requirement as elite for a period of time.

Barkley continues to be all-world and showing that with a better offensive line his stats will be even greater.  Despite that, the Giants getting blown out in two games just proved how not important running backs are in today's NFL and why the Giants should’ve not taken a running back that high, even if he is far and away my favorite player and the reason to watch blow out games.

It is a shame that this team that is destined for a top few pick in a class loaded with good QB Talent doesn’t need to draft a QB.  Early projections will leave the Giants’ with either a good WR or edge rusher, both big needs to this team. Given how bad the defense is, I’d take the edge rusher (I had wanted Josh Allen in the draft). Tampa has a good defense so its an interesting time to get him a first start but hopefully the return of Devin White from an injury is delayed past this Sunday.

The Giants were headed towards a 5-11 season. I don’t think Jones will drastically alter this in either direction.  

​-Ari Glass