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Daniel Jones Should Make 'A Major Stride' Next Season, Giants' Dave Gettleman Says
May 5, 2021
New York Giants general manager Dave Gettleman is expecting a lot from his quarterback this season.
Daniel Jones is set to enter his third season in the league, and the Giants have spent this offseason making significant investments to help him succeed.
"Obviously, this will be a big jump,'' Gettleman said Monday on WFAN (h/t Paul Schwartz of the New York Post). "This is the year, Year 2 to Year 3, that Daniel should really make a major stride. We're looking forward to seeing him thrive."
Jones, the team's No. 6 overall pick out of Duke in 2019, will head into 2021 off a season that saw him struggle through a hamstring injury. Head coach Joe Judge said on ESPN 98.7 Radio that the injury, which forced him to miss two weeks, "was much more serious" than it appeared (h/t Schwartz).
Jones rebounded and finished the year with 2,943 yards and 11 touchdowns, throwing 10 picks. His yardage was only slightly down from his 3,027-yard campaign as a rookie, but his scoring production was more than halved—he had 24 touchdown passes in 2019, and in two fewer starts.
One of the glaring errors is his 29 fumbles through 27 games.
But the Giants have bulked up the group around him in an effort to help him reach his ceiling. Kenny Golladay, who led the league with 11 touchdowns in a Pro Bowl campaign in 2019 but was limited to five games in 2020, joined the team in free agency, and he'll work alongside Kadarius Toney, who the team drafted with the 20th overall pick.
The Giants offense can't get much worse from its 2020 mark, when only the New York Jets had a lower average yards per game (299.6). The Giants' 189.1 passing yards ranked fourth-worst, and they scored a second-lowest 17.5 points per game.
Now that Jones is healthy and has weapons around him, there's no reason Gettleman shouldn't have high hopes for the player who was supposed to take over for Eli Manning as the franchise quarterback.