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The New York Giants insist rookie quarterback Daniel Jones will be ready to start Week 1 of the NFL 2019 season if needed.
The team isn’t saying that the sixth-overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft will step in for Eli Manning when the Giants open the season at home against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1, but the comments coming from some members of the coaching staff are only going to increase speculation on when the rookie might take over for the aging veteran.
“I think he’d be ready to go, that’s my personal opinion,” offensive coordinator Mike Shula told Tom Rock of Newsday. “I think he has that capability.”
For whatever reason, the Giants are making it their mission to hype up the 21-year old prospect out of Duke, even going as far as to produce this hype video from his recent minicamp appearance, which mostly consists of him throwing to uncovered receivers.
Other Giants coaches joined the chorus too, talking up Jones to levels usually reserved for noted hype man Pete Carrol.
“Very impressive,” gushed Tyke Tolbert, the Giants wide receiver coach. “The ball was on the money. He seemed like he carried himself pretty well. I’m very excited about him.”
Defensive coordinator James Bettcher took things even further, name dropping guys like Carson Palmer and Andrew Luck, quarterbacks he’s previously spent time with as a coach.
“You see a guy who is in that mold,” Bettcher told Newsday.
When Will Daniel Jones Make His First Start for the Giants?
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Unless something happens to incumbent starter Eli Manning in, it’s unlikely that Jones is the man under center when the season gets underway.
Manning has been the man for 15 seasons, guiding the team to two Super Bowls, and from the owner on down, the team has consistently gone out of its way to throw support behind the veteran, despite his clear decline.
H’es been conspicuously quiet since the Giants selected his eventual replacement sixth overall, making no public comments at all. However, his actions indicate a man who knows his time is just about up.
In April, he canceled his weekly appearance on WFAN radio network, and host Mike Francesca believes it’s an indication that Manning sees the writing on the wall.
“Eli has already canceled his show for this year because he doesn’t like the thought of being on that show weekly if he isn’t the starting quarterback,” goes the analysis from Francesa.
Over the last two seasons, the Giants have an 8-24 record with Manning as their starting quarterback. And if they start the season as slowly as they did last year – they were 1-7 after eight games – there’s a good chance we’ll see just how ready the rookie is sometime in 2019.