Getty New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones
New York Giants’ Daniel Jones led all rookie quarterbacks with 24 passing touchdowns a season ago. He also closed out the season by tossing four-plus touchdowns in three of his final seven games. However, that’s apparently not enough to win over his doubters, as he’s continued to struggle to earn the respect of numerous NFL experts. NFL Network’s Gregg Rosenthal is apparently no different.
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Daniel Jones Ranks 24th in NFL.com’s QB Value Rankings
Rosenthal recently compiled a list of the 32 projected starting quarterbacks entering the 2020 NFL season. In his breakdown, he ranked each player one through 32 based on numerous categories such as talent, production, age, contract and, most importantly, who would you most want to have under your team’s control moving forward.
Safe to say, Jones is not one of Rosenthal’s top choices. In fact, there are just a handful of signal-callers he would choose Jones over, as the former Duke Blue Devil came in ranked as the 24th quarterback on his QB Value Rankings.
Jones’ rookie season probably confirmed your priors. If you were a believer, he showed enough to latch on to. If not, his 68 combined fumbles, interceptions and sacks taken made him look like a poor man’s Jameis Winston. I didn’t have any priors, so this ranking is my way of saying I don’t know and want to see more.
Jones Compared to Jameis Winston
Rosenthal made a point that Jones’ rookie season had its fair share of ups and downs, enough of each that, depending on how you perceived Jones heading into 2019, you likely feel good about your take as we sit here today.
Also, it’s clear Jones needs to develop more awareness in the pocket and cut down on turnovers, a valid take from Rosenthal. The fumbles are likely the biggest concern for Giants fans, as Jones put the ball on the ground at least one time in eight consecutive games to close out 2019.
However, to compare the Giants’ face of their franchise to Jameis Winston, a guy struggling to find work at the moment, is a bit of a stretch and somewhat a low blow.
Jones showed improvement as a passer throughout the latter part of this past season, forcing passes less and opting to take the check down or throw the ball away instead of forcing the ball into inopportune places. In return, Jones went interception-free in four of his final seven games in 2019, while tossing one interception or fewer in all but one of those seven games.
On the other hand, Winston had only four interception-free games to his name in 2019, throwing two-plus interceptions in more than half of the games he played in last year.
So, while Winston, a player entering his sixth year in the league, continues to make irrational decisions with the football, the arrow appears to be pointing up for the 22-year-old Jones.
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