Getty Daniel Jones of the New York Giants
Chances are, you’ve stumbled upon the much-rebutted NFL.com list where Adam Schein ranks the eight NFL divisions by their quarterbacks. A list where the NFC East, despite having two top-half of the league quarterbacks and two other first-round signal-callers at its disposal, ranked dead last.
It just so happens that New York Giants‘ Daniel Jones is one of the key catalysts for why Schein has the NFC East ranked where he did. In fact, Schein claims that “by the end of the coming season, when it comes to stacking up all of the quarterbacks in the AFC East (ranked 7th) and NFC East (ranked 8th), I won’t be at all surprised if Jones and Haskins rank Nos. 7 and 8.”
A brutal take for a quarterback who led all first-year quarterbacks in touchdown passes a season ago, despite starting just 12 games. However, don’t take my word for it, take Colin Cowherd. The FS1 personality, who originally was one of Jones’ biggest retractors, has since changed his tune, coming to the young QB’s defense.
Colin Cowherd on Daniel Jones: ‘I Was Wrong, Kid Can Play’
“What he’s telling you is he thinks Daniel Jones is no good,” Cowherd said of Schein’s list in a recent airing of The Herd. “That doesn’t feel right for me, so now let me acknowledge that I was wrong on Daniel Jones.”
“If you look at Daniel Jones’ 12 starts. I’m just going to play with one. Take out one stinker. And it’s not any stinker,” Cowherd said, pointing towards a Week 6 game against the New England Patriots.
“On a Thursday night, short week, against the greatest coach ever [Bill Belichick], in Foxborough, rainy cold, he didn’t have Saquon Barkley, Evan Engram or Sterling Shepard.” Cowherd exclaimed “I’m taking it out. No rookie quarterback could have flourished there. Peyton Manning couldn’t have, [Tom] Brady couldn’t have, Russell Wilson couldn’t have.”
“Take that one out, now look at Daniel Jones, rookie year,” Cowherd said. “11 starts, 63 percent completion percentage, 91.5 passer rating, 23 touchdowns, 9 picks. Folks, he’s a baller. I was wrong. Kid can play.”
“Joe Burrow gets those numbers, all you pom-pom waiving fanboys are going to be on my arse all year. Those are grown-up numbers.” Cowherd continued, once again taking fault for misevaluating Jones “I was totally wrong, dude can play,” later adding “those are real numbers, Joe Burrow gets those, he will win rookie of the year.”
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Jones’ Rookie Season Was Brilliant
Cowherd wrapped up his statement by adding “I think we have to reevaluate Daniel Jones, I think we’ve got a real player here.” And he isn’t wrong. Will Jones need to cut down on turnovers as he enters his sophomore season in the NFL? Undoubtedly. However, Jones put too much good film on tape in 2019 to simply write him off.
We, like Cowherd, recently played with Jones’ stats a bit. While The Herd host retracted game(s) from Jones’ numbers, we added, spreading his production over a 16-game slate.
The results were eye-opening. Taking all 1st-round quarterbacks since 2009 into account, the former 6th-overall pick ranked top-4 in both passing yards and passing touchdowns.
In the words of Cowherd, “Those are grown-up numbers.”