Getty Daniel Jones #8 of the New York Giants.
To say New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones has some massive shoes to fill would be an understatement. On Monday, for the first time in 16 years, two-time Super Bowl Champion Eli Manning will not come trotting out of the Giants’ tunnel on opening day.
With Manning hanging up his cleats this offseason following an illustrious run at the helm of the franchise, the Giants are now officially Jones’ team. Their players further cemented that notion, recently electing Jones as one of the team’s six captains for the 2020 season, a position Manning held for the past 13 years.
“Being voted by your teammates is a tremendous honor,” Jones told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s something I don’t take lightly at all and I appreciate the responsibility that the position comes with and what it means. I’m certainly grateful to be in this position to be elected. Like I said, it’s a serious job. It’s something that I don’t think you can take lightly. You have a responsibility to your teammates and to your team to represent them and do what you can to be their voice and lead.”
Coach Judge on His Relationship With Jones
Monday night will mark the first game for what Giants fans hope will be a highly-successful quarterback-coach combo for years to come. Joe Judge, set to make his head coaching debut vs. Pittsburgh, is well aware that if the Giants hope to embark on prolonged success, his relationship with Jones is crucial.
“The quarterback and the head coach have to be able to talk,” Judge said today. “Him being one of our captains obviously puts him in a position that we’re going to have a lot of conversations. Not all involving football but involving all aspects of the team. That should open the platform to him and myself to talk a lot throughout the weeks. You have to have a good relationship with all your players that are signal callers especially. You have to trust them, and they have to trust you.”
Jones was pegged as more of an introverted character coming out of Duke. Yet much like No. 10 showed throughout his tenure in New York, there’s a lot more to Jones than meets the eye, as Judge noted.
“I think the thing that some people may miss on Daniel is he’s quiet natured at times because he is not just up there spouting out,” Judge said. “He’s not a quiet guy. Daniel, you get him going, you get him talking, you get him in the huddle, you get him around the guys, Daniel has a very big personality. He’s a great dude. Until you spend a lot of time with him, you can miss that depth of him as a person. That’s been a really pleasant surprise. I always knew he was intelligent, I knew he was respectful, I knew he was a hard worker. Until we really got time to be with each other and spend a training camp together, you don’t really see those layers in people.”
Follow the Heavy on Giants Facebook page for all the latest stories, rumors and viral content!
– For More Giants Content Follow @VinnySomma on Twitter.