Getty Daniel Jones #8 of the New York Giants.
Daniel Jones is limited. After sustaining a slew of lower-body injuries over recent weeks, the New York Giants quarterback has been stripped of arguably his most valuable trait, his mobility. It’s no secret, but were it up to head coach Joe Judge, he’d prefer to keep it under wraps as best as possible.
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Daniel Jones on Health: ‘I’m Not Able to Do a Lot of the Same Things’
Jones returned to the Giants’ starting lineup last week and has been a full participant in each of the team’s previous two practices leading into this weekend’s must-win game against the Cowboys. However, full participation doesn’t exactly mean back to full strength when it comes to Jones.
“I’ve played from the pocket the past couple weeks, and I expect to continue to do that until I’m healthy,” Jones told reporters on Wednesday. “We’ll see what exactly, but I expect the game plan and what I’m asked to do to be fairly similar to what it’s been these past few weeks.”
This likely means Jones, who was the team’s leading rusher prior to sustaining his initial hamstring injury against Cincinnati in Week 12, will continue to see his role in the run game mitigated.
“I certainly haven’t been as involved in the run game, certain areas of getting out of the pocket, scrambling, things like that. But I feel good. I feel a lot better, and I’ll continue to work with the trainers and improve.”
Jones has been a non-factor as a rusher of late. Over his last two games, he’s combined for just three rushing yards on one single attempt. This comes on the heels of Jones averaging 36.6 ypg over his previous 11 starts this season.
“I feel good, I feel healthy,” Jones said. “But I think you can tell from the tape that I’m not able to do a lot of the same things I’m used to doing. I’ll continue to work and work to improve. But for the time being, I’ll probably have to adjust the way I play. I’ve been doing that the last few weeks.”
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Joe Judge: Jones ‘More Forthcoming Than I Would Have Been’
As we’ve all grown to realize since he’s taken over the Giants head coach, Joe Judge would best prefer to keep his players’ injuries out of the media and under wraps. So when he caught wind of his quarterback’s “forthcoming” comments in regards to his health, it caught the first-year head coach a bit off guard.
“I read Daniel’s comments yesterday,” Judge said during a Zoom call on Thursday. “Probably a little more forthcoming than I would have been with it right there.”
“But as I said yesterday, we’ll do whatever it takes to win the game.” Judge continued, “But again, I can’t stress it enough, I’m going to always put the players’ health in consideration on how we call the game. I can’t turn around, as you said yesterday, and ‘take the gloves off.’ Well, the gloves come off and you expose someone to long-term injury, that’s not always the most opportune thing. We’re going to make sure that we always put our players in a position of strength, and that includes their health.”
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Daniel Jones ‘More Forthcoming Than I Would Have Been,’ Says Joe Judge