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Reporter Michael Silver, now of the San Francisco Chronicle, has made a long and storied career out of extracting some eyebrow-raising quotes out of NFL players. And in the wake of the 49ers’ demolition of the Giants in Week 3 on Thursday night, he has done it again. It’s not often that NFL players will tear into each other based on their salaries, but the 49ers had little trouble doing that with quarterback Daniel Jones, awarded a four-year, $160 million contract in the offseason.
Jones was accurate against the 49ers, completing 22 of his 32 passes, but he was incredibly timid, throwing for just 137 yards, an average of 4.3 yards per completion. Jones was sacked twice and threw an interception.
“Hell yeah, we were trying to get that b****,” 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw said, according to Silver (who pointed out that it was the football the 49ers were trying to get). “A lot of people who make all that money don’t even deserve it. I think they took a chance (when they paid him). I mean, he’s not bad. And if you ain’t got nothing better …”
The Giants, apparently, do not have anything better, despite the fact that Jones is sitting on a quarterback rating of 70.0, which ranks 30st in the NFL. Backup Tyrod Taylor made a brief appearance in the 49ers win, and he has a career QB rating of 88.9. So, there’s that.
Jones Would Not Throw Deep vs. 49ers
What was frustrating about Jones’ night on Thursday was his utter unwillingness to even test the dee part of the field. The 49ers have one of the best pass rushes in the NFL, and even before they took the field, it seemed that Jones was all too wary of them.
Jones has tried seven passes of 20 yards or more this season, and completed just two, according to Pro Football Focus. He has completed 52.6 of his 10-19-yard passes, after having been the best deep-ball passer in the league last year.
Giants coach Brian Daboll credited the 49ers defense.
“We called a fair amount of them [deep passes], whether they’re high-Vs, crossers, middle posts,” Daboll said after the game. “A couple of times we had them and the protection leaked a couple of times. They covered them. It was a delicate balance with that defensive line that they’ve got. You have to decide how many guys you keep in to help out the protection to make sure you can get off more vertical routes versus getting it out a little bit quicker. Again, I just give that team a lot of credit. They’re a really good football team.”
49ers See Jones’s Salary as ‘Unbelievable’
But the 49ers were not so sure they deserved all the credit. Some of the credit, they seemed to think, should go to Jones’ timidness, an odd trait for a $40 million man.
From Silver’s column, in which several sources went unnamed: “’Yeah,’ said Niners cornerback Charvarius (Mooney) Ward, ‘forty million dollars a year is a lot of money.’
“Another S.F. defender called Jones’ salary ‘unbelievable.’ Still another used the word ‘ridiculous.’ Said a third: ‘That’s a travesty, man.’”
To be fair, Jones did lead the Giants to the playoffs and even won a postseason game last season, the first time the Giants won in the playoffs since 2011. He was eligible for a new contract at just the right time, it seems, and the Giants gave it to him.
They may yet regret it. They probably should have checked with the 49ers first.
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