Giants QB Daniel Jones Gets Roasted For Comically Bad Preseason Performance

Matt Fitzgerald·
CULTURESPORTS
·
Daniel Jones
@HoustonTexans

Does anyone empathize with Daniel Jones? From the moment the New York Giants and historically bad GM Dave Gettleman drafted him sixth overall out of Duke in 2019, he faced a serious uphill battle to achieve NFL success.

Being the successor to two-time Super Bowl champ Eli Manning was among the least of Jones’ problems. Find me a worse run of head coaches than Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge for a quarterback to go through in his first three seasons. Everything about the Giants’ football operation was antiquated. They finally got it together a little bit in 2022, when the coach-GM tandem of Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen sparked the G-Men to the Divisional Round of the postseason.

Alas, Jones tore his ACL in 2023. The fiery Daboll clashed with his defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and forced him out of town. A much tougher schedule created even more adversity. All of it culminated in a 6-11 record and placed Jones, Daboll and Schoen on the hot seat entering this year.

Like his ex-crosstown rival and former high Jets draft pick Sam Darnold, Jones probably has enough mental (and actual knee?) scar tissue built up to be “seeing ghosts” out there after years of playing behind a piss-poor offensive line. Alright. Now that I’ve provided the full context and made every excuse in the book for Danny Dimes, sorry bro, but we can’t have this happening in your first live game appearance since last season.

In order: A ball that drills the chest of Houston Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. — still love you for that one bet, Derek — a horrendous pick-six from the shadow of Jones’ own goalposts, and another interception opportunity where Stingley capitalized:

Damn, Texans admin. You really laid it on thick.

That Simpsons “stop, he’s already dead!” meme would probably apply here.

But that wasn’t the only rather humorous reaction to Jones’ struggles. Anyone who’s everyone on NFL X/Twitter chimed in on the grisly scene.

I’m almost 100% sure Tom Brady cursed Jones and the Giants’ organization with some sorcery for those two Super Bowls he lost to Eli.

Thoughts and prayers to Malik Nabers. Could be a really long year for the New York rookie. Or who knows? Perhaps we’ll be treated to more Tommy DeVito magic. That is, if he beats out Drew Lock for the backup gig.

To be fair, Jones threw a dot to Darius Slayton, showing off the downfield accuracy I spoke about at greater length recently in my deep-dive on every QB’s arm strength.

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