Whatever rationale remained for the New York Giants to stick with Daniel Jones ended with Sunday’s 20-17 overtime loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
Jones’ Week 10 performance (which included a series of costly, bad misses) was uneven — and should be enough for Giants decision-makers to finally pull the plug on a failed six-year experience.
Head coach Brian Daboll should bench Jones for the rest of the season.
New York Giants Need To Bench Daniel Jones
In fairness, the Giants’ loss wasn’t all on Jones. Tyrone Tracy Jr. fumbled on the first play of overtime, gifting the Panthers their game-winning field goal.
But if Jones had played better Sunday, OT wouldn’t have been a possibility.
He needed 37 attempts to total 190 passing yards and threw two crushing interceptions, both of which took points off the board.
Look what Daniel Jones can do when you actually give him time in the pocket. #Giants pic.twitter.com/PU8YGTSKtd
— Noah Outlaw (@OutlawNoah) November 10, 2024
It’s the logical time for the Giants (2-8 after a fifth straight loss) to make a move. After losing to the Panthers, they are arguably the NFL’s worst team and will almost certainly be picking in the top five next spring.
The Giants have no realistic path to the playoffs. Their season, for all intents and purposes, is over.
New York has a bye week coming, which would give Daboll (assuming he survives the fortnight) two weeks to get backup Drew Lock up to speed.
If he’s planning a move, he didn’t tip his hand postgame.
“I believe we have the right people,” Daboll said in Munich. “Results aren’t there yet.”
Daniel Jones Contract Details
The Giants have both short and long-term motivations to move on from Jones, who is in Year 2 of a four-year, $160 million contract extension.
Certainly, his play has been a factor in the Giants’ latest lost season, but he also has $23 million in injury guarantees in 2025. If New York plans to move on from Jones after this season, the organization would be wise to sit him down the rest of the way, or risk being on the hook for that compensation.
While Daboll pulled him late in a Week 7 blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles after New York’s QB1 had just 99 yards on 21 attempts, Jones got a chance to finish out Sunday’s game against Carolina.
In that Eagles game, Lock completed 3 of 8 passes for six yards. So no one thinks the Giants’ backup is New York’s answer. But the risk of playing Jones is just too steep.
Jones has failed the eye test this year. And the advanced stats were no prettier.
According to PFN’s QB+ metric, Jones had the fourth-worst performance of the year (F, 59.9 rating). He entered the game 26th in QB+ in 2024. His D grade and 66.4 QB+ score were his worst since 2019. None of his first eight starts had a QB+ score that ranked in the top 75 league-wide this season.
If the Giants cut Jones this offseason — which increasingly seems likely — they would incur a $22.2 million dead-money hit, which they could take all at once or over the course of two seasons, should they cut him with a post-June 1 designation.