On the day that another Giants likely season fell apart soon after it started, Daniel Jones tried to throw the entire franchise onto his shoulders.
He watched his two best playmakers limp off the field in Chicago on Sunday afternoon, and despite a 17-point deficit and all the mayhem around him, the second-year quarterback had his team within one batted pass in the end zone from an improbable comeback.
That final, desperate throw fell to the ground, not that it would have mattered if it didn’t. His target, Golden Tate, was flagged for offensive pass interference -- or, as head coach Joe Judge angrily called it, “the (bleeping) penalty” -- and the once-proud Giants are off to an unthinkable seventh 0-2 start in the past eight seasons.
Bears 17, Giants 13.
(Insert heavy sigh here.)
Spoiler alert: They’re not digging themselves out of this hole, not with running back Saquon Barkley likely lost for the season, not with receiver Sterling Shepard’s status in question, and not with the usual array of problems on the offensive line. The question is not whether Jones can carry this team in their absence, but something else entirely.
Can he survive with his own career intact?
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Yes, that sounds like an epic Week 2 overreaction, and maybe it is. But NFL history is littered with young quarterbacks who were thrown onto awful teams and never reached their potential. Plenty of that has to do with the players themselves, of course, but the right supporting cast is just as important to a quarterback’s success as anything else.
Disagree? His head coach certainly doesn’t.
“You look at the truly great (quarterbacks) that have come through our league, without naming names, just think real carefully about how many of those guys were able to have high degrees of success before they had to truly carry a team," Judge said last week.
“Think about those real great ones that are going to be wearing gold jackets that have played in this league for 15 to 20 years. How many of those guys had the benefit of working with teams that were carried more by defense or the run game or a great arsenal of guys around him that supported him? I’m very confident in our team going forward.”
Jones will have not have the benefit of a “run game,” which he didn’t have in the opener even with a healthy Barkley. He won’t have the “great arsenal of guys around him,” not when he was forced to rely of the like of C.J. Board and Kaden Smith with the game on the line. And the idea that he’ll be “carried more by defense”?
This Giants defense looks much improved from a season ago, and that’s one reason for fans to hold onto some measure of hope. But this unit is still a work in progress. No offense is scared of facing the Giants, and that isn’t likely to change any time soon.
So let’s be real about this: Jones will be asked to do more than anyone should expect from him under these circumstances. The Giants not only have to hope that he continues to progress as a franchise quarterback, they have to hope that he doesn’t regress, too, given the difficult circumstances surrounding him.
They don’t have to look much further than their co-tenants in MetLife Stadium for confirmation that this is a legitimate concern. The Jets are 0-2, and already, questions about Sam Darnold’s ability to elevate this woebegone franchise are swirling.
Darnold, to be clear, hasn’t exactly looked the part. But who could? The Jets are a mess from top to bottom, a team devoid of playmakers on both sides of the ball that is barreling toward another top-five pick in the NFL Draft -- a pick that could, of course, be Darnold’s replacement.
If this season spirals out of control for the Jets, you can bet that Darnold’s future will become a major storyline. The USC product is in the third year of his four-year rookie contract, which means the Jets don’t yet have to decide if they’re going to give him the megabucks extension that elite quarterbacks command. But that day is coming.
For Jones, that decision is still years away. There are times, like in the second half against the Bears, when he’s looked every bit like the player who will anchor this franchise for the next 15 years. And then there are times, like with this 26th and 27th career turnovers in the first half, when drafting him with the No. 6 overall pick last year still looks like a reach.
Most young quarterbacks have growing pains. The problem now for Jones is that this entire season is shaping up like one long crisis. Barkley is out, Shepard is limping, and what once looked like a promising arsenal for the quarterback is already depleted. That will both make it harder for him to improve, and even harder for the Giants to evaluate his progress.
“I mean, he’s Saquon Barkley,” running back Dion Lewis said. “It’s not going to be one person who steps up to make up for what he’s done. It’s going to take all of us.”
The Giants have now lost 38 of their last 50 games, and in the coming days, the narrative will shift to Jones' ability to toss them on his shoulders again. In reality, though, they need to hope their quarterback doesn’t get dragged down in this mess.
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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com.
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September 21, 2020 at 06:01PM
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