The New York Giants are 2-8 following their game against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday in Germany, and now, they have a bye week to evaluate everything.
Head coach Brian Daboll has stuck with quarterback Daniel Jones as the team’s starting quarterback all season, but in a press conference the Monday after the Carolina loss, Daboll didn’t commit. Specifically, when Daboll was asked if Jones would be the team’s starting quarterback in Week 12, he didn’t give the answer he usually does.
This leads some NFL analysts, experts and fans to think that Jones’ days are numbered. One says the “evidence is stacking up” against Jones.
Brian Daboll is ‘Evaluating’ Things on the Giants’ Bye Week
“We’re going to spend a lot of time here watching our tape and evaluating things and we’ll do that as a coaching staff over the next week here,” Daboll said on Monday when asked if Jones would still start in Week 12.
This was a big change from previous weeks, when Daboll had always said Jones would absolutely be the team’s starting quarterback when asked such questions.
“We’re evaluating our team at the bye week is what we’re doing,” Daboll added. “We’ll go back and we’ll evaluate everything and decide what we want to do here. We’ve got a week to go ahead and really dig into this.”
In a November 11 feature for FanSided, Lior Lampert names Jones as one quarterback “who will be benched by the end of November.”
“Daniel Jones has been an outlier in today’s NFL. Somehow, during an era when young quarterbacks’ leashes get shorter by the day, he’s managed to be the New York Giants starter for six seasons,” Lampert wrote. “Jones continues to get countless redemption opportunities, though he’s repeatedly failed to capitalize. Things have reached a breaking point, with Giants head coach Brian Daboll reportedly not committing to him as their Week 12 starter.”
Lampert adds that no matter how well Jones is playing, since the team is performing so badly, they might opt to bench him as a business decision. The reason is because in the four-year, $160 million contract extension Jones signed in March 2023, Jones has a $23 million injury guarantee.
“Although, they have a potential out of his deal this offseason. But if he gets hurt and they owe him a substantial chunk of money, moving on from the 27-year-old becomes virtually impossible,” Lampert noted.
Plus, the Giants are currently lined up to pick second in the 2025 NFL Draft, so chances are, they’ll be able to land a solid quarterback.
“New York cannot squander this chance if it wants to be better positioned for the future, meaning it’s time to take charge,” Lampert said.
Sports Illustrated Writer Says the ‘Evidence Has Continued to Stack Up Against Jones’
Patricia Traina of Sports Illustrated also sees Jones’ time with the Giants coming to an end.
In a November 12 piece, Traina writes that “the evidence has continued to stack up against Jones not just in the last few weeks but over the years, in which he has been inconsistent with postsnap reads and has missed some opportunities to make the plays he should be making at this point.”
Traina adds later in the piece, “Ideally, the Giants may have wanted to continue with Jones for as long as they had a chance for a playoff berth, but they just can’t anymore, not just because they’re on a five-game losing streak.”
