New York Giants starting Daniel Jones Week 1 is the perfect blunder
By Randy Gurzi
The New York Giants have had a disastrous offseason and their blunders could continue should they really start Daniel Jones Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys
This was one of the most criticized offseasons for the New York Giants in recent memory — and rightfully so. General manager Dave Gettleman took over ahead of the 2018 season and has made one questionable move after another.
One example was during the 2018 NFL Draft when he passed on quarterback Sam Darnold in favor of running back Saquon Barkley. Sure, Barkley was great and won the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award, but the Giants desperately needed an upgrade under center.
They didn’t get that and ended up winning just five games while heading into this offseason in the same boat they were in when Gettelman arrived — desperate for a quarterback. Thankfully for them, they were in a position to get a signal-caller again with the No. 6 overall pick.
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The problem is, Gettleman took Daniel Jones who comes in with a myriad of questions as opposed to Dwayne Haskins, who was rated higher on just about every draft board.
Gettlemen defended his decision by claiming that Jones is a project who will sit behind Eli Manning for possibly three years as he develops (and then oddly talked about getting hit by a car which somehow justifies having multiple quarterbacks). Gettleman likened the pick to the Aaron Rodgers situation where he sat behind Brett Favre for three years before taking over.
So, the Giants have their plan. Unless they don’t.
Head coach Pat Shurmur has now apparently opened the door to a quarterback controversy as he answered a question about who will play in Week 1 with no certainty whatsoever.
"“I think we’re going to play the very best player,” Shurmur said via Matt Lombardo of NJ.com. “I know we’re dancing around the words there. Eli is getting ready to have a great year and Daniel is getting ready to play. We’ll see what happens with it.”"
This is far from a commitment to Jones, but it’s such a bad idea that it seems to be the only thing the Giants could possibly do at this point. The Gettleman era has known nothing but blunders, and this just fits right in line.
Not only did the GM hire Shurmur over many other candidates (Shurmur came in with a 9-23 record in his previous stint with the Browns before going 5-11 in 2018), but he botched the Odell Beckham, Jr. situation in an epic way.
After a lengthy contract dispute, Gettleman and the Giants gave OBJ a five-year, $95 million deal in 2018. Then rumors spread that the Cleveland Browns were interested in trading for Beckham, which led to the great quote from Gettelman that they didn’t sign the wideout “just to trade him”. Then just weeks later, they traded him.
Making it even worse, they used the primary draft pick acquired for OBJ on a nose tackle who will play two downs. Sure, Dexter Lawrence should be a good player, but he won’t have the impact Beckham did.
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With all this being said, it makes it unsurprising to hear that the Giants are suddenly considering starting the Duke product who didn’t look NFL ready in college. Although the reality is, the real surprise would be if they didn’t start him Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys, because this regime is all about doing the unexpected.
And who can blame them, right? Gotta live for today because as Gettleman said, he could get hit by a car later. We just don’t know.