![Daniel Jones]()
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:
https://twitter.com/talkingiants/status/1824856479758692461
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1824860083454460343
https://twitter.com/HoustonTexans/status/1824862924688490946
Damn, Texans admin. You really laid it on thick.
https://twitter.com/HoustonTexans/status/1824863877823094896
https://twitter.com/HoustonTexans/status/1824865497420038261
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.
https://twitter.com/EaglesBurna/status/1824863466328408163
https://twitter.com/jmthrivept/status/1824856466807038220
https://twitter.com/WesSteinberg/status/1824858458677518789
https://twitter.com/NFL_Memes/status/1824860545125642479
https://twitter.com/PardonMyTake/status/1824864561779851652
https://twitter.com/knicks_tape99/status/1824861053500711192
https://twitter.com/NFLhaterwatch/status/1824863326385373448
https://twitter.com/HaterReport_/status/1824863147011846352
https://twitter.com/yosephpaulos/status/1824866395123077267
https://twitter.com/theScore/status/1824865544304038354
https://twitter.com/smit112/status/1824861728774984050
https://twitter.com/BSO/status/1824864970850668654
https://twitter.com/FDSportsbook/status/1824864626166964556
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.
https://twitter.com/MattFitz_gerald/status/1824864008303767895
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.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1824868096210763929
