Daniel Jones and Giants better shape up real fast

The Giants need to figure out a way to get the entire offense into sync or they are going to have a franchise-crippling $160 million quarterback problem on their hands for the next four years.

They were hoping Daniel Jones would pick up where he left off a year ago. They needed to be more specific.

What they wanted when they made that wish from the great football genie was the guy who put together a strong three-game stretch to finish the regular season and help the team win a playoff game. The one who seemed to finally prove to the world, and to the franchise, that he is the quarterback around whom they can build and contend. The fella who earned a new four-year contract, most of it off that stretch of stellar play.

That dude was nowhere to be found in Sunday night’s massively disappointing, disproportionately lopsided, overwhelmingly overmatched 40-0 loss to the Cowboys.

Instead, what they got was the Jones — and the Giants team — who was pummeled into ineffectiveness by the Eagles in the Giants’ playoff exit in January. That’s the outgunned quarterback who showed up for the season opener, unable to give himself a moment without duress to even think about what he should be doing, and, worse yet, on the few times he did receive such a gift, making the wrong decision.

All those zeros in his new salary were dwarfed by the zero he and the Giants put on the scoreboard. 

Not all of it was Jones’ fault.

He certainly didn’t have anything to do with the grotesque special teams play that led to a blocked field goal for Dallas’ opening touchdown, or the attempt late in the second half that Graham Gano yanked wide left.

Jones’ protection was porous (he was sacked seven times) and his receivers weren’t helpful during the chances they had to be so. Jalin Hyatt and Parris Campbell each had a drop before Jones completed his first pass to a wide receiver late in the third quarter.

One of his interceptions came on a pass that looked to be completed to Saquon Barkley but popped up after the running back was hit by Trevon Diggs. Call it statistical semantics that Jones was dinged for that one and it wasn’t scored a catch and fumble.

Even Jones’ best pass of the night, hitting Isaiah Hodgins in stride on a slant in the fourth quarter, ended badly when the receiver fumbled it after a 24-yard gain.

“I feel great about our guys,” Jones said last week. “I feel like we’re in a really good spot with who we’ve got and how we can attack a defense in a lot of different ways and a lot of different skillsets and dynamic guys to get the ball to in space.”

That impression probably did not survive this game.

But there were also plays where Jones looked absolutely shaken and reverted back to the 2019 and 2020 versions of himself. You remember that player, right? That’s the one who was so awful and so reckless that when Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll arrived in New York they didn’t even bother to use a fifth-year option on the quarterback they inherited.

Jones’ second interception came early in the second quarter while he was being flushed from the pocket and instead of hanging on to the ball — had he, he might have picked up a late hit penalty as Micah Parsons drove him into the sideline area — he tried to do a jump-throw with Parsons wrapped around his waist. Stephon Gilmore stepped in front of that one and picked it off.

It took until about 6:45 left in the second quarter for Jones to complete his first pass for positive yardage. That was a 6-yard completion to Darren Waller. Four plays later Jones threw a pass over the middle that should have been his third pick of the half, but it was dropped by Malik Harper.

None of the Giants’ offseason money seemed especially well-spent in the debut of what was supposed to be this new, improved, competitive roster. Andrew Thomas, locked up for the foreseeable future, struggled at left tackle and seemed to be dealing with an injury for the majority of the night. Bobby Okereke, their big inside linebacker who was supposed to add beef to their run defense, had a near silent four tackles midway through the fourth quarter. Even Gano, who inked an extension this weekend for being close to automatic, couldn’t justify his deal.

It’s quarterbacks who are the most important players for every franchise, though. Quarterbacks whose contracts make or break head coaches and general managers.

“Ultimately play well and make good decisions and move the ball down [the field], that’s his role,” Daboll said of Jones last week.

That’s what they paid him to do. Paid him a very large sum to do.

That they have so far gotten literally nothing in return for it should be, at the very least, alarming. Not only for this season, but also for the long-term health of the organization.

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday’s Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.