Daniel Jones’ growth soars off the charts

MINNEAPOLIS – Our little Danny has grown up.

Right before our eyes, from the wide-eyed and wobbly-legged fawn who flopped around the field, through the awkward adolescence of his quarterback maturity when the turnover problems served as his acne and braces, right up until his growth spurt this season when he started to fill out.

We saw even more maturity over the last few weeks. He became the player the Giants started relying on not to manage the games but to win them. They chanted his name in his final appearance at MetLife Stadium just two weeks ago, when the Giants clinched their playoff berth, embracing him with the love and respect he had been denied for so long, a swan song for the ugly duckling.

But on Sunday, in the first postseason appearance of his career, Daniel Jones didn’t just become a man.

He became The Man.

Everything the Giants accomplished in their thrilling 31-24 win in the NFC Wild Card game went through him. He turned the hodgepodge receiver group into a crew that was able to march up and down the field. He scrambled his way through the Vikings’ defense, making smart decisions with the ball, throwing it away when he had to, dashing for the sticks when he could. He made the plays he needed to make, the standard ones, the easy ones. But he also showed some razzle dazzle with a behind-the-back handoff, as well as strength and toughness on a critical fourth-and-1 sneak that set up the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.

With a little over three minutes left in the game the Giants faced a fourth-and-1 from their own 45.

Jones ran for 2.

With 3:17 left the Giants faced a third-and-16. Instead of running they trusted Jones to throw it. He hit Darius Slayton in the chest with a pass that would have sealed the win but it was dropped.

Slayton was absolved. Jones was anointed.

“He was good,” Brian Daboll said. “He played good football.”

A bit of an understatement?

“Isn’t good a good adjective?” Daboll asked.

It felt a little inadequate in this case. Very unlike Jones himself.

“We had a lot of fun,” Jones said with a tone that sounded as if he had just wrapped up a crocheting gathering in a retirement home rather than leading the Giants to their first playoff win in over a decade.

Others, though, were able to better illustrate that joy.

“I think he relished the moment of being in the playoffs,” center Jon Feliciano said. “From the first series, running and not sliding, trying to get the whole offense juiced up by running over people. It fires us up. DJ was talking a little more than he has this season, so it was fun.”

Saquon Barkley said that, before he scored the go-ahead touchdown, running over former Giant Dalvin Tomlinson at the goal line, Jones had a message for him as they broke the huddle.

“He said ‘LFG,’” Barkley said.

Only he didn’t use the acronym.

Wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins was in Buffalo last year and played with Allen in some of the most explosive offensive postseason games in recent memory. But, he said, even when he was there the Bills would occasionally throw on film of the Giants and their quarterback.

“We always used to say: ‘Daniel Jones, he’s good, he’s up and coming,’” Hodgins said. “He’s a general, man. He’s got the smarts, he’s got the talent, he’s got that hungriness about him, too. It’s been awesome to play with a guy like that.”

Hodgins then corrected his comments on Jones.

Up-and-coming?

“I think it’s safe to say he’s here to stay.”

The old axiom used to be that postseason football was all about a running game and defense. Those were the keys to championships. They’re still important, sure, but in today’s NFL you need a quarterback to get you through January. These games tend to tilt more toward high-scoring affairs than the slogfests of yore. It’s why teams such as the Bills with Josh Allen, Kansas City with Patrick Mahomes, and even the exciting Jaguars with Trevor Lawrence are all still competing.

It’s become a quarterback-driven sport.

Now, the Giants have a quarterback who can drive them, too.

“I know we have an elite quarterback,” Barkley said. “He’s shown that multiple times.”

If Jones can continue to play at this level there may be no limit to how far he can carry the rest of the team this season.

There might still be some more respect that can come his way. As he stood on a podium in front of the media, in mid-sentence in fact, the audio in the room suddenly switched and began piping in questions and answers from the Vikings’ press conferences. While staffers struggled to mute it, Jones could do nothing but stand there in silence. Eventually, his session was moved to a nearby hallway.

For the Giants, though, there is nothing more Jones has to prove.

“I’m just so proud of him,” Feliciano said. “He really showed what he is about today.”