With another prime-time loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 8, Daniel Jones has dropped to a historically bad 1-14 in such games with the New York Giants. The sixth-year quarterback receives more criticism and public pressure with each loss but his latest defeat will likely not be the final straw, for as much as some might want it to be.
Through the first eight games of 2024, Jones has thrown for 1.706 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions. His 79.5 passer rating is 28th in the league, behind other struggling quarterbacks such as Bo Nix, Gardner Minshew and Andy Dalton. As has been the case for most of his career, Jones has statistically been one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the NFL.
As the 2024 season reaches its midway point, young quarterbacks being benched has become the new trend. Former 2023 top-five draft picks Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson have already been moved on from. Yet, despite everything showing that he should have gone down way before them, Jones is still standing. Perhaps some of his peers were victims of an impatient coaching staff, but six years of Jones has New York fans ready to pull their hair out.
Despite his grim numbers, Jones' $160 million contract makes him hard to bench, especially with listless backups as his alternatives. The structure of Jones' contract has him slated to be with the team until 2027. That possibility cannot become a reality if Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll wish to keep their jobs. Even then, that does not mean he should be benched in Week 9.
Giants' offense would get worse without Daniel Jones
The Giants have tried to allow their other quarterbacks to prove themselves ahead of Jones this season. It just has not worked out. Drew Lock played nearly a full quarter in Week 7 but completed just three of his eight passes for six yards with all three of his drives ending in a punt. Tommy DeVito has yet to see the field in 2024, but given that he is currently third on the depth chart, the situation would only go from bad to worse without Jones under center.
Jones clearly isn't the answer for this team. Rookies Malik Nabers and Tyrone Tracy Jr. have given them life in both the running and passing games, but their quarterback still limits the offense. Still, this team does not have the roster to turn to a backup.
Lock has just a 9-14 career record as a starter, with a career passer rating of just 79.1. To put into perspective how poor that is, the average passer rating in the NFL in 2024 is 91.3. The Giants already have one of the league's most inefficient offenses and turning to Lock would solidify them as the weakest offering in the NFL.
Signing Lock in the offseason to be Jones' backup was a bad move at the time and even worse after eight games. Poor roster construction or not, expect Jones to be commanding the huddle for nine more games in New York.
The Giants need a new starting quarterback in 2025
The Giants cannot bench Jones midseason with the way their roster is currently built. That does not mean Schoen and Daboll can make this same mistake entering their fourth year. No matter how much he is being paid, Jones cannot be the team's starting quarterback in 2025.
In the NFL, numbers rarely tell the whole story. However, the 2023 season was a glimpse into what life would be like with a different quarterback. New York was just 1-5 in games with Jones starting, 2-2 with Tyrod Taylor and 3-3 with DeVito.
The oft-injured Jones has missed a handful of games in his career. But whether it was Mike Glennon or Jake Fromm, New York hardly had a competent backup quarterback behind him. Taylor was the first player qualified enough to lead an extended run since Eli Manning's retirement and the results showed.
Taylor is not on the team anymore, but in 2024, the Giants have a better roster than they did a year ago. Nabers is a legitimate alpha receiver, while Darius Slayton and Wan'Dale Robinson are quality complement starters. That is more than Jones has had to work with in his career. Their offensive line is above average at full strength, another critical component they have not had in nearly a decade.
The Giants' defense is also as good as it has been since their Super Bowl-winning years, led by All-Pro talents Dexter Lawrence II, Brian Burns and Bobby Okereke. This team has everything it needs to succeed aside from the one big piece at its core.
Even if Schoen finally decides to move on from Jones, it is not guaranteed that everything will get better. Rookie quarterbacks are roller coaster rides more often than not and the front office will be hard-pressed to find a team willing to take on Jones' contract. However, after six years of the long-winded Daniel Jones experiment, he is no longer the safe option. It is time for everyone to move on, just not right now.
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