New York Giants head coach Joe Judge is shying away from declaring Daniel Jones the team’s franchise quarterback.
Daniel Jones showed flashes of brilliance during his rookie season, but he has yet to fully prove he can lead the New York Giants back to the promised land. Head coach Joe Judge was asked if Jones can be the franchise quarterback, but he refused to go into specifics.
Joe Judge when asked if Daniel Jones is a franchise QB: "It's not going to be fair for me to set expectations for any player on our roster at this point" pic.twitter.com/3MG9qRCxPP
— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) February 25, 2020
“It’s not going to be fair for me to set expectations for any player on our roster at this point,” Judge told reporters. “I’m looking forward to getting them in and working with them this spring and training camp and letting them establish their own identity, building around the players that showed through competition that we can go ahead and improve.”
There’s a little hint of New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick in these comments from Judge, but that’s to be expected. After all, Judge is a Belichick disciple so there’s sure to be some overlap between the two.
There’s no need to read too deep into what Judge is saying about Jones here. This seems like a case where the head coach just doesn’t want to dive too deep into his view of Jones before having the chance to work with the young passer.
As far as Jones goes, he’s the undoubted starter going into year two. He played well enough during his rookie year to give Giants fans some hope and he’ll have an opportunity to build upon that success with his new head coach.
As a rookie, Jones completed 61.9% of his passes for 3,027 yards and 24 touchdowns in 12 games. Those are impressive numbers, but he was held back by his inability to secure the football. In addition to the 12 interceptions he threw, Jones was plagued by 18 fumbles, an unfortunate stat in which he led the NFL.
Jones has the upside to be the franchise quarterback for the Giants, but he’s far from a sure thing at this point.