Joe Judge: Daniel Jones gives Giants ‘confidence to go forward’

New York Giants head coach Joe Judge possesses faith in Daniel Jones ahead of the quarterback’s third NFL season.

Some are out on Daniel Jones. Some remain in his corner. Others don’t know how to feel heading into 2021.

Regardless, Joe Judge stays supporting his quarterback, and the New York Giants head coach reassured fans of that notion while appearing on WFAN’s “Boomer and Gio” Tuesday morning.

“When I took this job, I didn’t want to put any titles on players to create expectations, I wanted them to learn the systems and grow within what they were doing. But I told Daniel that I had to evaluate him and see if he was the answer, a guy we could build with,” said Judge, who just concluded his inaugural head-coaching campaign. “And this year, you could see there were traits the team responded to and his play was raised.

“Stats are what they are, but when you see a guy command the huddle, change within game plans, the way they prepare; that says a lot. In a lot of ways, we could say this guy gives us confidence to go forward, maybe in things that go unnoticed by the naked eye that give our team a chance to be successful.”

For one, the stats aren’t that intriguing. That’s a fact.

Jones’ touchdown-pass count (11), yardage total (2,943), and rating (80.4) were all down in comparison to his rookie-year numbers.

But ahead of his third season in the pros, you must take into consideration the number of factors that have played a role in his somewhat slow development. There are the injuries, which caused him to miss a pair of games in each of his first two seasons. He’s additionally had to work with two inefficient play-callers in Pat Shurmur and now Jason Garrett. The offensive line was bad for much of 2019 and parts of 2020. The defense was also below average in 2019 and didn’t take much pressure off of him.

Not to mention, Jones has started just one game in his career in which Saquon Barkley, Sterling Shepard, Golden Tate, Darius Slayton, and Evan Engram were all active…and that essentially lasted a quarter. Barkley tore his ACL in the second quarter of the 2020 Week 2 loss to Chicago.

It’s astounding the number of negative situations Jones has needed to deal with in just two seasons and it’s unfair to write him off at this moment in time.

That isn’t to say you’re not allowed to be disappointed right now, because you are. But remain patient. Give the kid the amount of time necessary to blossom.