The New York Giants returned to the gridiron on Sunday at MetLife Stadium following a Week 9 bye. They did what they’ve done frequently in 2022: come out victorious. Big Blue improved to 7-2 with a 24-16 win over the Houston Texans. There were a couple of impressive performances on offense. One was by running back Saquon Barkley, and the other was from quarterback Daniel Jones.
The signal-caller continues showing how productive he can be under center. He’s put together a season impressive enough that the Giants are finding themselves in an interesting contract situation with the soon-to-be free agent.
Jones dropped back to pass just 17 times in Week 10. That man made those attempts count, though. He completed 13-of-17 passes for 197 yards and two touchdowns. He added five rushes for 24 yards, bringing his season total on the ground to 387 yards.
Those 17 attempts were his second-lowest total of the season. Only his 13 attempts in a Week 4 win over the Chicago Bears were fewer. Despite that, those 197 yards are his third-highest total of 2022. After reaching the 190-yard plateau once in his first four weeks, Jones has now reached that benchmark three times in his last five games.
The most notable part of Jones’ performance was his passer rating. It settled in at 153.3. That was the highest passer rating of his season, a new career high, and the highest passer rating from any NFL quarterback this season. It would’ve been better if wide receiver Kenny Golladay didn’t have such a rough day in his return to the field.
You read that all right. Can you imagine reading this back in July?
This is the same Daniel Jones most assumed would be packing his bags to leave town as soon as this season wrapped up. Now, there’s a legitimate chance he sticks around in East Rutherford for at least another year.
Week 10 was the fourth time Jones’ passer rating crested above 100 this season. Prior to Sunday, his best performance came in Week 1 (115.9). He didn’t get back over the century mark until Week 5 in London vs. the Green Bay Packers (100.2). Jones followed that up with a 112.1 mark the following week against the Baltimore Ravens.
From there, Jones’ passer rating started taking a dive. It went down to 94.0 in a road victory against the Jaguars before going down again to 71.4 in a road loss to the Seahawks the following week. But with a week to rest and prepare for the Texans, he put together his best passing performance of the year in limited opportunity.
What’s also been key for Jones’ breakout is protecting the football. The quarterback didn’t turn the ball over at all on Sunday. That’s a trend we’ve been seeing from the former Duke Blue Devil this year. After throwing 12 interceptions as a rookie in 2019, that number has decreased each year. It settled in at 10 in 2020 and then seven in 2021. Through nine games in 2022, Jones has thrown just two interceptions. The last time he threw one came in Week 3 against the Dallas Cowboys.
Jones fumbled the ball 19 times as a rookie, but that number has also consistently gone down each year. He fumbled 10 times in 2020 and seven times in 2021. So far this year, he’s fumbled just three times. Jones has lost two of those fumbles, one in Week 1 and another in Week 6.
In a year of surprises for the Giants, Jones’ performance has to be among the most surprising of all. This is the kind of growth and leap in performance New York had been waiting for. All it took was a complete regime change and resident QB whisperer Brian Daboll to become the head coach.
Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
