Breaking Down Daniel Jones’ NFL Debut

Jon Otiker

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After being selected sixth overall in the 2019 NFL Draft, Jones received plenty of criticism, and Giants fans quickly labeled him a bust. David Gettleman’s head was called for, despite his insistence that Jones would not have lasted all the way to the Giants next pick, number 17 overall. I liked Jones more than most coming out of Duke, I was a fan of his accuracy and football IQ, believing he had a high floor/low ceiling. I didn’t value him as a top-10 pick, but I also believe that as a General Manager and team, if you truly believe a quarterback is “your guy” then you shouldn’t wait to pick him. I thought his floor was Ryan Tannehill (average starter at best) and his ceiling was similar to fellow NFC East quarterback Dak Prescott (above average to good, with a strong supporting cast). Both are athletic quarterbacks with good, not great arm strength, and inconsistent accuracy.

I believed the best way to use Jones was as a “point guard”, similar to how Matt Nagy has maximized Mitch Trubisky’s skill set in Chicago. Allow him to get the ball out quickly to his playmakers and let them create after the catch and move the pocket and get him outside so that he has the option to use his legs to threaten defenses if his first couple reads are taken away. And it seems Pat Shurmur agrees with me, as that is exactly how he game planned for Jones first NFL start on Sunday.

The first drive the Giants ran only out of the shotgun, and they primarily operated out of the shotgun for the rest of the game. Shurmur called an excellent game, using early “lay-ups” on crossing and quick breaking routes to build up Jones confidence. The focus was clearly on getting the ball into Saquon Barkley, Sterling Shephard, and Evan Engram’s hands in space, and letting them create after the catch.

I’ll start with some of my favorite plays from Jones debut and highlight some of the things he did well, followed by the areas he still needs to improve.

The Good

Below is the first pass of Daniel Jones career. The Giants are in shotgun 12 personnel, where they run a simple mesh pattern. The Buccaneers are in 1-man with one single high safety. The mesh creates a natural pick, allowing Engram to come free underneath, for the simple throw and 16-yard gain.

Todd Bowles primarily used his base 3-4 base personnel, rushing 5 like in the play above in order to contain Saquon Barkley. They were able to take away the run game, Barkley finished with 8 rushes for 10 yards before leaving due to injury, and backup Wayne Gallman finished with 5 rushes for 13 yards. Shurmur did a good job countering this, using the quick passing game as an extension of the run game, with a lot of “catch, rock, and throw” balls for Jones.

Most of the first drive consisted of plays like the one above, including a few nice long throws to convert third downs, but the first “wow” play of Jones career would be highlighting an element of his game that separates him from Eli Manning.

Shaq Barrett had a monster game with 4.0 sacks, and nearly had a fifth one here. Where the statuesque Manning probably goes down on this play, Jones is able to shrug off Barrett, escape to his left. Barkley does a great job recognizing its scramble drill and working to open space. Jones is able to flip his hips square to Barkley and deliver a perfect ball.

Jones isn’t Carson Wentz or Ben Roethlisberger with his ability to escape pressure and make big plays in the pocket, but his size and athleticism does allow him to extend plays and create second chance opportunities, that Manning couldn’t.

His athleticism also allows Shurmur to utilize his legs in the red zone on read option plays. Below the entire defense sells out on stopping Barkley, leaving Jones completely unaccounted for.

Sterling Shepard is able to lock down his man and “Danger Zone” Jones gets his first career touchdown. For whatever reason, Bowles and the defense would fail to account for Jones ability as a runner for the entire game, and he continued to make them pay.

One of the most difficult parts of Jones pre-draft evaluation was how consistent he would be when facing pressure in the pocket. Duke’s offensive line was so bad last year, that Jones was often left running for his life. Sometimes he looked collected and made difficult passes with pressure in his face, other times he forced bad decisions that lead to turnovers.

During his first start, the inconsistency was still there, but he did show excellent poise at times. On the play below, Jones is forced to step up in the pocket to avoid edge pressure, with the 6’4”, 350 lb. Vita Vea bearing down on him.

Jones sets his feet toward his target and delivers a nice ball as Vea makes contact with him. Despite Vea’s body ending Jones throwing motion and ability to step into the throw completely, the ball is accurate. “Poise in the pocket” is a term overused a lot, but this is a nice example of the rookie having it.

The next play is simple but showcases the good things that can happen by getting the ball to Engram in space. The Giants run a flood concept off of play action, with Engram running a crossing route to the middle zone. Tampa Bay is in cover 3, with the outside corner bailing with the 9 route downfield, and the flat defender going with the quick flat route. Lavonte David gets sucked up by the play action, leaving a huge hole between his hook zone and the middle safety. Jones immediately sees it and gets the ball to Engram in stride.

Rookie safety Mike Edwards takes a poor angle to Engram, who hits 20.84 miles per hour as he outruns everyone down the sideline for the touchdown.

Speaking of Mike Edwards, the rookie had a rough game, as Jones was able to complete another deep pass over the middle to fellow rookie Darius Slayton. The Giants line up in a run heavy 22 personnel, with Slayton split out wide on by himself. The Giants run a similar flood concept, with Evan Engram running another deep crosser, Wayne Gallman getting to the flat, and Slayton running a deep post. Edwards gets his eyes stuck in the backfield off the play action, then focuses in on Engram (probably having flashbacks to the touchdown above) and doesn’t see Slayton running deep right over his head. The corner is expecting safety help to the middle of the field but doesn’t receive any.

Jones does an excellent job stepping up into the pocket, resetting his base and leading Slayton away from the corner and safety to green grass. Slayton was seen as a big play threat coming out of Auburn and could add an extra element as an over the top threat to the Giants offense.

Following the big play to Slayton, the Giants were set up in the red zone to score, and that is where Jones best throw of the game comes. I’m not a fan of the nickname “Danny Dimes” (I prefer Danger Zone), but when I saw this on tape, “dime” is the first thing that came to my mind.

3rd and goal from the 8-yard line, the Giants are going to run a “double China” concept to the trips side, with Engram running his own backside corner route. The two outside receivers break in, with Sterling Shephard running a corner route over the top. This play is often used on the goal line as it creates a natural “pick” when the defensive backs are in man and at the same defensive depth.

Shephard does an excellent job defeating the jam at the line of scrimmage and quickly working to the outside, flattening the route so the safety doesn’t have time to get underneath. Jones recognizes immediately what he has and throws a perfect ball into the basket for the touchdown. This is a big time NFL throw, and the most impressive of the game by Jones.

The final play for Jones and the Giants offense was a clutch 4th & goal from the 7-yard line run, that would end up winning the game. While the play seems simple enough, just Jones scrambling up the middle for the walk-in touchdown, it shows Jones situational awareness given the defensive coverage and what the Buccaneers did earlier in the game near the goal line.

From earlier in the game, Shurmur and Jones know that Todd Bowles likes to run 2-man, with usually one of the safeties doubling up on Evan Engram. From the pre-snap motion, Jones can confirm that the Buccaneers are likely in man coverage, with four defensive backs covering the tight trips to the field side, meaning likely one of the safeties is doubled on Engram. To the boundary side, you have straight up man coverage with a press corner and linebacker over Gallman. The second safety rotates to the middle of the field on the snap but follows Jones eyes to double up Sterling Shephard on the speed out. Jones instantly knows that the middle of the field is going to be vacated, waits for the crossing route to clear, and takes off. While it may look like Jones just saw a hole and took off, he showed good recognition and recall from earlier red zone possessions, and patience to wait for the crossing route to empty out the middle. All culminating in Daniel “Danger Zone” Jones first career win and 4th quarter comeback.

The Bad

Most of the things that Jones struggled with in this game are things either expected of a rookie quarterback to struggle with or were due to limitations most evaluators saw coming out of Duke. It’s important to note that overall Jones had an excellent debut. Pat Shurmur did an excellent job with the play calling to get Jones comfortable early on, and Jones stepped up when it mattered most, extending plays with his legs, moving the sticks with his arm and legs, and never looking like the game was too fast for him. Still, Jones often locked onto his first read, had trouble with downfield accuracy outside the numbers, and was hesitant to attack downfield or into tight windows over the middle.

Unfortunately for young Daniel, the offensive line for the Giants isn’t much better than what he had to work with at Duke. The Giants surrendered 5 sacks to the Bucs, with 4 coming from the league leader in sacks, Shaq Barrett. Part of that is due to the poor play of Nate Solder at left tackle, and part is due to Jones having an inconsistent feel for backside pressure and lacking a sense of urgency in his drop.

On the play above Carl Nassib is going to textbook longarm tight end Rhett Ellison into Daniel Jones lap, forcing him to drift left and into Shaq Barrett. Jones gets to the top of his drop and calmly scans the field, with no awareness to step up in the pocket. With Nassib taking an outside track, running back Wayne Gallman steps to the inside in order to counter Nassib if he tries to redirect upfield, which leaves the middle of the pocket intact for Jones.

We saw on the plays above that Jones is capable of feeling and working the pocket, but he’ll have to speed up his progressions and be more urgent given the state of the Giants offensive line if he wants to avoid being sacked 5-plus times per game.

For the dime balls that Jones threw, there were also a few misses, mostly due to not setting his feet or trusting his eyes. Below are examples of both of these.

The first one is a near miss, and somewhat similar to the throw Jones hit for a touchdown earlier, in that he has to drift away from pressure and step into the throw with a defender crowding him. If Jones takes an extra quarter of a second to get his feet set, he’ll be able to keep his upper and lower bodies in sync through the throw and have better follow through to eliminate that extra 6 inches that leaves it just out of reach of Shephard.

This second throw comes near the goal line before the excellent touchdown throw on the double China to Sterling Shephard. It’s a nice boot action concept off a power run look, with the right guard pulling. Russel Sheppard (#81) is going to run a pivot or pig route and Bennie Fowler (#18) is going to run a crossing route. As soon as Sheppard comes out of his break, he’s wide open for the easy touchdown. But Jones hesitates, allowing for the corner behind him to turn and close. Jones makes a dangerous throw late and behind him. This is just a matter of Jones trusting his eyes and pulling the trigger.

Finally, we come to the dropped interception. The Giants max protect with a 3-man route combo, a post-out combo to the field, and a backside dig. The Buccaneers show double A-gap pressure, but end up rushing 4, and playing 2-man behind.

Jones has a clean pocket and takes his time working through his reads. Seeing the post-out combo covered, he works to the backside dig, and stares it down the entire way. He takes a few extra gather steps before attempting the throw, giving Mike Edwards plenty of time to drive on the route for what should be an interception. This was a potential turning point in the game for these two rookies. Jones avoids losing confidence early, and continues to lead his team to a win, while Edwards goes from a potential highlight play, to a rough rest of the game. Jones has to be smart not to telegraph his passes so obviously and understand that he doesn’t have the arm strength to drive the ball into the window on that 13-yard dig route.

Summary

All of the things above are common growing pains of rookie quarterbacks. As Jones gets more playing time, he’ll learn to trust Shurmur’s play calls and his eyes. Working with the first team offensive line he’ll get a better feel for how long he has in the pocket and when the ball needs to come up. The game will slow down and he’ll speed up. Of course, these will take time, and there will be rookie growing pains. Not every Sunday will be against a defense that isn’t so different from the one that last year surrendered 6 touchdowns and 350 yards to Mitch Trubisky. The offensive line isn’t great and with Saquon Barkley expected to miss 6 weeks with a high ankle sprain, Jones will be without a run game and his best offensive weapon. But Pat Shurmur seems to have an excellent game plan, that accentuates Jones’ strengths, and Jones showed the ability to step up when his team needed him, giving a noticeable spark to a stagnant offense.

Just like how analysts rushed to criticize Jones before he took a single NFL snap, now analysts are overreacting to a single game. While Jones played tremendously, the Giants don’t have a talented roster that’s ready to compete now. Jones will go through the ups and downs of a rookie season, but right now it’s about him getting more confident in Shurmur’s system so that the Giants can be competitive next season. Jones showed poise, smarts, toughness, and the all-important “clutch” factor in his first start, and that should have Giants fans feeling happy about the future. This team was on a bridge to nowhere with Eli Manning at quarterback, Daniel Jones has finally given them a direction to go.