An accountable Daniel Jones made no excuses for his shortcomings, embraced the expectations of his all-important fifth NFL year, and said he’ll be healthy to play it out.
“I’m feeling good and ready to go,” Jones said on the first day of the Giants’ offseason program Monday.
Co-owner John Mara had said at last week’s NFL owners meetings that “we’ve done everything possible to screw this kid up since he’s been here.” Jones, 24, wasn’t interested in skirting blame.
“My focus is on preparing myself, and I take full responsibility for how I’ve played,” Jones said a Zoom call from the team’s facility in East Rutherford. “We haven’t won enough games. We haven’t scored enough points. We haven’t done things well enough. So I take responsibility for that. As a quarterback, you play a big role in those things.”
Jones’ accountability is one of the qualities that has Mara and Giants brass convinced he still can be their franchise quarterback.
That isn’t stopping GM Joe Schoen from exploring the QBs in this year’s draft. The Giants already have met with Liberty QB Malik Willis, doing homework on the expected first quarterback off this year’s draft board, per ESPN.
And if the Giants decline to pick up Jones’ fifth-year option by the May 2 deadline, as expected, it will certainly put a major asterisk on their professed belief in his skills.
“There’ll be a time and place for those conversations, so we’ll see and we’ll take care of that and do that when it comes up,” Jones said.
He also said he’ll “be cleared and ready to go” for game action from the neck injury that ended his 2021 season in Week 12. And after picking up coach Brian Daboll’s playbook on Monday, he’s eager to turn this around.
“I’m working on improving and making sure that I, as well as the offense and the team, are ready to go and improving daily,” he said.
Daboll said the Giants had “good attendance” but there were “other players” not there for “a variety of reasons.” He said he’s “not gonna get into who was, who wasn’t” in the building “because it’s all voluntary.”
Daboll, Jones, Sterling Shepard, Xavier McKinney and Blake Martinez met the media on Zoom from the team’s facility. Saquon Barkley was in the building as well.
It is not believed that corner James Bradberry showed, which makes sense, since he’s due to be traded soon. And it is unclear if second-year receiver Kadarius Toney or veteran wideout Kenny Golladay attended.
The Giants posted a 118-photo slideshow of players arriving and lifting weights, and Toney and Golladay were not pictured. Toney’s possible absence is most noteworthy because work habits were an issue in his rookie year, when he held out in the spring and fell behind on the playbook.
“I’d say this with every player: it’s a clean slate,” Daboll said when asked about Toney’s big second offseason. “There’s a lot of information right now to consume for these players once we get through the introductions and the standards and the things like that in terms of playbook wise. So each person’s gonna be responsible [for] making sure they’re on top of the information.”
Daboll is allowed to have the players for four hours a day for four days the next two weeks. They can only have players do strength and conditioning and physical rehabilitation. Then the team is scheduled to have a voluntary pre-draft minicamp April 19-21.
Daboll said Monday included handing out iPads with the playbook to players, holding an introductory team meeting and position group meetings, and weightlifting.
Players from last year’s team hadn’t addressed the media since Joe Judge’s firing. But Jones, Shepard and Martinez were coached up not to discuss that move.
“None of those decisions are on my plate,” Jones said. “That’s not my job or my responsibility to evaluate those kinds of decisions or really worry about that.”
“That’s a little bit over my head,” Shepard said. “I didn’t partake in that decision. That’s not in my pay grade.”
“I think for me I’m just a player,” Martinez said. “I don’t get to be (a part of) those decisions. For me it’s just one of the things about the business. I learned that early on in my career. (I have) great relationships with all those guys, will continue to have great relationships with them.”
Jones was one of the players who stopped by Judge’s house for a post-firing party, though.
Shepard (torn Achilles) and Martinez (torn ACL), meanwhile, both said their rehabs were going well but wouldn’t commit to a timeframe for a return. They each cited their family as the primary reason for their decisions to take pay cuts and remain with the team.
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