The Giants new head coach was hired to help Jones become an elite quarterback.
When Brian Daboll takes the reins with the New York Giants and rounds out his coaching staff, quarterback Daniel Jones will have the third head coach and fourth offensive coordinator of his young career. Suffice it to say, Daboll was hired to transform Jones into a player who can justify his legacy as the sixth overall draft pick in 2019. As offensive coordinator of the Bills, Daboll was credited with developing Josh Allen into the highest-scoring fantasy player in 2021. Can he help Jones become fantasy-relevant?
It’s possible, though don’t expect Jones to get anywhere near Josh Allen territory.
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Injuries limited Jones to 11 games in 2021, and he finished the season with 2,428 passing yards, 10 TD passes and seven INTs. In three seasons, Jones has averaged 247.3 total yards per game. By comparison, Allen averaged 304.1 total yards per game in 2021.
Was Jones simply a bad pick, or has he been a victim of poor coaching and a turnstile offensive line that led to him being sacked 105 times in three years? It’s probably a little of both.
“We’ve done everything possible to screw this kid up since he’s been here,” Giants co-owner John Mara said last week.
It’s clear the Giants wouldn’t have hired general manager Joe Schoen if he didn’t believe they could win with Jones. And Schoen wouldn’t have hired Daboll if he didn’t think the same. But can they?
Daboll was a hot head coaching candidate thanks to his work with Allen, but his resume includes much more than that. He spent 11 seasons as an assistant under Bill Belichick with the Patriots (two stints); he worked with Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa when he was offensive coordinator under Nick Saban at Alabama in 2017.
Having coached the likes of Allen, Hurts and Tagovailoa, the common thread is that he’s comfortable working with mobile quarterbacks. Allen has averaged 581 rushing yards in his four NFL seasons. Jones’s best rushing season was 2020 when he had 423 yards. He’s shown the ability to make plays with his feet, though he may not be as durable as the 6-5, 237-pound Allen.
Still, don’t be surprised to see Daboll try some of the same things he did with Allen and let Jones run more. Jones’s fantasy value could spike just from Daboll’s penchant to call his quarterback’s number near the goal line. Allen has 31 rushing touchdowns in four years – he’s never had fewer than six in a season.
Jones has just five rushing touchdowns in his career. Even if he doesn’t miraculously blossom into an elite QB, more rushing opportunities should easily boost Jones’s fantasy value. Rather than comparing Jones to Allen, which would be unfair to most quarterbacks, it might be good to compare Jones with Hurts. The Eagles QB is good but not great, yet his dual-threat ability helped him attain QB9 status in 2021. Jones was QB27.
With an improved offensive line – presumably boosted by the use of at least one of the Giants’ two top 10 draft picks – and a receiving corps that can be good if it stays healthy, Jones can produce in Daboll’s offense. More rushing opportunities will be the difference-maker. Jones may never be a top-five fantasy QB, but top-10 is in reach.
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