New York Giants: What to watch for in Daniel Jones preseason debut
By Ed Stein
Command of the offense
The next thing to watch for Thursday night is how well does Daniel Jones grasp the Pat Shurmur/David Shula offense. This is the big time and New York is a big stage. To his credit, the kid has handled practices as well as the media microscope well so far. Now the pressure is ramped up another notch.
Keep in mind this is still preseason. Neither team will show all their cards in this game. There will be plenty of simple plays and base defensive packages as the weeding out of players continues. No one is expected to light the world on fire this week. Players are however expected to show their competency and what they’ve learned so far in camp. In this area:
- Does Jones look confident under center (or in the gun), or is he tentative?
- Does he have a good grasp of the New York Giants offense?
- Has he earned the respect of the men in his huddle?
The one thing Shurmur must avoid at all costs here is having Daniel Jones look like a deer in the headlights. If the QB appears to be nervous, Gang Green’s defense will tee off on him. Players on the other team are trying to win jobs too, they’ll come after the rookie with a vengeance.
A sure sign of confidence from the coaching staff will be the number of times the G-Men use running plays. Jones is unlikely to be in the game with Saquon Barkley very much this week, so if Wayne Gallman and Paul Perkins get lots of handoffs, that means Shurmur isn’t ready to put his faith in Jones just yet. It’s something that should change as the summer progresses.