The New York Giants need a new Quarterback Atlas
Daniel Jones made plays on Sunday. The Giants are also a 2-7 football team. The answers to a maddening season are found in watching this QB the same time as the QB that got this GM and HC promotions.
Once again, Josh Allen took a fillet knife to the Miami Dolphins. He’s always a chef with flair, too. With six minutes left, the Buffalo Bills quarterback glided right, hit the brakes with four choppy steps, shuffled upfield to evade a safety’s crunch and — a split-second before getting smacked by 302-pound defensive tackle Da’Shawn Hand — blindly shotput a floater into the waiting arms of tight end Quintin Morris. The same Morris who entered the day with zero targets on the season, yet assured us Allen is “insane.”
Sunday was was another rollicking good time for the MVP candidate.
With a 30-27 victory, he improved to 13-2 against Miami.
Meanwhile, 360 miles to the east, you’ll see the fun house-mirror reflection of what went down at One Bills Drive. That’s where Daniel Jones made his 70th career start. A pair of former Bills lieutenants — Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll — placed their faith in Jones again this 2024 season and, no, their quarterback was not a complete disaster. Far from it. Jones supplied his own theatrics at the goal line. With nine minutes to go, he hammered through a pair of Washington defenders for a touchdown. Jones chucked the football, screamed, even threw two TD passes at home after a 672-day drought.
But it wasn’t enough. The locals were treated to another crushing defeat.
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Owner John Mara hired this GM and this head coach because of their roles in turning those Buffalo Bills into Super Bowl contenders. Three years in, he certainly hoped the Giants would start to resemble the unit they helped build. So, this Week 9 of the NFL season, I watched the Bills and Giants simultaneously to more accurately gauge the grim state of affairs in New Jersey. It was a psychedelic experience. Both games supplied ample vertigo because, on this day, both teams were essentially the same.
Albeit… with one notable exception.
One quarterback made the two or three special plays the other could not.
Snippets from Allen’s latest excursion through an NFL defense will no doubt work their way into their phones. Both earned their promotions because of that Allen — Schoen helped identify the raw passer from Wyoming, Daboll developed him. Each herculean act should serve as a reminder to both that this is their strength: Building a quarterback from scratch. There were several players on those ’19- ’22 Bills teams that viewed Allen-Daboll as a Reid-Mahomes combination capable of winning multiple championships.
If they don’t at least get one swing at the plate in New York, it does everybody a disservice.
The Giants must chart an aggressive plan at the position — now — like those Bills once did.
Their plan made sense in the summer. Especially considering all of the positive change both have brought the franchise behind the scenes. But if the “Hard Knocks” cameras were rolling now, the quarterback conversation would sound drastically different. As angst builds, and builds, that scowl in Mara’s face may intensify. Mara may feel the urge to revert back to his old ways of only trusting family members and longtime allies. And that’s exactly when he’ll need to take a deep breath and remember why he hired people outside of the building in the first place.
That’s no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, just a 72-year-old dating a 24-year-old seeking total authority off a run of terrible drafts in New England.
Strangely enough, both Josh Allen and Daniel Jones had so much go wrong all around them.
In Orchard Park, N.Y., Allen triggered a quick slant to Keon Coleman at the 5-yard line, the ball bounced off the rookie’s right shoulder and was intercepted by Jalen Ramsey. The Dolphins then marched 97 yards in 14 plays over 8:21 in what was effectively a 14-point swing. This, of course, one week after a wide receiver’s incorrect route led to Allen’s only other interception on the season. He didn’t have new No. 1, Amari Cooper, this game. As this game revved into a shootout, kicker Tyler Bass missed one extra point and had another clank in off the upright.
The Buffalo defense struggled, too, allowing 26 first downs, nearly 400 yards and 27 points. Neither team punted after their game-opening drives. Tua Tagovailoa went 25 of 28.
Worst of all? One of Allen’s most exhilarating plays of the season — a 21-yard touchdown run with 35 seconds left in the first half — was wiped out by a bogus holding penalty on guard O’Cyrus Torrence.
In East Rutherford, N.J., against the NFC East-leading Washington Commanders, Jones also had a touchdown taken off the board. On fourth and 1, he threw a TD to Wan’Dale Robinson to cut the deficit to 21-14. And officials flagged Darius Slayton for offensive pass interference. And Daboll was incensed. Pick plays exist in every NFL playbook. Typically, the stripes let it slide as long as it’s not blatant and physical contact is kept to a minimum. In this jurisdiction, however, the cop pulled over Slayton for going 40 mph in a 35 mph zone and the Giants were forced to settle for a field goal instead of a touchdown.
Dropped passes have plagued the Giants all year. Jones’ receivers usually lose focus when the game’s on the line. Kicking has been an odyssey. And New York’s defense was also bad on Sunday. The NFL’s 29th-ranked run defense in 2023 is 29th in 2024. It didn’t matter that the Commanders were without starting back Brian Robinson Jr.
Watching the Giants this season is too often the equivalent of watching political ads loop nonstop for three hours. There are plenty of red-meat zingers that get your hopes up. You pump your fist. You start to feel optimistic. But in the end? You’re left with nothing but a sick stomach over those points left on the board. These Giants aren’t flatly steamrolled like those teams at the end of Joe Judge’s tenure. This isn’t the Mike Glennon & Jake Fromm Experience. Jones showed fight.
Down 24-10, he ripped a third-and-9 to Malik Nabers to move the chains… then faked a pitch left before gunning a 23-yarder down the seam to Slayton… then bashed ahead for his TD plunge. With 2:48 left, he found Theo Johnson for a 35-yard score.
Yet, the Giants lost again.
The Bills are the team that’s 7-2, and thinking Super Bowl.
The Giants are the team that’s 2-7, and thinking 2025.
Jones has completely warped how Daboll calls a game. This doesn’t resemble anything we witnessed as Allen rose to superstardom. Back then, he defied Sean McDermott’s wishes to run the ball late in the 2021 season by unleashing Allen in all his glory. That group came within 13 seconds of hosting an AFC title game. The Bills threw early, threw often, and removed all guardrails around their starting quarterback.
On Sunday, Daboll felt no choice but to do the exact opposite at MetLife.
He tried to shorten the game and hide his QB. In the first half, Jones was 4 of 6 for zero yards. He also took a sack and lost a fumble. In other words, the Giants reverted back to how they reached the postseason in 2022. It was understandable then. As Tiki Barber told us, Daboll knew he didn’t have much talent on offense outside of Saquon Barkley. But trying to win this way three years in is a glaring red flag.
This was supposed to be the season the Giants allowed Jones to rip it. They drafted Nabers sixth overall. Obviously, there’s a glitch to the quarterback’s game that Daboll is trying to coach around every week. Drew Lock isn’t the answer. Nor is Tommy DeVito. Thus, he’s resorting to calling a game completely out of his character. If 2021 Daboll watched how 2024 Daboll was forced to call a game, he’d probably throw up in his mouth.
But he has no choice.
Especially with left tackle Andrew Thomas lost for the season.
One non-QB injury should not derail an offense, but this has. Jones isn’t capable of making this problem go away — he’s exasperating it. One week after protection malfunctions in Pittsburgh, Jones was walloped from the blind side again on a crucial first-half fumble. Elsewhere, in OP, Allen is the Great Eraser. If one player is lost to injury, nothing changes offensively. He didn’t have Cooper this game — who cares? He completed passes to eight different receivers, threw three touchdowns and had a break go his way in the form of a 61-yard Tyler Bass field goal.
Schoen saw flickers of such qualities in Jones in 2022. That Giants offense made the playoffs despite plucking its top receiver off the waiver wire, and he decided to see this through two more seasons minimum. The gamble backfired. The lesson’s obvious: All GMs rationalize the quarterback position at their own peril. For all teams, something’s bound to go haywire. Drops. Flags. Sieve for a run defense.
Over the long haul, special quarterbacks rise above the muck. Allen consistently makes the superhuman plays Jones does not. Finding quarterbacks in this stratosphere requires a draft-day swing.
A trio of DeVito wins in 2023 prevented the Giants from selecting LSU’s Jayden Daniels, who may now torment them for the next 15 years. They considered trading up for UNC’s Drake Maye, but the Patriots wouldn’t budge. They could’ve taken J.J. McCarthy or Michael Penix Jr. or Bo Nix, but opted for Nabers. Understandable, of course. This is a wide receiver with elite talent, and Schoen deserves credit for a talented ’24 rookie class. Safety Tyler Nubin, cornerback Dru Phillips, running back Tyrone Tracy and Johnson could all start for a long time.
He traded for one of the best edge rushers in Brian Burns.
Thomas and Dexter Lawrence are two of the best at their craft.
But the quarterback position remains in total limbo.
Nobody supporting Big Blue wants to hear it, but that’s the silver lining in losing so many close games. Maybe this time, the Giants keep themselves within range of the next big thing.
All work both Schoen and Daboll did in Buffalo is impressive to this day. Without Allen, Buffalo would likely lag into the AFC basement. Schoen was Brandon Beane’s right-hand man when the Bills made the wildly unpopular decision to draft Allen over UCLA’s Josh Rosen. Then, Daboll took this ball of clay and created the best quarterback this side of Patrick Mahomes.
This all should mean something for a Giants team poised to miss the playoffs for the 13th time in 15 years. I hate tanking. You hate tanking. It’s bad for every locker room in every sport. And that’s what makes the final 1 ½ months to this Giants season such a difficult needle to thread. This time, they cannot Tommy Salami their way to meaningless victories in December and risk missing out on another Daniels. Still, Daboll’s team also needs to show fight so Mara isn’t compelled to place that call to Belichick or another coach.
No, this is not the giant leap anyone expected. Guilty as charged, I expected all the good around the quarterback position to at least elevate Jones back to his playoff form.
Too often, this is precisely when ownership bails.
Here’s thinking the Giants owe it to themselves to learn from this lesson.
All the proof Mara needs may be at NFL Honors this February when Allen will most certainly be a nominee for league MVP.
No Huddle
Jordan Poyer supplied the play of the game in Orchard Park. His unnecessary roughness penalty on third and 11 pumped life into the Bills’ final drive and gave Tyler Bass a shot at that 61-yarder. In truth, Poyer has struggled all season long. As Beane said, it helps going into the next playoff moment with younger players who don’t haeve the scars of Bills teams past. But the safety stalwart was also an aging, slow player by the end of his Bills tenure.
Somehow, Ray Davis needs to keep getting the ball. Beane knew he could smash through players, but the rookie back showed surprising speed on his 63-yard TD reception. What a 1-2 threat with James Cook.
Can the Colts really turn back to Anthony Richardson at any point this year? I guess. But Joe Flacco was back to looking like a 39-year-old Sunday night. Indianapolis has itself a quarterback mess.
I’ll be podcasting with Bob McGinn here momentarily but that’s about as bad as Jordan Love has played in a long, long time for Green Bay. He says his groin was not an issue. Either way, the Packers looked like a team in the wrong weight class at Lambeau Field in a 24-14 loss to Detroit that really was not that close. The bye week comes at a good time.
Brian Branch certainly deserved a flag for his hit in the first half, but ejection? Eh. That seemed steep to me. Don’t like the NFL tilting down such a slippery slope. There’s already enough flags being thrown to dull this game down.
Still wondering why the New Orleans Saints believed running it back with Dennis Allen was the right call. Wholesale rebuild incoming… you’d hope. They desperately need to be bad for one or two seasons before trying to legitimately compete. A lot of really bad contracts on this roster.
Not budging from the Lions-Bengals Super Bowl projection yet! Per DVOA playoff odds, the Bengals have a 38.7 percent chance of making the postseason. Yeah, they’ve got issues on defense but Joe Burrow is also on pace for 4,238 yards and 38 touchdowns. To our point earlier, he’s in the rare class of quarterbacks who makes big issues disappear. Also, I don’t think I’ve seen the starting quarterback of a team less excited than Burrow after the Bengals’ 41-24 win over Las Vegas. “Get your fucking bodies right, get your minds right” he says after Zac Taylor’s exuberant speech. “It's a big one on Thursday.” He’s right. The Bengals need to win in Baltimore.
The coaching concern in Chicago is very real, and growing. Would love to see Ben Johnson or Bobby Slowik get a chance to work with Caleb Williams. The Bears’ 29-9 loss was painful on the eyes.
Derrick Henry scored the 100th and 101st rushing touchdowns of his career while again eclipsing 100 yards in a 41-10 blowout win over Denver. Elsewhere, Dallas lost to Atlanta to fall to 3-5. In a shocking development, Jerry Jones’ instincts as a GM were a hair off.
Speaking of veteran running backs, have you watched Saquon Barkley spin away from one defender and leap over another backwards? This is one of craziest runs of the decade. Barkley again was the difference with 199 total yards and two touchdowns. It’s true the Giants couldn’t afford the luxury of continuing to pay top dollar for a running back with so many other issues, but his play in Philly is weekly salt in the wounds.
Recorded our first “Substack Live” video here at Go Long moments after the Bills’ 30-27 win, icymi.
Enjoyed talking ball with my old podcast pal, Jim Monos:
Tyler Bass-O-Matic: Substack Live with Jim Monos
Tyler Bass missed an extra point on Sunday afternoon against the Miami Dolphins and banked another one in.
As always, THE BEST analysis anywhere! DJ is gone after this season, Mara needs to keep himself and his nepo execs out of the way and let JS and BD build. Some other NYG musings: Bobby Okereke is a huge disappointment at mlb, always goes high never makes an impact tackle; Nabers needs to talk less or he will be a huge problem with a rookie qb; collectively we’ve got to play smarter. The td that Banks gave up right before the half was idiotic. He bit on an inside underneath fake, the exact spot you wanted the ball to go to so the half would end. That play plus “I don’t get it” going for 2 becomes the point differential. Lastly, opi? This is becoming the most poorly over-officiated sport imaginable
Was the last half of last season a fluke for Jordan Love? If so, Packers are in for a time of mediocrity.