You’re probably old enough to remember the time six years ago when the Giants were supposed to be a quarterback away, and that quarterback was supposed to be Daniel Jones. And because time has passed and a lot has happened since, it’s easy for all of us to forget now the games he had his rookie year. That’s when he was Jaxson Dart, and of course the Giants were going to ride Jones all the way back to the big time.
Dart has had some nice games so far, he has, even without Malik Nabers. But just try these four games from Jones on for size, when he was a rookie and Pat Shurmur was his head coach:
Tampa Bay: 23-for-36, 336 yards, two touchdown passes. It was his first official start, he came in for Eli that day. But it felt like more than just one start. It felt like a new beginning at the time.
A little over a month later, in what was effectively his sixth start — Dart gets his seventh start against the Bears in Chicago on Sunday — Jones was 28-for-41, 322 passing yards, four touchdown passes, no picks.
Two weeks later, Jones was 26-for-40 against the Jets, 308 yards, another four TD passes, no picks.
Finally, on the second-to-last Sunday of the regular season, Jones went for more than 300 passing yards again, 352 in all against Washington, 28-for-42, five touchdown passes.
In those four games — as a rookie — Jones had 15 touchdown passes against no interceptions, over 1,300 yards. He ended up with 24 touchdown passes that year, 12 interceptions and even though the record that year was 4-12, there was the feeling and the hope that they were on their way. Jones was going to be That Guy. Then Shurmur was gone and Joe Judge came and went and finally the Giants hired a coach in Brian Daboll who was supposed to be a quarterback whisperer off his work with Josh Allen in Buffalo.
Now it turns out that Jones is the guy who had the Colts one quarterback away. So, was what happened to him at the end in New York (and put me down as someone who wasn’t heartbroken to see Jones go) — was it him, or was it the Giants?
Now Giants fans absolutely have to wonder if Jaxson Dart can really be That Guy on the team that Joe Schoen has had plenty of time to construct. They also have to wonder if keeping score is supposed to matter the rest of the way, starting with this Bears game on the road.
It’s New York’s young QB phenom against Caleb Williams of the Bears on Sunday. The Bears sure believe they’ve got their guy. Not only that, they believe they’ve got the right guy to coach him in Ben Johnson. It would be nice to see Daboll’s team show up against Johnson’s team. It would be nice to see our quarterback beat theirs so that the Giants don’t fall to 2-8 and this season — even with Dart — starts to look like all the other losing seasons they’ve had lately.
Because if the Giants get rolled on Sunday in Chicago the way they got rolled by a wounded 49ers team last Sunday, why in the world should anybody think the future really is full of promise again. That means even with Dart on the field, playing with the kind of passion he’s shown moving the ball and putting the Giants in the end zone before his defense gives it all back.
Seriously: How is everybody going to feel about this program, the firm of Schoen and Daboll, if the Bears ring up this defense for 30 points, or more.
The Giants need to stop this slide right now. They need to win a game, and then a few more after that, so 2-7 doesn’t turn into the same 3-14 they had last season. We’re all supposed to believe that the Giants are way ahead of the Jets right now because they’ve got a quarterback. But as exciting as Dart has been, and as much as he seems made for the stage and the city and all that jazz, are we going to see the same kind of numbers going forward that Jones gave us and showed us in those big numbers as a rookie?
Again: Was it all Jones’ fault when things fell apart for him and his team, or was it the Giants, and the players around him and the way he was being coached up? It’s a fair question. Here’s another: What evidence do we have that things are going to be any different for Dart going forward?
This the fourth year that Schoen and Daboll have had the Giants. We see what they’ve done, one winning record and one postseason victory, and see where they are, and where they are is in last place again in the NFC East. Now compare that to the 49ers, the team they just played last week at MetLife.
John Lynch came in as general manager after the 49ers had gone 2-14 in the 2016 season. Three years later, the 49ers were in the Super Bowl. Shanahan got to the Super Bowl with Jimmy Garoppolo as his quarterback. Then two seasons ago he made the Super Bowl with Brock Purdy as his quarterback. Now the 49ers are winning games with Mac Jones at quarterback, despite all the injuries they’ve sustained so far this season. The 49ers, under Lynch and Shanahan, have shown you how to do it over the past nine seasons including this one. So how come the Giants can’t sustain anything? What’s stopping them?
We know the Jets aren’t a quarterback away, even though they’ll probably go down the young savior road next April, wait and see. They’ll do that despite having done the same thing with Sam Darnold (we know it wasn’t him, it was absolutely without a doubt the Jets) and Zach Wilson, once the second overall pick, now somebody who can’t even get into uniform for a Dolphins team almost as bad as the Jets are. The fact is, the Jets need so much help in so many areas, it would probably be nuts for them to go big after the hot college quarterback of the moment. They probably will. They’re the Jets, remember.
The Giants believe they have their quarterback, the one who lit up the Eagles and did the same to the Broncos for three quarters before the roof caved in on the Giants. And they might. But there seems to be this notion that because of what we’ve seen from Dart, they’re already big winners for this season, even as they keep losing. They’re not. I grew up a Giants fan. I want Dart to be great. I still want this coach to succeed. The Giants need to win some games. This game on Sunday would be a good place to start.
ILLEGAL BETTING IN SPORTS? THAT’S ODD, YANKS CONTINUE TO STRIKE OUT & DONNIE DESERVES HALL CALL …
This news broke on Friday:
Six former men’s college basketball players at three schools — New Orleans, Mississippi Valley State, Arizona State — participated in gambling schemes that included game manipulation or sharing information with known bettors, the NCAA announced Friday.
Gee, what were the odds of something like that happening?
Literally.
On the odds part.
If you think this is going to be the last gambling story like it in sports, college or pros, think again.
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You do the rest of the list.
It is worth mentioning again, as the Yankees seem ready to double down on their guys swinging for the fences next season and not worrying about strikeouts — Hey there, Spencer Jones — that only two teams in the sport struck out more than they did this season.
One was the Angels.
The other was the Rockies.
Nine guys on the Yankees struck out 100 or more times, and it would have been 10 if Giancarlo Stanton had gotten enough at-bats.
The Dodgers are free swingers, too, you bet.
They have five guys who struck out 100 times or more.
It took about twenty minutes after those deadline trades by the Jets for people beginning the search for — wait for it — the next Namath.
By the way?
Garrett Wilson must think he lost a bet.
We talk all the time about Shohei Ohtani being a once-every-hundred-years talent.
And he is.
But we might have to go another hundred years before we see a pitcher start Game 6 of a World Series and then come back the next night and pitch three innings to finish off Game 7 the way Yoshinobu Yamamoto did last Saturday night.
You know what nobody ever called Sauce Gardner’s side of the field?
Gardner’s Island.
Peter James is one of the great crime writers in the world, and it’s why I’m telling you to take a look at his latest Roy Grace novel, “The Hawk is Dead,” so much of it set in Buckingham Palace.
“The Diplomat” was already one of my favorite series, and now this season they’ve added the great Bradley Whitford.
Donald Arthur Mattingly should make it to Cooperstown this time around.
When does Hal Steinbrenner weigh in on his team falling short again?
Asking for Yankee fans.
I’d be perfectly happy to see Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes go up against each other about once a month.
It was seven years ago next week that we lost my dear friend — and one of my writing heroes — the great William Goldman.
In the same career, Bill wrote “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “Marathon Man” and the screenplay for “All the President’s Men” (the best newspaper movie of them all) and “The Princess Bride.”
That’s the short list.
He also wrote the best Hollywood book ever written, “Adventures in the Screen Trade.”
But as much as he identified as a writer, trust me on this, he identified as a Knicks fan.
Man, I sure wish he were around now.
