New York Post, Tuesday, August 27, 2019nypost.com49
By ZACH BRAZILLERSoon, it will be Eli Manning’s
timeto turnback the clock.To try
to make something out of what
will likely be his last season in
blue. To holdof f the te am ’s future
for as long as he can.
Bu t notye t. Th e summer isn’t
over, and so it’s not timefor Dan-
iel Jonesto fade into theback-
ground andcede the spotlight.
That time iscoming. But Jones
— the sixthovera ll pick in April’s
draft ou t of Duke, the storyof this
training camp and the future face
of the franchise— has one more
game left to continueto wow
fans and impress teammates and
coaches.
For thefirst time in his brief
career, Jones willget an NFL start,
in the preseasonfi naleat Ne w
England onThursday night. Who
said the lastgame before thereal
games begin doesn’t matter?
“I think it’s important that he
goes in andexecutes well. For the
amountof time that he’s in there,
it’ll begood to be on theroad, like
we were lastweek against the
Bengals,” co achPat Shurmursaid.
“There’salot to be learnedgoing
through how we do the cadence
andwhatnot. But just steady
progress like he’s really been
doing here for all of camp [is
what I want to see].”
Jones hascome far in a short
period, quickly changing the
narrative. It wasn’t so long
ago the pickwas shred-
ded asa re achby ge n-
eral manager Dave
Gettleman,a
mistake that
wouldeven-
tually cost
him his job.
But this
summer,
Jones has impressedeven the
pessimists, flashinga big arm
and the poiseto match. WhenBrowns quarterback Baker May-
field ripped him in ana GQ arti-
cle, he handled it likeaveteran,
shakingof f the slight like he wa s
swattingawaya fly. On thefield,
he’s surpassedexpectations.He’s
thrivedin all three preseason
games,completing25 of 30 passes
for 269yards, two touchdowns
andzero interceptions.
“A t this point,I feel likeIhave
improved and have made steps
in the right direction,” Jonessaid.
“There is a lot to work on, but my
job isto be prepared andI trust
the plan. ...Ithink I’ve done some
good things and I’ve done some
bad things.
“More than anything,
I have made progress,
I feel like, and that’s
encouragingto me.
WhenI lookto where
I was at rookie
minicamp and
OT As,I think
I’ve improved
a good bit since
then.”
He was
impressive
again in practice
Monday, show-
ing off that
big right arm
with precision
passes. Hehit
eightof hisfirst nineattempts, and the one
incompletionwa saBennieFo wl -
er III drop. The low point came
late in practice, when under pres-
sure Jones hurrieda throwand
was pickedoff by Ronald Zamort
onan underneathpattern. Even
then, he turneda negative into
a positive. Not giving up on the
play, Jones stripped Zamort.
“That’s thereactionof a good
footballplayer,” Shurmursaid.
“Now weobviously don’twant him
to get hurt, but yeah, hewas trying
to get the ball out,which I think he
did, didn’t he?... So, that would have
beena really good play.”
Even the Giants’ defensive play-
ers have noticed how far Jones has
come.
“You can see hisgrowth and
how much more comfortable
he’s gotten over thecourseof the
offseason and into the preseason
games,” linebacker Alec Ogletree
said. “He seemsa lot more com-
fortable.He’s not asoverwhelmed
as mostrookieswould be.Just
looking at him,you cantell he
seemsa bit more comfortable in
the offense and understanding the
ins and out.”
The Giants willget another
lookat Jo nes onThursday night.
After that, itremainsto be seen
ho w long it will be until they see
him in the huddle again.
[email protected]First startalast
shot to impress
for rookie QB
By ZACH BRAZILLEROne stepforward, another
stepback.
It looked as ifrookie wide
receiver Darius Slay ton wa s hit -
ting his stride, making his pre-
season debut in Thursday’s win
over theBengals and catchinga
27-yard pass. But now the speedy
fi ft h-round pick out of Au burn
tweaked thesame hamstring
that has given him problems this
summer andkept him out of the
first two preseasongames.
Hewasn’t ableto practice
Monday, missing more valuable
training camp time andwould
seem unlikely to pl ay in Th urs-
day’s preseasonfinale against
thePatriots.
“We’ll just seewhere he’s at,”
coachPat Shurmursaid, playing
down theextent of the injury.
“H e’ s makinggo od progre ss , sowe’ll just see how this little thing
affects him.”➤Shurmursa id WRGolden
Tateis a question mark to play
against thePatriots.Tate, sus-
pendedfor the season’s first four
games after violating the league’s
performance-enhancing drugs
policy, justreturnedto practice
after being in theconcussion
protocol.Hewo uld have def i-
nitely played otherwise, since
he won’t be availablefor thefirst
monthof the regular season.➤Monday’s practice was heavy
onteam drills andfeatured
plenty of work for thefirst team.
There is a reasonfor that, with
mostof the starters unlikely to
play Thursday.“It’ s important that they get
go od, quality wo rk in practice, ”
Shurmursaid. “Like you’veseen
all along, I liketo go onesversus
ones, andwe dida bunchof that
here in the lastcoupleof days,
which I think theguys needed.”➤Shurmur made it sound as
if there will bea lot on the line
for the bottom part of theroster
against thePatriots.Everyone on
thefield, hesaid, has the oppor-
tunity to earna roster spot.
“We have a lot of guys compet-
ing for the 53 spots,” he said.
Oneof them is LBB. J. Good-
son, wh o hasgo ne froma ke y
figure in the Giants defense as
recently as lastyear to playing
foraroster spot.
“He’s out there co mpetingto
make ourteam,” Shurmursaid
of theteam’s fourth-round pick
in 2016.GIANTSNOTES
TRAINING
DAY
ELI TO EVAN
Eli Manningdelivered thepass of the day,
a rifle ofa throw down the left sideline to
Evan Engramin 11-on-11 team drills. With
a narrow window in which to squeeze the
ball, Manning fit it in perfectlyover safety
JabrillPeppersfor a long gain.
FOWL’ EFFORT
BennieFowler IIIcontinues to have
trouble holding onto theball. Theveteran
widereceiver hada bad drop in 11-on-11s
after getting open ona throw fromDaniel
Jones.
CAUGHT MY EYE
LBLorenzoCartermadeback-to-back
impressive plays in red-zo ne drills against
Saquon Barkley. First, Carter caught
him behind the line of scrimmage fora
loss then he stayed with Barkley ona
shortreception.
KEEPING UP WITH
THE JONES
Jones startedred hot, hitting
eight of his first ninepasses,
and the one incompletion
was the dropby Fo wler. He
connected withRussell Shepard
on a long touchdownpass up
the seam, but finished slow,
missing on five of his last eight
passing attempts, and threw an
interception toRonald Zamort
during two-minute drills. Jones
didn’t quit on the play, however,
and strippedZamort several
yards down the field.INJURY REPORT
WRDarius Slayton
(hamstring), TEGarrett
Dickerson(quad) andS
KennyLadler(hamstring)
missed practice. LBJosiah
Tauaefa(concussion)
remained ina non-
contactyellow jersey.
— Zach Braziller
Another setback for SlaytonDaniel
JonesRobert Sabo