Daniel Jones was supposed to be the New York Giants’ answer to life after Eli Manning. The team believed in him so much that they reached to take him in the 2019 NFL Draft. But things never quite panned out. Jones couldn’t deliver the way they hoped, and his time in the Big Apple ended on a pretty sour note.
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Now, the QB is getting a fresh start with the Indianapolis Colts, and according to one of his former teammates, he might still have something left in the tank if he’s given a real shot.
The teammate in question is Darius Slayton, who was always a reliable target for Jones while in New York. Maybe that’s because the two hailed from the same draft class and spent a lot of time together as rookies. In their first seasons in the NFL, Slayton and Jones connected 41 times for 555 yards and 5 TDs. By the time he left the team, the QB had thrown to a receiver more than anyone else by far.
Slayton knows his former QB quite well. He also believes Jones can still have a good career, even after getting cut, because he’s seen him make some excellent throws before.
“I think he’ll show who he is where he is now. And I think that he will be a successful quarterback in this league,” Slayton said on NFL Spotlight with Ari Meirov.
It’s a massive bet to place at this point in Jones’ career. He hasn’t even won the starting job with the Colts yet. Anthony Richardson still has some leash to work with, but if he falters again, it could be Jones’ time to shine. So maybe it’s not such a bad bet.
After all, Slayton pointed out how Sam Darnold just showed us a completely different version of himself. Why couldn’t Jones do the same?
“I feel like Sam Darnold kind of just showed everybody that this league is largely about being in the right place at the right time,” the wide receiver pointed out.
Not only that, but Slayton went on to add that every successful QB is a “right place, right time” situation. Think Baker Mayfield and Geno Smith. Even for a player like Lamar Jackson, one could argue that he needed to be in the perfect system to accentuate his skills.
“And that’s not to take anything away from any player that’s skilled or good in this league. But most of the people that are succeeding at a high level, they’re succeeding for a reason. Like they’re in a situation where they can. And there are certainly a lot of guys in this league that have succeeded or not succeeded as much due to the circumstances they’re under.”
Sometimes, teams and fans bestow lofty expectations upon rookies or young players. It’s only after the fact that we realize how foolish those expectations were and how they only added unneeded pressure on a player’s back. This is exactly what happened to Jones and what has happened to other players who eventually became great today, too.
The NFL isn’t like a video game. We can’t just plug in players with high potential and expect them to meet that potential by year 3. It would be nice if that were the case, but more often than not, players burn out. The good news is that it can go both ways. Lowly drafted players with little to no expectations are constantly appearing in the NFL as well.
Unfortunately for Jones, he had potential, and with that potential came great expectations from New Yorkers. But he could never meet those goals. We saw flashes of brilliance, but it was brought down by tons of mistakes.
Now Jones is with a new team with fewer expectations. He has an opportunity to thrive in a situation where he’s not expected to be Superman. Maybe the shifting mindset is exactly what he needs to relax and unlock his full potential.
