Daniel Jones tore his ACL last November, but he's apparently healthy now. He's been scrambling around in practice and will be starting for the Giants in tomorrow night's preseason game at Houston. I'm interested to see if there's any fantasy appeal there.
Jones has had his moments as a quarterback, both NFL and fantasy-wise. Most came in the 2022 season, when he took the team to the playoffs (and played well enough to earn the big contract he's operating on now). But the overall picture isn't great.
Drafted back in 2019; he's missed multiple games due to injury in all but one of those seasons. Even the last three years, two of which were spent with Brian Daboll, he's been a pretty marginal option -- better in fantasy leagues, thanks to the rushing production, but not great. And considering last year's injury, you wonder if his mobility and running will be close to what it was pre-injury.
The last three seasons, he's played all or most of 31 games. He's reached 20 fantasy points in 13 of them; about 40 percent. Most of it is due to rushing; he's averaged 38 rushing yards, with a touchdown on the ground about once every three weeks. Will that still be happening, 10 months after an ACL injury? Hard to bet on it.
His other offensive numbers are modest: 207 passing yards, and just under 1 TD pass per game. He's taken 3 sacks per week (a concern for a guy coming off a knee injury, although the offensive line should be a little better) and averaged slightly over an interception/fumble per game. The averages (1 point for 10 rushing yards and 20 passing yards) work out to a little over 19 fantasy points in typical leagues that don't penalize for turnovers.
Only one of his better games was last season, at Arizona. In the table below, Jones' 2023 outings are in bold.
| DANIEL JONES, 2021-2023 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opp | Pass | PaTD | Run | RuTD | Int | Sk | Fum | Pts |
| 2022 | Ind. | 177 | 2 | 91 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38.0 |
| 2023 | at Ari. | 321 | 2 | 59 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 36.0 |
| 2022 | Det. | 341 | 1 | 50 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 32.1 |
| 2021 | at Was. | 249 | 1 | 95 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 32.0 |
| 2022 | at Jac. | 202 | 1 | 107 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 30.8 |
| 2021 | at N.O. | 402 | 2 | 27 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 30.8 |
| 2021 | Den. | 267 | 1 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 26.1 |
| 2022 | at Min. | 334 | 1 | 34 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 24.1 |
| 2022 | Chi. | 71 | 0 | 68 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 22.4 |
| 2022 | Was. | 200 | 1 | 71 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 21.1 |
| 2022 | Phi. | 169 | 1 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 21.1 |
| 2021 | at K.C. | 222 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 20.3 |
| 2022 | Hou. | 197 | 2 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 20.3 |
| 2022 | at Ten. | 188 | 2 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 19.9 |
| 2022 | Dal. | 196 | 0 | 79 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 17.7 |
| 2022 | Bal. | 173 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 17.3 |
| 2021 | Atl. | 266 | 0 | 39 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 17.2 |
| 2021 | Phi. | 202 | 1 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 17.1 |
| 2021 | Car. | 203 | 1 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 17.0 |
| 2022 | at Dal. | 228 | 1 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 16.8 |
| 2023 | Sea. | 203 | 0 | 66 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 16.8 |
| 2022 | Car. | 176 | 1 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 14.9 |
| 2022 | at G.B. | 217 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14.6 |
| 2021 | at T.B. | 167 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 13.4 |
| 2021 | LAR | 242 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 12.5 |
| 2022 | at Was. | 160 | 0 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11.5 |
| 2021 | L.V. | 110 | 1 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 11.2 |
| 2022 | at Sea. | 176 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 10.8 |
| 2023 | Dal. | 104 | 0 | 43 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 9.5 |
| 2023 | at Mia. | 119 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 8.4 |
| 2023 | at S.F. | 137 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7.4 |
| Avg. | 207.1 | 0.9 | 38.5 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 3.0 | 0.5 | 19.6 | |
Maybe I'll be wrong and Jones will be out there running like a deer and racking up 40-plus rushing yards per week, with the occasional touchdown and strong fantasy week. But I think the position is deep enough that I don't need to make the investment. The Giants don't have any choice this year (Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito wouldn't be better), but it's a gamble I'll let another team make.
--Andy Richardson
